{"id":416762,"date":"2026-08-26T01:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/416762\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:02:17","slug":"julian-champagnie-could-make-the-jump-from-useful-to-an-indispensable-spurs-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/416762\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Champagnie could make the jump from useful to an indispensable Spurs piece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Julian Champagnie had the second-highest net on\/off rating (+8.5) on the Spurs&#8217; roster last year. This isn&#8217;t a player who needs to reinvent himself, as he&#8217;s doing exactly what San Antonio needs from a complementary forward. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The next step is simply becoming more reliable at those same things. If the St. John alum turns his <a href=\"https:\/\/airalamo.com\/julian-champagnie-s-next-offensive-leap-will-take-the-spurs-to-the-next-level\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shooting into a truly elite weapon<\/a> while holding up better to physicality, his stock will skyrocket like the space-bound ship in Project Hail Mary. All of a sudden, he becomes a piece that the Silver and Black can&#8217;t afford to lose. <\/p>\n<p>Champagnie already has the perfect role for San Antonio<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Juju&#8217;s job is simple: space the floor, move without the ball, defend, rebound, and capitalize when defenses ignore him. He did all of those things pretty damn well, and while he&#8217;s not discussed as part of SA&#8217;s young core, the former 76er is only 25 years old. There&#8217;s still plenty of room for him to grow. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">He shot 38% from three in 2025-26 and hit 39.6% in the playoffs. The Spurs would love to see that postseason number during an 82-game odyssey. Champ has shown he can get hot and produce big scoring nights without needing the offense designed around him. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">That makes him an ideal partner for Victor Wembanyama, De&#8217;Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper. Every one of those paint destroyers <a href=\"https:\/\/airalamo.com\/the-spurs-just-built-the-nba-s-biggest-matchup-nightmare\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">needs the space that Champagnie provides. <\/a>Leaning into that dependence will make him invaluable to San Antonio. <\/p>\n<p>One more leap could make Champagnie impossible to replace<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">The Spurs don&#8217;t have a single rotational player shoot 40% from three for the season. They were solid as a team, especially over the last two months of the campaign, but there wasn&#8217;t a consistent sniper striking real fear in opponents for the full year. Champ can change that, <a href=\"https:\/\/airalamo.com\/spurs-have-major-roster-battle-brewing-between-two-elite-shooters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dramatically increasing his value. <\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">While he&#8217;s increasing his efficiency from distance, he could also add some muscle to help him absorb contact when he&#8217;s guarding bigger wings and forwards. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">And continuing to rebound and finish efficiently when he&#8217;s run off the line keeps him from becoming too one-dimensional. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\">If all three of these things happen, Champagnie becomes the ideal championship role player. Adding truly dangerous efficiency, improving his defense and rebounding, and doing the dirty work turn him from a good role player into a necessary one that the Spurs need to keep for as long as possible.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow airalamo.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=airalamo.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-DTCrOQLE.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-D3-OLoLY.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-C4mA4mzT.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-DStfdTK6.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"7t\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julian Champagnie had the second-highest net on\/off rating (+8.5) on the Spurs&#8217; roster last year. This isn&#8217;t a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-416762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}