San Antonio Spurs Are LEGIT Contenders?! De’Aaron Fox ADDS VALUE & LUXURY Depth for Wembanyama!

San Antonio Spurs Are LEGIT Contenders?! De’Aaron Fox ADDS VALUE & LUXURY Depth for Wembanyama!

a basketball show started the Spurs. San Antonio Spurs sitting nice and pretty at 7 and two. Nice little win over the weekend over the Rockets and the Pelicans. Um, but the Deer and Fox return is obviously the big story that we could focus on. So, we’ll get to that specifically in a second, Lou. But I just want to know from you, um, have you seen enough to think maybe perhaps they could contend this year? Lots of potential. Lots of potential. I I’ll start with the pros and the cons. The pros, I think they have a lot of young talent. Got a lot of guys that you can build with and around in that organization. I like the I like coach Mitch. I like him being young. I like the the nucleus of what they’re building. I are they prepped right now. It could it could be one of those scenarios where they can they can contend for a title right now as young, but they still got some growing pains. You know, this still is a team that shoots early in the shot clock. You know, they’re going to run up and down. They’re going to turn the ball over. They’re going to take gamles. they’re going to take a risk on the defensive end in a seven game series. Y’all know you got to clean those type of things up, you know. But sometimes when you have a young team and they don’t have as much experience in the postseason as other teams, they can work in your favor or they can work against you. Right now, I’m still trying to figure out which one is which for the San Antonio Spurs. But as far as them having talent and having everything that’s needed to make a playoff run and make a deep playoff run, I think they have all the tools there. Now, whether they put them in the right positions in the right places, that’s going to be up to them. But the potential is definitely there. Yeah, I think they have enough to get there. I think they have enough to compete. Are are they the favorite right now to win a championship? No. There’s too many other good experienced teams. But they have it all. When you watch them, they have playmaking. They have shooting. They have size. They have length. They have depth. You know, they’re they’re basically the sixth in offense. They’re sixth in offense and they’re fifth in defense. And that fifth in defense would be number one if Wimby played more minutes. So like it’s they they’re a versatile team. They play so hard. They have a nice combination of vet guys. You know, when you have a guy like Olenick, you got Harrison Barnes, you got guys like that that have had that experience combined with a bunch of youth and a bunch of athletic guards and playmakers and it’s all centered around Victor Winyama. So, they do have it all. There’s a lot of other teams I think they’re going to have to go through. It’s going to be hard for them to beat in a seven game series this year. It reminds me of OKC a couple years ago where they are they are they are on the way. Just don’t know if they’re there yet, but they’re going to be a tough out for whoever they get in the playoffs because they they can do it all. Couldn’t agree more. Um, I mean I I agree with everything you guys said. Young, talented team. Uh, they have a great spirit to them. Uh, well coached, well- knitted group. As far as, you know, being a contender as of right now, the talent is off the charts. Obviously, experience isn’t, you know, as high as we would like it to be at this point in time. But this is a scary team and I mean, I don’t think any team in the West would like to see them, you know, throughout the playoffs. So, uh, everything is on the right with this team moving forward. I would love to see a Western Conference Finals matchup between them and OKC. I think it would be much watched TV. Uh this is probably one of the most exciting Spurs teams in a very long time. I mean, I know you know that. Highflying team. They play fast. They share the it’s just it’s it’s a beautiful game to watch when this young team is on the floor. So, uh I’m excited for this group. and adding De’Aran Fox just, you know, it was a lot of questions about, you know, how how would it look, but he literally came in the game and and made this team even better. So, I think we forgot how that’s impressive. Oh, yeah. But we’re we’re talking about title contention, right? Not a good team. We’re talking title contention. Can they contend for a title, right? When they beat you, they’re seven and two right now. When they beat you, they’re going to whoop your ass. But they’re also top four in points allowed. So when it comes to the playoffs and we want that matchup, you can’t let OKC put 125 130 on the board and think you going to beat them. That’s going to be a hard hard route. You can’t do that with the Denver Nuggets and some of these veteran teams. So those are some of the things that they got to clean up. They got to shore up as a young basketball team. But when you talk when you look at them on paper, you look at them on screen, they check all of the boxes for sure. And when we talked about the Western Conference since training camp, how good, how deep it is. And you have some teams that have really went the other way with Dallas Mavericks, the Clippers, you know, Memphis is really struggling. This is the opposite. This is a team that is going to continue to get better. They’re going to continue to grow together. This this feels like the Oklahoma City Thunder two years ago where they’re building this around this star. They have all this talent. They have so many picks. They have so much depth. They just plug a guy in like Champenny who not a lot of people have heard of. Now he’s starting hitting huge shots for these guys as a valuable piece of this team. Luke Cornet hasn’t even really played, but he’s going to be a catalyst on that second unit when the picking him up from Boston. So, they have so many other guys just to plug and play. And it’s spooky similar to the OKC team built around an MVP caliber player with SGA. Same thing here with Wimy. Yeah, Champenny’s become like a fun little spark plug. He obviously loses his starting spot now, but who cares? Second spot comes in, he hits threes and you’re like, “All right.” Dear Fox, this was a great one. They waited till the second game of the weekend to put him in, which I thought was awesome. 