The good thing about using public transportation to get to work in the morning is you can watch sports on your smartphone while traveling. This Monday, I got on the bus to watch the second half of the the Spurs game in Sacramento. It was so exciting that I kinda forgot I was sitting in a packed bus, with someone sitting right next to me.

When I saw Vassell hit on his three point shots in crunch time, I couldn’t help but pump my fist. And when it was too late to stop a “Yeah!” from leaving my lips, I remembered I was on a bus, and that my behavior might be perceived as a bit odd. “The guy next to me probably thinks I’m an idiot”, I thought, slowly glancing in his direction.

Turns out that it was a beautiful little moment instead. His eyes were also glued to his smartphone, and his face was animated. Because he was watching sports.

I felt pumped when I left the bus. I felt certain that the Spurs were way ahead of schedule. And I wondered what CP3 would say about the Spurs’ chances of making the playoffs. Probably something like, “Why would I want to be traded at the deadline when I can make the postseason with Wemby and the boys?”

Five days later, it feels like reality has caught up and that “small sample size theatre” is finally (or suddenly) over – with a distinctly unhappy ending for the Spurs. No, it’s not all doom and gloom. But talking myself into the Spurs being ahead of schedule and then in less than a week finding out they most definitely aren’t feels like a gigantic blow.

The Spurs are still very much a work in progress. On one side, they have players who can’t even be remotely replaced; on the other, players with glaring weaknesses; and in between, not enough finished products. They’re a below-average offense, currently 20th among all teams. What’s more surprising is what happens on the defensive end whenever Wemby isn’t playing.

Losing by 11 to the Suns wasn’t a tragedy. But the game painfully showed what’s left of the Spurs’ offense when only eight threes fall – not much. And droughts from deep are not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, the Spurs made only eight threes again in their very next game, a brutal blowout home loss to the Chicago Bulls. And that wasn’t the only thing that went wrong. The Bulls dropped a whopping 139 points on a Spurs defense that fell apart without Wemby.

The Spurs’ franchise player didn’t return to action Friday night against the Kings. And it is now abundantly clear that, sans Wemby, the Spurs’ defense all but implodes – from top ten to rock bottom. Just one more piece of evidence that the Spurs will have to make some roster changes in the near future.

Takeaways

The most impactful and therefore the most important defensive position in NBA basketball is center, with rim and/or paint protection the most important defensive assignment. But how much more important are centers than all other positions? The current Spurs are an interesting case study in that respect. They have the best rim protector in the league — but their backup rim protection personnel is probably among the very worst. The per-game difference between the Spurs defense with Wemby and without isn’t just four or five fewer blocked shots. It can easily amount to an additional 25 points conceded, as the last two games showed. With Wemby out, the Spurs are about as bad as the Wizards, defensively. Zach Collins is strictly a one-way player, so is Mamu. Charles Bassey can be a situationally helpful shot blocker, but he’s overburdened playing major minutes at the five against competent offenses – and he’s also a bit short. The Spurs need to address their backup big situation. But that’s okay. There are player types more difficult to get.

One such player type: 3-and-D wings. First of all, there just aren’t all that many of them. Good shooting and good defense rarely go hand in hand. It’s often one or the other. And 3-and-D wings are in such high demand that they command hefty contracts whenever they become available – think Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who signed a 3-year/$66-million contract with the Orlando Magic last summer. He’s in the Magic’s starting five, providing solid perimeter defense for 30 minutes per game, but he’s making only 31 % of his five three-point attempts per game. Is that 3 and D? Sensationally, the Spurs managed to find themselves a 3-and-D wing out of nowhere.

The undrafted Julian Champagnie isn’t exactly a shutdown defender, but he more than holds his own on that end, and he’s a more than adequate shooter. As such, he’s become an absolute necessity to the Spurs. Plus, he’s routinely the first guy to give the Spurs a bucket. He had a career night against the Bulls, which will be tough to repeat, but he’s getting better as a scorer all the time. Meanwhile, his $3-million-per-year contract, which runs for another two seasons after the current one, is increasingly looking like outright theft. Given how the roster is currently constructed, Champagnie is easily among the five most important Spurs, maybe even top three. His skills are indispensable. In fact, the Spurs need more of what he can do as a shooter.

What makes me hopeful about Stephon Castle eventually developing a reliable outside shot is that, other than Sochan, he’s not hesitant at all to let it fly. It’s also encouraging that his poor percentage from deep (27 %) doesn’t appear to negatively affect his confidence. Still, the time in which the Spurs can allow him to be a high-volume/low-percentage shooter is limited. Once winning becomes top priority, he will either have to make more or take fewer. Meanwhile, it’s likely the right approach to mostly stagger Castle’s and Sochan’s minutes due to spacing reasons. Both their comfort zones in terms of scoring are around the rim – Castle’s as a driver, Sochan’s as a cutter.

The Spurs’ lack of spacing showed drastically late in the first quarter. They were 11 points clear of the Kings with a little more than two minutes left. Mitch Johnson then subbed in Malki Branham and Stephon Castle (for Chris Paul and Julian Champagnie) to share the floor with Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, and Charles Bassey. It was a lineup so devoid of shooting that the offense abruptly came to a grinding halt. Unsurprisingly, the Spurs only managed to score one more point in the quarter – and the Kings drew level without much effort. In short, the Spurs are desperate for more shooting – in particular because availability concerns about both Wemby and Vassell remain.

Finally, the Spurs need more defense, both in the paint and out on the perimeter. The drop-off from Wemby to his backups is way too steep; and the number of rotation players who make for easy targets out on the perimeter is too high; Keldon is often as much of a liability out there as Malaki; CP3 is old; Tre Jones is short. But let me end with the reminder that these are good problems to have. Because none of these issues are foundational, they amount to relative tweaks. Now there are quite a few tweaks to make, that’s true, but these are the kinds of things we’re only able to focus on because of how many long-term necessary ingredients of a championship team we already have in place.