Spurs Roster Final Grades: End of Season Report Card Gets Ugly for Pop

The San Antonio Spurs 2023–2024 season was an abject failure.

The Spurs accomplished nothing other than being lucky enough to draft Wemby and have him on their team.

As I wrote about separately, Gregg Popovich just wasted Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season.

With that backdrop, let’s give out the end of season grades.

Davonte Graham

Graham hit a super clutch game winner to defeat the defending champs, spike the morale of the team, and completely alter playoff seeding in the Western Conference. That alone deserves a mention and a boost to his grade.

Generally, Davonte was a positive. He shot threes with confidence and while he just made 30.1% from downtown, he made an impact. In fact, Graham was also a key contributor in the Spurs close win against the Pelicans. Additionally, Graham has a good energy about him; he’s always smiling. He only played in 23 games, averaging 13.6 minutes, but Graham seems like a good guy to have at the end of the roster.

He knows the game, his teammates like him, and he’s unafraid. It’s too bad he didn’t get to play more at the beginning of the season. The Spurs could have really used an extra ball handler.

Grade: B+

Sandro Mamukelashvili

Mamu is another player who came up big late in the season and, again, it was to the Spurs detriment that Gregg Popovich didn’t get him more playing time sooner.

Mamu is an extremely intelligent basketball player who showed not only an eagerness and willingness to involve Victor in the offense, but a real chemistry with the French sensation. It was as if the two instinctively knew how to play each other even though it was likely just their high IQs that made them appear so in sync.

Not only does Mamu have a sky high IQ, but he hustles; he’s constantly moving and creating activity that generally favored the team.

For most of the season, Mamu was inaccurate from deep (29.7%) but he showed promise in later games.

You can’t fake the ability and awareness that Mamu displayed in the last several games. Because of this, Mamu easily warrants a nice, long contract. Surprisingly, he was one of the few teammates to realize that getting the ball to Victor was a good thing.

Grade: A

Cedi Osman

He shot 38.9% from three, but too many of the makes weren’t timely. Early on, Cedi played sharp, nailed meaningful threes, and looked like a prized acquisition, but he averaged towards mediocrity later in the year.

Cedi got a real look this season, appearing in 72 games, but I didn’t see anything to merit a return.

Sprinkle in ignoring / overlooking Victor on multiple occasions and that’s it for me. If Cedi was smarter, he would have been looking for Victor every chance he got.

Grade: C

Charles Bassey

Bassey got hurt early in the season, but I really liked what I saw from him. I hadn’t looked until now, but his stats show a big reason why I liked him so much.

In 19 games at 10.8 minutes per game, he shot 72.5%, hit 83.3% on free throws, and averaged 4 rebounds, 1.1 assists, .9 blocks, and 3.3 points.

He’s strong and plays his role. I remember some real self awareness from Bassey and I’d really like to see him back; the Spurs need a big center to take on the behemoths in this league.

Grade: A-

Dominick Barlow

For spurts of the season, it seemed like the Spurs were down to 0 big men, but they actually have quite a few nice pieces on the roster.

I really, really like Barlow.

He’s another self aware guy who plays the game the right way. While Mamu plays intelligently, Barlow plays smart.

Mamu is one of those basketball players who mentally is playing on another level, but Barlow is someone who plays the game as he should; Barlow notices what’s going on and reacts accordingly.

I like him defensively and offensively. Importantly, Dominick was always up for battling down low and never gave an inch. He’s just a good, sound basketball player that should be on the roster.

Unsurprisingly, Barlow was also a willing passer to Victor.

Grade: A-

Julian Champagnie

Julian played good basketball this season. Julian played horrible basketball this season.

While his final three point percentage looks nice (36.5%), his field goal percentage is far too low (40.8%) and he doesn’t contribute much in other statistical categories.

We saw him have some nice games in major minutes during the final stretch of the season, but I see him more as a work in progress than I do anything else.

His contract is non-guaranteed next year, but only $3 million if the Spurs choose to exercise 24–25.

