SALT LAKE CITY – Spurs coach\u00a0Mitch Johnson is a big fan of first-round rookie center Tarris Reed Jr.\u2019s physical play.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t always get young guys that seek contact, that thrive or look for contact,\u201d Johnson said before Saturday’s night’s 102-98 preseason loss at Phoenix. \u201cHe definitely is one of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-10, 270-pound Connecticut-ex has also made an impression on his veteran teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cTarris is going to be real good in this league,\u201d forward Julian Champagnie said after the 26th overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft finished Saturday’s game with 10 points on 4 of 4 from the field and five rebounds in nine minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig body. He\u2019s hungry,” Champagnie added. “Obviously he went to UConn (as a junior and senior) and Michigan (as a freshman and sophomore), four years. He\u2019s got experience with being physical and playing hard. I\u2019m impressed with\u00a0Tarris.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to his physicality, Reed has something else that makes him unique: His age. At 23, the St. Louis native stands out after the Spurs have drafted so many teens in recent years, including Reed’s fellow first-round rookie, forward Jayden Quaintance, 19.<\/p>\n
“There was a time in a different cycle of my life here where we\u2019d get all these 18-year-old punks,” Johnson said. “(Reed) is\u00a0a little bit older, so it\u2019s fun. He\u2019s obviously been around the wringer of college so it\u2019s a little bit different. He got coached really hard at UConn. He\u2019s been great to have in camp. He\u2019s a big young man. He does things naturally that makes him a good addition for what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reed said he believes his physicality will help prepare Victor Wembanyama for his battles with big men intent on pummeling him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows that he’s going to have guys just attacking his body all the time,\u201d Reed said of the 7-4, 240-pound All-Star. \u201cSo really just challenging him on the offensive glass when I’m crashing defensive glass.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wembanyama, in turn, is helping Reed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably the tallest person I’ve ever seen and played against,\u201d the rookie said. \u201cWhen I go against guys that are 6-10, 6-11, 7-1, it’s like, OK, I’m playing against the best defender in the world, so I can adjust to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY – Spurs coach\u00a0Mitch Johnson is a big fan of first-round rookie center Tarris Reed Jr.\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-924377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}