Who will lead the Spurs in assists subsequent 12 months?

For all the San Antonio Spurs offensive woes final season, they nonetheless managed to share the rock. That’s a rarity for younger groups who sometimes attempt to do an excessive amount of themselves offensively. Most younger groups aren’t coached by Gregg Popovich, although.

The Spurs have lengthy been synonymous with a “lovely recreation” strategy to basketball. An emphasis on off-ball motion, workforce play and passing up attractiveness for excellent appears to be like have been the franchise’s calling card. The offensive effectivity could have dropped in 2022-23, however passing was not the explanation why.

San Antonio was fifth within the NBA in assists per recreation, with 27.2. In addition they turned the ball over on the 4th lowest fee within the NBA, solely coughing it up 15.3 instances a recreation. Regardless of not all the time having the offensive firepower to place up main scoring performances, the workforce had a system in place that led to good motion.

Subsequent season will probably be an adjustment for the workforce that instantly has a couple of gamers who can beat their man 1-on-1. Extra offensive weapons implies that there must be facilitators who can set them up. Fortunately for San Antonio, they’ve the system and personnel to get their scorers the ball. Let’s check out who may lead the Spurs in assists subsequent season.

1. Tre Jones

It will make sense for the start line guard to steer the workforce in assists. Particularly a proficient facilitator like Jones. The third 12 months guard was thrust right into a beginning position final 12 months, the place he thrived as a distributor. Jones averaged a workforce excessive 6.6 assists per recreation, and was ninth within the NBA in help to turnover ratio, at 4.07. He had a 31.5 help proportion final season, that means that when he was on the ground, almost a 3rd of San Antonio’s buckets got here off of a Jones cross.

Jones operated primarily out of the choose and roll. He ran 374 of them final 12 months, and the Spurs scored 44% of the time on these appears to be like, per Synergy. He has the possibility to be even higher in that motion subsequent season.

Have a look at the weapons round Jones. Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, Zach Collins, and Jeremy Sochan are all gamers able to ending performs out of the choose and roll, whether or not or not it’s spacing the ground for catch and shoot threes, or crashing to the basket. The Jones-Wembanyama choose and roll could also be one of the fruitful actions the Spurs can run subsequent season, with Jones playmaking means and Wemby’s freakish versatility.

Jones is not any slouch scoring the ball both. He averaged 12.9 factors final season. Together with his floater and mixture of artistic finishes inside, he’s a menace going downhill. Groups should choose their poison when deciding to cowl his drives, dropping laborious onto a curler like Wembanyama, or getting out to shooters like Vassell and Collins. Jones has the weapons and the flexibility to not solely lead the Spurs in assists this season, however to extend his complete from final 12 months.

2. Zach Collins

When the Spurs traded Jakob Poeltl on the deadline, many anticipated them to lose a key side of their offensive id: a passing hub from the excessive submit. Collins not solely crammed in for Poeltl, however really improved upon his passing.

Upon getting into the beginning 5, Collins averaged 3.8 assists, a marginal enchancment over Poeltl’s 3.1 assists. He turned a significant menace working on handoffs, out of the excessive submit and within the brief roll. He routinely hit cutters and shooters on the weak facet in these actions. Try this video from MavsDraft on Twitter highlighting a few of his passes earlier than he entered the beginning 5.

Probably the most attention-grabbing storylines for the Spurs offense is how Collins and Wembanyama play collectively. Will we see Wemby spend extra time within the excessive submit, working on the low block or spacing reverse whereas Collins acts as a playmaking hub on the high of the important thing? If it’s the latter, I see a variety of help alternatives for Collins.

The Spurs are a workforce of good cutters, and bought extra shooters. Utilizing Collins as an initiator of the offense to make the most of these shooters and cutters makes a variety of sense, and would construct off of the strides the workforce made late final season. Relying on his utilization, there’s a probability Collins could possibly be one of many groups main help males by the tip of the 12 months.

3. Jeremy Sochan

Everyone seems to be clamoring for “point-Sochan” at this level within the offseason. Followers have been fascinated about seeing if the younger wing can deal with full time distributing obligations. Regardless of glimpses of playmaking means, Sochan was not a constant passer final season.

Certain the highlights in transition and flashy passes over All Star Weekend are good, however Sochan posted simply 2.5 assists and 1.7 turnovers a recreation final season. His help proportion was a lowly 13.6%. To say that he was an above common playmaker final season is just not true.

So why is he on this checklist? Sochan confirmed flashes of being a distributor final season, and his position could dictate extra accountability in that space. If Sochan is certainly the odd-man out of the beginning 5 (I’m not completely satisfied that would be the case) he would be the workforce’s greatest playmaker off of the bench. Blake Wesley hasn’t proven the aptitude to tackle full-time again up level guard minutes, and guards like Malaki Branham are higher suited enjoying off of the ball.

The Spurs have been second within the league in tempo final 12 months, that means a spry bench might push the ball out in transition. That’s the proper fashion for Sochan to unlock his passing. He can lead the workforce on the break and provoke offense after crashing the defensive glass. He might play a degree ahead position with a second unit, and rack up assists within the course of.