If he came back, I can understand if there’s enough potential why — he’s only 22. But one limitation is he’s also only 6–7.

I would leave him off next season’s roster. There were too many mistakes this season and his confidence wavers when things go against him.

Grade: C

Malaki Branham

When he’s comfortable, Malaki has an excellent mid-range game. His potential as a three pointer shooter also looks above average.

But for too much of the season, Malaki played a dumb and mostly selfish brand of basketball. It’s like he isn’t thinking beyond himself on the court.

He needs more court vision and more court awareness.

He’s a good offensive player, but he needs to start thinking about the bigger game that’s being played.

Malaki’s on his rookie contract so he’ll be back.

Grade: C

Blake Wesley

He’s a horrible three point shooter (21.8%) and his free throw shooting is below par for a guard (66.7%). He’s also a bad passer with no court vision.

However, for several games his constant defensive pressure and energy was a welcome sight. He harassed opposing point guards and created positive gains for the Spurs.

But these gains gradually diminished towards the end of the season. As a point guard with limited vision, it’s going to be difficult for him to advance in this league.

The fact that he didn’t have the self-preservation awareness to not only not ignore Victor but to actively ensure he got the ball is revealing.

Also, his game has a ceiling because he’s so right hand dominant. The Spurs already exercised his 24–25 year, but here’s hoping he gets traded.

Grade: D+

Keldon Johnson

I refer to Keldon Johnson as a super role player because he’s a role player but he has the talent — and confidence — to flex into a star when need be. And he was able to come through in multiple big moments this season.

But at 6'5', one problem is he’s undersized.

And as a ballhog, another problem is he’s a blackhole. When he gets into his offensive mode, it’s very much a one track mind and he’s not looking to pass to anyone, including Wemby.

There were far, far too many plays this season where Keldon ignored Victor.

His stats were fairly good, but I dislike his basketball instincts — it can’t always be to shoot or to force your way to the basket.

There is real talent with Keldon, but it will probably take a while for him to work out the bad habits.

Keldon just completed the first year of a 4 year, $74 million deal so the hope and expectation is that he’s shipped out as a part of a trade.

Grade: C+

Zach Collins

I extra liked Collins headed into this season, but now I extra dislike him and next year he’ll be entering into the first year of a two-year, $34.8 million extension.

The problems were many with Collins including the fact that he’s a center that mostly can’t guard other centers. If there’s a talented opposing big man, get your fantasy lineups locked because that big man has free reign.

His defense was really, really bad.

Also, Collins’ ability to hit threes this season became more of a theory than reality as we continually witnessed him unable to spread the court and knock down open threes. He shot 32% and when he’s shooting, he’s open.

There’s so much more value to be had in Dominick Barlow and Mamu. Here’s hoping the Spurs are able to get off the Collins extension in a trade.

If the Spurs are able to acquire a star, Collins and/or Keldon Johnson would likely be in to match salary.

Grade: D+

Tre Jones

Tre Jones, the Spurs one true point guard. Tre finished the season with good numbers and advanced stats show he notably lifted the team when he was on the court.

Here’s Tre’s line to end the season:

10 points, 6.2 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1 steal, 1.5 turnovers, 50.5%, 33.5% from three in 27.8 minutes

While the Spurs did play much better with him on the court, there’s also something to the fact that without him they usually weren’t playing with a point guard at all. So throw a point guard into the mix and things will look better.

Tre comes across as a very serviceable backup, but he has bad vision for a point guard. He also has bad touch — we saw him miss several easy passes this season.

I view Tre as a point guard that makes the pass that’s there to make (unless it’s to Victor for an alleyoop, and then he usually misses it).

As the Spurs primary point guard, Jones somehow really never developed a rapport with Victor which is an indictment.

Jones’ threes did markedly improve over the season and he came through with steady play for the majority of the season so those are both major points in his favor.

However, he missed Wemby way too many times.

Grade: B-

Jeremy Sochan

It was always unfair to play Jeremy at point guard so I’m not going to hold that against him. However, I still hold all of his outright ignoring and missed passes to Victor against him.

