Some days you just don\u2019t have it, you know?<\/p>\n
Watching the Spurs last night, I was reminded of a fateful interview attempt I made many years ago. It was a perfectly normal morning of an otherwise excellent year, and I was decked out in my best.<\/p>\n
A heavy rain had fallen the night before, and as I darted around puddles on the way to my car, I ran through a variety of scenarios in my head. I had all of the experience and credentials needed for the position, and I felt confident, as my initial phone call had gone well.<\/p>\n
It was a job I badly wanted, and for a moment, I allowed myself to fantasize about a positive outcome.<\/p>\n
Certain that I\u2019d made it through the worst of the minefield that was my rock and caliche driveway, I\u2019d failed to notice a particularly slick patch, where the mud and water had congealed over a smooth chunk of stone, and promptly slipped and fell face-first into the mire in my suit.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not ashamed to say that I just lay there for a minute, collecting my thoughts. I had mud in my mouth. In my nose. I even found some in one of my ears later.<\/p>\n
And I can\u2019t lie; I let a little self-pity creep in there. Why me? Things were going so well! What have I done to deserve this?<\/p>\n
I often wonder if winning teams feel the same way on an off night. It certainly looked like some of the Spurs might have, after playing so many games so close together, with more to come.<\/p>\n
The usually high-flying Keldon Johnson looked earthbound and sluggish to such an extent that he failed even to attempt a three-point shot. Defensive rotation felt like an oxymoron. Help defense, doubly so.<\/p>\n
Harrison Barnes persisted in his recent shooting slump. Carter Bryant looked as lost as an Arctic explorer. The usually hard-driving Dylan Harper seemed completely out of gas and otherwise allergic to the rim. And with all due respect to Luke Kornet, there\u2019s no world in which he should be San Antonio\u2019s leading scorer.<\/p>\n
And yet, it wasn\u2019t a total disaster. In spite of everything, the Spurs nearly pulled it out. It just didn\u2019t feel like it at the time. Perspective is so much easier to attain after the fact.<\/p>\n
The Spurs are bound to lose some games. They\u2019re definitely going to lose some without Wemby on the court. But here\u2019s the thing, it\u2019s been a great season so far. I have so few complaints about this team that it almost feels like I\u2019m reaching for complaints most of the time. More often than not, the Spurs are going to win. Some days they\u2019re just gonna take a tumble in the mud.<\/p>\n
There was nothing to be done that day, though. I picked myself up and called to reschedule my appointment. I took my suit in to be cleaned. It remains the first and only time that the owner of a dry-cleaning business came out from the back to give me an in-person service disclaimer.<\/p>\n
Three weeks later, I interviewed for an even better job, and I got it.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you\u2019ve just got to move on to the next one.<\/p>\n
I know there\u2019s no such thing as a banner for best contracts in the NBA, but boy howdy could San Antonio\u2019s front office hang one. Bypassing the already deescalating contracts for Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell, both Julian Champagnie and Luke Kornet are providing more bang-for-their-buck than most players in the league. Once considered a near-afterthought, Champagnie continues to make his case for both a raise and a contract extension, and he\u2019s beginning to show more than simple 3-and-D utility, as his mid-range has begun to flourish as well. Prior to the season, he seemed more like a backup\/counterpart to Harrison Barnes, but his shooting, rebounding, and defense allow him to sub in for Devin Vassell as well, and just about anywhere on the wing. If he were just 3-4 inches taller, he\u2019d be the perfect power forward for this team.And while I\u2019m pretty sure that I never want to see Luke Kornet\u2019s name so high on the scoring portion of a box-score, what he\u2019s been able to do as a spot starter is nothing short of outstanding. In addition to keeping the Spurs in the game offensively, he almost single-handedly kept the interior from becoming a layup line for Portland, as San Antonio\u2019s perimeter leaked like a pit bull in a dog park full of fire hydrants. There is absolutely no way that the Spurs would own such a great record if they had to keep trotting Bismack Biyombo out there like last year.That being said, I might would have preferred seeing Biyombo out there as opposed to the center-less lineup that Mitch Johnson tried out in the 1st quarter. The Fox – Castle – Harper – Johnson – Bryant grouping got absolutely cooked on defense, and in this writer\u2019s opinion, forfeited San Antonio\u2019s shot at a win. Johnson deserves a lot of praise for how the Spurs have played so far, and especially without Victor, but this is the 2nd time in the last couple of games that bizarre lineup choices have hamstrung the team, and he has to own that too. I understand that playing Biyombo is a bit like selecting Mr. Magoo to helm the Titanic through iceberg-infested waters, but at this point, any excuse not to give Sochan those minutes bears some degree of reflection. That was more jarring than a sandpaper spa day.I\u2019m not sure what to make of Carter Bryant yet. I\u2019ve definitely seen some flashes from him defensively, but he just cannot seem to find any kind of offensive rhythm, and when neither his offensive game nor his defensive game is working (like last night), he feels like a complete waste of minutes, and worse, like his development is potentially being set back. I know people don\u2019t love it when the Spurs send 1st round picks to Austin, but I honestly think that might be the perfect reset for him. There\u2019s talent there, but he may need a lower-pressure environment for now to figure things out.<\/p>\n
Playing You Out \u2013 The Theme Song of the Evening:<\/p>\n
Running On Empty by Jackson Browne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some days you just don\u2019t have it, you know? Watching the Spurs last night, I was reminded of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82,42860,78694],"class_list":{"0":"post-388680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-spurs-analysis","13":"tag-what-we-learned"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}