24 points in 31 minutes. And yet, look, part of what we do here when we talk about basketball is we got to think of things to say, right? And sometimes you make problems where there might not be problems. Um, and maybe we’re doing that with with De’aran Fox, well, what happens? But it seems to be all right. This is what’s funny and we were guilty of it as well with the media. They tries to we try to create this narrative, right, that, you know, he’s going to get lost in the shuffle. They have too much talent. They have too much depth in the guard position. and and he may be the odd man out because Dylan Harper is the the top draft pick and Stefan Castle has handled that point guard position great and he just comes doesn’t say anything and was the best player on the on the floor in his first game back and and you know 24 points and and 31 minutes looked healthy looked fast and I I just love that that this one performance kind of stopped all that and nipped that in the bud and we quickly remember how good and how valuable this dude is on this team and any team he’s going to be on. So, I love that. And like, OKC, is it a problem that they have too many assets and they have too? No. And so, I hate that narrative that we did and everyone did it cuz just cuz the Spurs were so good without him, but they’re going to be so much better with him. He is an allNBA type guard. He’s an all-star level point guard and he’s going to make this team that much better. Yeah. Why Why do we do that? Like, no, I don’t know. It’s it’s an interesting thing. And the only time you make that argument is when it doesn’t doesn’t work, right? Like, this is a sample size. This is this is one game, but obviously we know what De’Arren Fox brings to the table. And we’ve been talking about this San Antonio Spurs team before he even got in the lineup, how talented they were. So when you add somebody like him to that lineup, that’s a that’s a plus for me. Especially in today’s game where you got so many like-ized guys on the floor, like you might look up and have a team with two or three guards or or like-ized guys out on the floor. That’s an asset to me, especially with when you have Victor Wvyama at the at the rim that can rim protect for you, that can score. It’s going to be a live threat. It’s going to be everything that you need. I think this is a good a good thing for them to have Castle, for them to have Harper when he comes back, for them to have Fox. You just got a bunch of weapons in your artillery when especially when you’re a team that plays nine guys in double double figure minutes anyways. You’re winning by committee. You’re winning by having a lot of different guys on the floor. Castle is showing you, I can be that playmaker that this team needs. Fox is showing you, well, I’ll be the attacker. I’ll be the attack guy. And think about what that does for them on the defensive end. All of these guys have defensive pedigrees where they can sit down. They can guard guys. They can they can guard of one through five. And if they can’t, we got Vic back here. We got Wimby back here. It doesn’t it doesn’t matter. So, I think talent is a premium, especially with a young team that’s trying to build. So, I thought he looked I thought he looked good. I thought he looked seamless. You know, we’ll make a case about 22 of his 24 points that being being with Castle off of the floor. That’s balanced to me. That’s a balanced attack. I I don’t look at that as a problem. That is a balanced attack. One of my better players go off the floor and I still got a guy that can go off and maintain this game and make sure we don’t have a lot of negative waves while he’s off the floor. And this is my younger guard that’s going off the floor with my veteran guard stepping in and saying, “Yo, I got it until we all get back in the starting lineup at the top of the third quarter or whatever their their minutes uh are.” I think those are all positives for them. So, I don’t I don’t make much of, you know, him doing his thing when Castle’s off the floor. I think they’re going to do it by committee and they’ve been and they’ve been doing it. It’s also just funny to me like it’s it’s a luxury to have this depth and then now that they have it, it’s an issue cuz there cuz there it’s an overload at the position, but then like the Knicks don’t have enough. It’s like you can’t have it both ways in this t I’ I’d much rather be in this situation that they’re in the okay season. The problem is is is when like the champenny now goes to the bench, right? You know, his boys, damn, man, they were seven and two with you starting now. You I mean, that’s where kind of the all this noise 14 and four when I’m just saying that’s like that’s like all this noise comes in. That’s really just just cross that bridge when you get there and enjoy living and playing in this moment right now on a really good team that you’re a valuable piece on. It’s like OKC, Kase Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins. These guys don’t get the credit they could deserve if they were putting up 20 a game on another team. But you also wouldn’t be as relevant as you as you are now on a great team and the role you on. So, I hate when these kids get distracted by all this outside noise when they’re in a great situation right now. Just cross that bridge when you get there. When you’re a free agent, let your agent do that work. But right now, just understand still had a good night. Yep. Great night. Castle still had a great night. But you know how that is now. You know, it’s like he’s gonna be the obvious. But we made this. Look, this argument was being made before Fox even got back in the lineup, right? And so now that he’s back in the lineup and we’ve seen that it can work, null and void. I think it’s a perfect situation. By the way, I think it’s a perfect situation for me is, you know, it’s when I watch De’arren Fox join this team. What I saw on the floor was a calm veteran presence. Sure. uh you know they got all this young talent but you you got to kind of have that closer that guy that you know when the game is on the line and outside of Wimby who’s going