The Olympics are in the rearview mirror and NBA teams are beginning to prepare for the season tip-off. Out attention turns to basketball’s newest alien and how the Spurs are filling in the puzzle around their generational megastar. In these previews, we will take a look at each team’s key acquisitions, fantasy stars, and predicted finish.
Key Acquisitions
Three new faces will slot straight into Gregg Popovich’s rotation in the form of No.4 pick Stephon Castle, future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, and swingman Harrison Barnes.
Castle is fresh off a national championship with UConn in which he proved himself as a key cog in Dan Hurley’s rotation.
The teenager averaged 11.1 ppg and 4.7 rpg on 55.1 TS% playing 27.0 mpg in UConn’s run to the title.
A dogged defender with playmaking upside, Castle’s ceiling will be determined by the strides he makes a shooter (he shot just 26.7% on 2.2 nightly threes in his one year at UConn).
Paul meanwhile will look to make his final imprint on the league as Victor Wembanyama’s grizzled point guard.
The Spurs suffered through some frustrating point guard play a year ago and will hope that the 39-year-old Paul can provide a steadying presence.
Paul played 58 games with the Warriors last season averaging 9.2 ppg and 6.8 apg in 26.4 mpg.
A 12-year veteran with a title to his name, Barnes is a decidedly average forward who defends and shoots at a high enough level to be of use to good teams.
With the Kings last year, Barnes played in all 82 games for the second season in a row averaging 12.2 ppg whilst shooting 38.7% on 4.7 threes per game.
He will prove an upgrade on the wing for the Spurs and help round out a semi-decent rotation next to Wembanyama.
Fantasy Stars
This entire section could be reserved for the video game numbers Wembanyama – who enters the year as one of the highest-rated fantasy stars – put up in Year 1.
The 20-year-old averaged 21.4 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 3.9 apg, a league-leading 3.6 bpg and 1.2 spg whilst playing under 30 minutes per game en route to a unanimous Rookie of the Year nod, an All-Defensive 1st Team selection, and a second place Defensive Player of the Year finish.
Scratch a little deeper under the surface and the full scope of Wembanyama’s potential becomes clearer.
In his final seven games of the season, he averaged 28.1 ppg, 13.3 rpg, 6.6 apg and 4.6 bpg shooting 34.9% on 9.0 nightly threes.
He had a 40-point, 20-rebound, 7-assist game against New York, a 31-point, 12-rebound, 6-assist, 6-block game against Indiana, and a 5×5 game against the Lakers.
Wembanyama enters the season as the league’s most interesting player once more and will be key in fantasy circles.
Projected Finish
Even with the upgrades they made and the continued emergence of Wembanyama, the playoffs remain a tall task for the Spurs due to the strength of the West.
The play-in seems a reasonable goal for this year’s squad, but Popovich’s focus will be on the continued development of his young core of Wembanyama, Castle, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson.
