{"id":680755,"date":"2026-03-26T20:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/680755\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:39:25","slug":"spurs-unshakeable-role-player-is-making-brian-wright-look-like-a-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/680755\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs\u2019 unshakeable role player is making Brian Wright look like a genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordan McLaughlin first joined the Spurs ahead of the 2025 trade deadline as part of the De\u2019Aaron Fox deal<\/a>. At the time, he was essentially just a throw-in, but he\u2019s proven to be more than just a replacement-level player for San Antonio. McLaughlin is as reliable as it gets for a third-stringer, and he\u2019s rewarded Brian Wright for keeping him around.<\/p>\n

Jordan McLaughlin is a pro\u2019s pro<\/p>\n

McLaughlin ranks in the ninth percentile in minutes consistency this season, according to BBall Index. He has no clue how much he\u2019s going to see the floor<\/a> on any given night. In a five-game stretch between March 16th and March 23rd, he logged 10, five, 10, 18, and three minutes played. That up-and-down trend has been the story of the season for the little guard.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite the rocky nature of his role, J-Mac has remained steady as a Spur. He\u2019s ready whenever his number is called, and he brings a calm, collected presence to the court when he\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

The hallmark of McLaughlin\u2019s game has always been his decision-making. He\u2019s up there with the best of them when it comes to limiting turnovers and making the right read. For his career, he\u2019s dished out 842 assists to just 202 turnovers.<\/p>\n

Usually, if he\u2019s in the lineup for Mitch Johnson, that means one of De\u2019Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper are injured. When that\u2019s the case, he can be trusted to take over some of their ball handling duties and direct the offense.<\/p>\n

While he is a heady floor general and true point guard, McLaughlin doesn\u2019t need to dominate the ball, another thing that makes him valuable. He\u2019s shooting a hyper-efficient 43.2% from three this season, his third straight campaign above the 40% mark. He\u2019s especially lethal on corner treys, drilling 41.2% of them while taking close to half of his threes from that area.<\/p>\n

Because of his off-ball shooting ability, McLaughlin is able to play off of Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio\u2019s other stars, capitalizing on advantages those guys create by being locked and loaded from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

The Spurs are lucky to have McLaughlin on their roster<\/p>\n

Obviously, McLaughlin isn\u2019t some integral contributor for this Spurs team. But that\u2019s not what the team needs from him at all. What they do need from him is sharp play in spot minutes and a professional presence. He brings both of those things.<\/p>\n

The odds have been against J-Mac for his entire career\u2014he’s 5\u201911\u201d, for Pete’s sake. He\u2019s built a seven-year career<\/a> in the face of that adversity, and he\u2019s done it with IQ, dependability, and maturity. Those are the traits that have helped him find a home on this Spurs roster.<\/p>\n

All in all, San Antonio would have a tough time finding a better third-stringer than Jordan McLaughlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan McLaughlin first joined the Spurs ahead of the 2025 trade deadline as part of the De\u2019Aaron Fox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-680755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-sanantoniospurs","14":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116297411157909406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}