Devonte’ Graham dropped 15 games and seven spots in the standings by virtue of the deadline-day deal that sent him from New Orleans to San Antonio, but the Spurs guard intends to make the most of his new situation, telling reporters after the trade that he has no problem playing for a rebuilding team.
“Rebuilding, but they play hard,” Graham said of the Spurs, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “I had the same experience in Charlotte, so I kind of know what this feels like, trying to rebuild but just playing the right way, playing hard and continuing to try to get better.”
After seeing his minutes reduced significantly in New Orleans this season, Graham is also welcoming the opportunity to play a more significant role in San Antonio. He averaged 15.3 minutes per game in 53 appearances for the Pelicans — that number has jumped to 29.7 MPG in his first three games with the Spurs.
“It’s a new adventure, new team, new city,” Graham said. “Optimistic about it. I have always been good at adjusting. Grateful to be around this franchise, a legendary coach (Gregg Popovich) and this young group.”
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- Veteran center Khem Birch, acquired from Toronto in the Jakob Poeltl trade, has a right knee issue that will keep him sidelined for the foreseeable future, per Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News. Birch is with the Spurs on their current road trip, but won’t practice or play until being examined over the All-Star break by the team’s medical staff. “It’s going to be quite a while,” Popovich said of Birch’s timeline to return.
- Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan doesn’t fit the mold of stoic former Spurs stars like Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard, but the team doesn’t mind the rookie’s tendency to “talk crap,” as Popovich puts it. “He’s just so happy to be in the NBA and playing basketball,” Popovich said, according to McDonald. “That’s what he does. It’s his main interest. … Beyond what you see skill-wise out there and IQ-wise, he’s got that heart and courage. He’s not afraid of any situation. He’s not embarrassed to screw up. He just goes on to the next play. It’s a perfect example for how you’ve got to play.”
- Determining how to properly evaluate prospects coming out of the relatively new Overtime Elite program remains a work in progress for NBA scouts. Still, Spurs two-way player Dominick Barlow has no regrets about his OTE experience and believes it helped prepare him for the next level, McDonald writes for The Express-News. “There are pros and cons, like you are not going to be able to play in college and get that kind of experience,” Barlow said. “That wasn’t a big thing for me. I really wanted to work on my game, that the jump I was able to make in a year was good enough to outweigh that (college experience). I was happy with it.”
- In case you missed it, Charles Bassey signed a four-year contract with the Spurs that reportedly includes $5.2MM in guaranteed money.
Bassey is my guy … glad to see him get more minutes to work on his game
What’s the timeline for the spurs to get relevant again? It seems like they’ve been in the doldrums for awhile
The NCAA is vastly over rated and is a terrible product to watch…
It’s a different sport than the NBA…
The coming generations will be looking elsewhere so they do not taint their skillsets by learning bad habits in the NCAA version of basketball…
Don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like even the rebuilding teams now look somewhat interesting and good.
Rewind 5-10 years ago, if your rebuilding your team looked crap.
Like for example 2013-14, the 19 wins Sixers they looked awful. The 15 win Bucks had Giannas but at the time no one cared about their games. Orlando had 23 wins but Aaron Affalo was their top scorer with 18 and people weren’t turning the TV on to watch that.
Even just a couple years back in 17-18, Atlanta looked ugly for a year pre Trae Young, Orlando had the ugliest rebuild with Elfried Payton, Aaron Gordon and Jonothan Issac. The Mavs coming off a title a couple years earlier had DSJr for 1 good year, the kings had 27 wins and their best scorer was Zbo putting up 14.5 at 36 years old.
Nowadays the Spurs suck, 14-44, but I actually like to keep track of how their young guys are going. Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, Malakai Branham these 4 have major skill. Getting Graham was a good trade.
The rockets 13-44, are even worse but again KPJ, Jalen Green, Sengun, Jabari Smith. They have entertaining guys. Pistons 15-43, Cades obviously out and that hurts the record but aside from him you still have Ivey, they just traded for Wiseman, Jalen Duren is killing it, Isiah Stewart has a future, and of course Bogdan is carrying the load scoring wise.
Might just be me but I think the NBA today has so much talent so well spread. That even the rebuilding teams trying to lose look good, whereas back in the day you could have a dreadful roster and still get 20+ wins.