to be you know the main target and also in certain situations a distraction but with that being said you got this common veteran presence in De’Aran Fox that’s going to come down make big shots make all the right plays make uh big plays in the moments that that are needed and that’s what I saw and you also add a guy like Harrison Barnes who’s also another great veteran presence that’s played at the top, that’s played on championship teams. I think it’s I think it’s a perfect group. Johnson showed up like he had like he had a good night. So again, when you start going down the line of how many guys that can step in and play well for this team, I don’t see that as a problem whatsoever. Confusing like, you know, how sometimes look at, for example, the Clippers, they collect really big name players and put them all together. I feel like we’re confusing that kind of team building with a team of not household names or at least not yet. Oh, they’re household names. Well, I mean, they’re good. OKC is the same way, right? They feel more homegrown in this situation. They’ve been there forever and they care about this team and they care. They’re not just a signing of free agency, though some of them are. Doesn’t feel like the new pedigree, too. But it’s also it’s also the style of player that you you’re putting team uh putting the team together. When it comes to a team like the Clippers, you’re putting three ball dominant players together and expecting, you know, the ball to flow and it to be this, you know, this this this offense where everybody touches the ball. That’s not the case with this Spurs team. This is the type of person that they have. They don’t have ISO players. They don’t have ball dominant guys. They have guys that move the ball, play within the system, and these are the results. And you know what? And still at the end of the day, your best player is a 75, 76, 77, whatever whatever he is today. that’s still your best player. So, the name of the game is just to put as many guys around him that’s going to defend and can put the ball in the basket around him. Period. Yeah. And and think about the Castle experience like he’s playing out of position kind of like Thompson is from from Houston with with Van Fleet out. You know how valuable that experience is when you get to start off as a point guard and and and play those type of minutes and and do the have the impact that he’s had. Now Fox comes back. He doesn’t have to do that, but they know now they have the luxury of putting him there when Fox is out. They have the luxury of going 9, 10, 11 deep when they’re fully loaded. So, I think Castle has done a great job kind of holding down the foret point guard. He’s not going to ever be that true pure point guard. But, man, just to have that experience while Fox was out, I think was great for his development. I think it’s been amazing. By the way, we got to talk a little bit of Wimpy because his numbers are a little bit down the last four games. Um, and the big issue seems to be foul trouble. that defenses perhaps have figured a little something out. He’s fouled out twice by the way already this season. Boogie, what what do you do if you’re WBY? If teams are, and they should be figuring things out, what is his next step then? Adjust accordingly. No, I mean that’s that’s what this game is. There’s always going to be some type of adjustment being made and and needed to be made. So, uh just I I mean this kid talent is through the roof as far as trying to figure out how teams are guarding. I think that’s going to, you know, continue to come along with experience. he’ll he’ll handle situations where he’s getting guarded differently better as he continues to gain experience. So, uh, with all that being said, it’s not too much to worry about. Like like we’ve been saying this whole segment, this is such a loaded team that all the pressure isn’t on just Wimby to win games for them. They have so much help. They have so much talent that on a considered bad 1711 isn’t considered, you know, a bad night. Just down from what he started on a down night, if we saying this is a down night, he has so much other talent to, you know, hold that fort. Yeah. And as more as consistent as these other guys can be, that’s going to change the coverages on Wimby. Right now, they’re throwing every coverage at him. They’re throwing the double teams, triple teams at him. They are making Castle who’s shooting 24% from the three beat you. They’re they’re making these other guys beat you. And so now when Champini and Harrison Barnes and these guys are making 40 45% of their threes, defenses are going to have to adjust on how their quick doubling wimy. And that’s going to give him more time, more space to go and do freakish things that we’ve seen him do. So, I think the faster they play, which is going to come naturally with Fox, is going to help open up his game, let him get going early, let him get the defensive rebound and take it out in transition, kind of get to that euro, use his length and get to the basket. Playing faster, I think, is going to help him. The half court, he’s he’s not going to be able to play one-on-one. He’s too good. The teams are scared of him. They are going to double team him. It’s when the other guys consistently knock down jumpers and space the floor and do and cut and move without the ball. That’s when his game is going to open up because you’re not gonna be able to double team him when everyone else is contributing. 15 minutes on the Spurs, guys. I felt good. I really like that verse. Too much. Okay, fair. Let’s move on then to the Lakers. How about that? But not this won’t be as positive. Uh, pre-bail.

On November 10, 2025 episode of ‘Run It Back’ on FanDuel TV, co-hosts Michelle Beadle, Boogie Cousins, Chandler Parsons, and Lou Williams react to Houston Rockets vs Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder vs Memphis Grizzlies, and Indiana Pacers vs Golden State Warriors. They also go over Los Angeles Lakers SHOCKING Loss and if the Dallas Mavericks should FIRE Nico Harrison.

FULL EPISODE HERE: https://youtube.com/live/BllMzgO4IX8

CHAPTERS
0:00 SAN ANTONIO SPURS LEGIT TITLE CONTENDERS?
4:58 DE’AARON FOX IMPACT
12:31 TEAM FIGURING OUT WEMBY?

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