Jeremy had an uneven season, showing us play at polar extremes. The good news is that most of the horrible play came in the first half of the season and the great play came in the latter part.

When he’s good, Sochan is an NBA Swiss Army knife that does everything and comes across as a unique star.

When he’s bad, Sochan can’t stop anyone from scoring except for his own team.

Overall, I still really like Sochan. He’s a fighter whose talent is shimmering right near the surface. As a Swiss Army knife next to Victor, he can help the #1 pick win a lot of games.

However, whatever was going on with him blatantly ignoring Victor early on shows that he’s susceptible to making detrimental, petty decisions.

Grade: B-

Devin Vassell

The articles I’ve read, move right past the possibility of Vassell being a #2 next to Wemby, but I think there’s a chance it happens.

This guy is talented. I love his shot and his athleticism.

And although he missed many Victor passes this year, he’s at least open to the fact that he missed him and has clearly taken note to get Victor the ball.

With more experience and learning, I think Vassell can continue to grow and he’s already really good.

With better passing and awareness, Vassell’s game will open up even more.

He needs to see the floor better and I don’t know if that’s something he can easily pick up, but there’s real improvement to be had for an already very good player.

Grade: B

Victor Wembanyama

Wemby delivered. He could have delivered even more had his teammates been willing to pass to him and his coach not sabotaged the season.

But as it stands, Victor is the truth. I’ve written superlatives all season long but here’s a recap:

• Athletic and agile, especially for his size
• Good stroke
• Biggest defensive impact in the league
• Clutch gene all over the place
• Excellent passer
• Highly intelligent
• Dominant
• Highly competitive
• Great teammate

The list goes on and on.

But let’s touch upon his flaws as well:

• Does not box out
• Resorts to threes way too often
• Bad touch around the basket
• Tendency to be out of control on drives to the basket
• Can be a sloppy passer

Also, this isn’t really a flaw so much as a characteristic but he doesn’t have the frame to fully defend centers with big bodies who play bully ball down low.

Given all that he had to deal with internally, including

• his teammates ignoring him,
• his teammates unable to successfully pass to him,
• his coach not having a plan for the season,
• his coach not playing him,
• his coach severely limiting his minutes, and
• his coach tanking,

he performed extremely well.

Grade: A+

Gregg Popovich

Well, here we are. It’s time to give a grade for the guy who won 22 games in Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season — and only won this many because the team won in spite of his coaching antics that included sitting most of the starting lineup down the stretch.

Pop went into the season without a plan and the team played like a team without a plan.

Oh wait, one plan was for a power forward who had never played point guard in his life to be the team’s starting point guard.

And another was not reprimanding any teammates for blatantly ignoring Victor.

What an absolutely disgusting show from the 75 year old coaching legend.

I can’t believe he just wasted a year of basketball, a year of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season.

There were so many lowlights from Pop this season including him taking the mic during a game and telling the Spurs home crowd to stop booing Kawhi Leonard, who had treated the franchise like garbage before his departure.

Let us also not forget that the Spurs kept insisting this was a “development” season and yet we saw no development happen.

The Spurs still don’t know how to use Victor Wembanyama on offense and the only reason the team had success was because Victor is so competitive that he started to uplift the team.

And credit goes to teammates as well because we saw their competitiveness rise up along with Wemby.

But Gregg Popovich deserves endless amounts of criticism for throwing this season away and tanking despite the fact the Spurs just landed the prize of all prizes.

To tank after you land a franchise player who can make an immediate impact is a new low. Can you imagine if the Orlando Magic tanked during Shaq’s rookie season and limited his minutes?

When it comes to evaluating Pop’s performance, you have to ask, what did he actually accomplish this season?

Zero.

You could have replaced Pop with anyone and advanced the team further.

The word that keeps coming to mind is disgusting. Another word is embarrassing.

I hope Pop is fired and replaced by Sean Elliott.

Grade: F-