Spurs Notes: Langford, Primo, Johnson, Poeltl

Romeo Langford beat out Joe Wieskamp for the final roster spot during the Spurs‘ training camp. Due to injuries and the release of Joshua Primo, Langford found himself in the starting lineup on Sunday, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News writes. Langford played 34 minutes in the victory over Minnesota.

“He might be our best on-ball defender,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He has a knack for it. He enjoys it. It was good to find that out.”

Langford is headed for free agency next summer, though San Antonio can make him a restricted free agent if the team extends a qualifying offer.

We have more on the Spurs:

• Despite the troubling circumstances surrounding the franchise’s decision to cut ties with Primo, the Spurs have stuck together and continued to play inspired basketball, McDonald reports in a separate story. “They’re young enough they don’t know any better,” Popovich said. “They just keep playing hard. They enjoy playing with each other, and they’re pretty much obeying the basketball gods and doing all the simple things that help win games.”
• Keldon Johnson signed a four-year, $80MM this summer and that deal is looking better every game. Johnson is averaging career highs in scoring (23.9 points), assists (4.1) and steals (1.3) per game while making 43.5 percent of his 3-point attempts, McDonald notes. “He’s been unreal to me,” center Zach Collins said. “It seems like every time he shoots the ball, it’s going in.”
• It’s unlikely that Jakob Poeltl will sign an extension, since he could probably do better in the open market, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to RealGM). That also makes Poeltl a trade candidate. The veteran center, who is pulling in just under $9.4MM this season, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. “From what I’m told, the Spurs discussed a contract extension with him, but he’s limited by how much he can sign for,” Windhorst said. “It’s the same reason they traded Dejounte Murray. They did such a good job on the contract that it almost works against you because when you want to sign a player, the player wants more than you can give him because you’re limited on how much of a raise you can give in an extension.”