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San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich unveiled his preferred super-sized training lineup alongside Victor Wembanyama. 

In a rush to celebrate former assistant Becky Hammon and the Las Vegas Ace’s second consecutive WNBA title, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich squirmed in his seat ready to bolt.

“I thought about getting booted tonight,” he said Wednesday after his team’s 117-113 victory over the Houston Rockets. “But I just thought this [had] to be my priority. It was close.” Victor said.

Fortunately, Popovich stayed long enough to coach Prized No.1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama and the rest of the Spurs through preseason game No.3, which was billed as a dress rehearsal for the start of the regular season. The club released a lineup that competed in live action alongside one another for just the first time all preseason.

Headlined by Wembanyama, that group, according to Popovich, represents San Antonio’s starters for the October 25th regular-season opener against the Dallas Mavericks.

That and more will be discussed in these three takeaways from Wembanyama’s third exhibition outing.

Big ball, best 5

The Spurs chose to use a gargantuan starting five against the Rockets. With the 6-foot-8 Jeremy Sochan running point for the second straight exhibition outing, San Antonio tipped off with Wembanyama (7-foot-4), Zach Collins (6-foot-11), Devin Vassell (6-foot-5) and Keldon Johnson (6-foot-5), and the group ran off a 17-2 lead in less than five minutes to begin the game.

Besides clogging the paint with Wembanyama and Collins, this lineup has the collective length to consistently disrupt passing lanes. Count on this team to be the team’s most effective lineup this season. Wembanyama’s gravity, scoring prowess at every level, and passing ability only lift the lineup’s ceiling, offensively. But with what happened on Wednesday, fans can expect some ups and downs as San Antonio keeps experimenting.

“They better play well or we’re in trouble,” Popovich said. “Those are the big guys. They’re tall. They’re big. They’re gonna start. They’re getting used to each other, trying to figure out where to be in relation to the perimeter players.”

A 7-foot Manu

Manu Ginobili retired in 2018 from the Spurs. But if people ever wondered how this Hall of Famer might have looked in a seven-foot frame, Wembanyama showed a glimpse in the first quarter. Picking off a pass from Aaron Holiday, the Frenchman pulled off Ginobili’s flashy nutmeg move on the ensuing break by dribbling the ball in between the legs of Reggie Bullock Jr., before hitting Charles Bassey with a behind-the-neck pass under the basket.

“I’ve been waiting for the occasion to try it,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t want to limit myself to what’s conventional. I want to expand my game as much as I can. I think that was a good move.”

The play signified yet another example of the 19-year-old displaying something spectators probably have never witnessed before from a player his size. 

It is not just Victor Wembanyama

Keldon Johnson led the San Antonio Spurs in scoring last season (22.0 points per game), but Wembanyama will get more help on both ends in 2023-24 from rising fourth-year veteran Vassell, who looks poised for a breakout season. Vassell averaged a career-high 18.5 points last season. But he appeared in 38 games due to a knee injury that led to surgery.

Now healed, Vassell, according to reports within the organization, has taken a leadership role, and has made strides shooting the 3-ball, even after knocking down at least 34.7% from deep in all of his first three NBA seasons. In three exhibitions, Vassell has connected on 12 of 20 from range. He drained six 3-pointers on October 13 (his career regular-season high is five).

Related NBA News:

Adam Silver hints at NBA making changes to All-Star Game format.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced on Tuesday in a televised press conference on ESPN that changes will be made to the All-Star Game and while not saying if any decision has been finalized, he hinted that the current format of top vote-getters acting as captains and drafting their own teams may be shelved.

“Maybe a return to something more traditional, in terms of how the teams are presented,” Silver said in the interview on ESPN’s “First Take” program. “We went to sort of this captain-draft notion, but clearly, historically, it was East vs. West, so that’s something we are looking at.”

This season’s All-Star Game is at Indianapolis on February 18th. The league has not yet made any official announcement regarding format changes. The first 66 All-Start Games all had the East vs. West format. The previous six have witnessed leading vote-getters from each conference serve as captains who could draft their teams. LeBron James was one of the captains all six times, with Giannis Anetokounmpo being captain three times, Kevin Durant twice and Stephen Curry once.

The last four All-Star Games have used a target score at the end of games, ensuring that the matchup ends on a made shot. The fourth quarters have been untimed; the winner is the first team to reach whatever the leading team had after three quarters, plus 24 points, the 24 is a nod to Kobe Bryant’s last jersey number.

In the first year of the target score, the format saw a fourth quarter that was too dramatic. Last season’s game, however, was almost totally uncompetitive and became a disaster in terms of television ratings in part as some of the big names like James, Antetokoummpo, Durant, and Curry all missed much or all of the All-Star Game because they were injured.

“I mean, it’s fun to kind of get out there and do some dunks and stuff like that,” Utah’s Lauri Markkanen said after last season’s All-Star Game. “But we’re all competitors. I think everybody would enjoy it too if we just play against each other and it gets competitive.”

League officials announced last week that they have been hammering how important it is to improve the quality of the All-Star Game to players. It has been a talking point for years, as has the slam dunk competition which got a serious shot in the arm last season when Mac McClung gave a show for the ages.

“When you turn on an NBA All-Star Game, I think people expect to see some competition,” said Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations. “There’s a happy medium somewhere between a hard-fought playoff game and what you saw last year. … When you have the reaction that fans and people had around the game and just visually, it matters because it didn’t make the product look good.”

It’s unclear when the league will finalize any All-Star Game changes.

“We’ve lost sight a bit that it’s about the game at the end of the day,” Adam Silver said.

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