Wemby Watch: Mitch Johnson Shines as Head Coach, Chris Paul Huge in Win Over Wolves

After having despised Chris Paul for his entire career, I now want him to retire as a Spur in hopefully at least 2 more years.

It may have taken Chris a 3–4 games to start to thaw, but he’s clicking now. We just saw him post 15 points, 13 assists, and 4 rebounds on 5–9 shooting with only 1 turnover.

And, and Jaden McDaniels was assigned to him, at least early on.

After having witnessed the circus of last year, I now have the ultimate appreciation for experience and basketball IQ so I want Chris Paul on the court as much as possible.

It’s not just his skill on the court; he’s got everyone thinking differently, learning parts of the game they’d never grasped before. The contrast is sharp — last year’s players were like a group of remedial students, but with Chris Paul, it’s as a Harvard-bound prodigy just entered the room, changing the entire dynamic.

Anyway, Chris was instrumental in tonight’s win. He’s so valuable to the Spurs. He signed a 1 year, $10.46 million contract for this year and he’s already worth so much more.

Pop Out, Mitch Johnson In

Pop was sick tonight so Mitch Johnson was promoted to head coach and he did an excellent job in his second game leading the team.

I could feel him wanting to win this game from my tablet, and he delivered big time.

Looking at the box score, we can see Mitch relied upon Harrison Barnes much more than Pop would have. Barnes tallied 38 minutes compared to his season average of 28.

Also, Blake Wesley only got 1 minute (garbage time). And I did not miss him whatsoever.

One more note: I thought I noticed, at least in the first half, that he was trying to keep one of Wemby or Chris Paul, in the game at all times.

Big win for Mitch. It was nice to see someone trying to prove themselves and actually trying.

Keldon Johnson

Keldon was a huge contributor in tonight’s win. He kept tossing in layup after layup on the Timberwolves.

Whenever Rudy Gobert was on him, he took him right to the rack with relative ease; finishing with 25 and 8 in 29 minutes definitely deserves applause.

However, I hate his tunnel vision. Keldon has no passing instincts and appears to have only two modes: attack or hoist.

He simply does not look for teammates. Everything worked out tonight, but this is a big problem that will become glaring under the right/wrong circumstances.

Malaki Branham

Mitch limited Malaki to 14 minutes, but that number should have been lower. I know he was looking to Malaki for offense, but Malaki at point guard is now forever a forbidden substitution.

Branham turned the ball over twice bring the ball up the court, both times leading to easy dunks for the Timberwolves.

The guy has a knack for scoring, but there’s not much else here.

Wemby

Wemby had a solid game, but it would have been a lot better if he had stopped jacking up threes. Check out this statline:

7–15 field goals, 1–7 from threes

It speaks volumes.

Of course he’ll have some games where he hits threes, but overall Victor launching a three is a poor possession and it’s something that needs to be reigned in.

He’s not a good three point shooter and this is something that needs to be acknowledged and not encouraged (see Pop interview encouraging threes).

And not only is he not a good three point shooter, he’s an excellent shooter up close so he needs to get more shots closer to the goal — which he did this game.

But overall, Victor heavily contributed with great defense, nice buckets, and creating spacing. The boost to the offense was palpable when he was on the floor.

Zach Collins

I know he has the pricey contract, but I really wish the Spurs would have just kept Dominick Barlow and waived Collins; Barlow is so much better than Collins.

Collins had some moments this game (including a nice pass to a cutter), but he’s simply a bad NBA center. There’s no way around it.

He makes some really stupid plays, but mostly it’s just that he’s not good enough night in and night out.

The only way Collins can become a plus guy is if he becomes a marksman.

Also, why can’t Mamu and Bassey start stealing some Zach Collins minutes?

Harrison Barnes

One of my notes from this game is that Barnes need to play more minutes because he’s a good offensive player and can help amass buckets even when Wemby and Paul are out.

It’s no coincidence I thought that. I didn’t realize Barnes had logged 38 minutes until after the game.

He’s a good player although it still seems like he’s not a seamless part of the team. It feels more like the Spurs + Harrison Barnes and I’d like to see him become more integrated.

Jeremy Sochan

I really like Sochan. Of all of the players since Dennis Rodman, he’s the one that has the most Rodman 2.0 vibes.

It’s not just the look and the body language either. It’s the toughness, mental strength, approach, and care-free personality.

He got in a strong dust up with maybe Jaden McDaniels, I can’t remember who. And then one second later he was on the bench smiling without a care in the world.

With all that being said, Sochan is much more capable than Rodman. As tonight showed, he’s not just a one-trick pony. Sochan put up 19–10–4 on 7–10 shooting.

If this guy ever takes the hitch out of his shot and notches his outside shooting up 2.5 levels, he becomes the ultimate Swiss army knife.

He’s becoming better and better and better.

Stephon Castle

Castle had a bad game. One thing I especially disliked is it took him so long just to get the Spurs in their offense.

The Timberwolves were applying pressure and Castle was having real difficulty with it. I think Castle even brushed off Chris Paul getting the ball once or twice which I also have a problem with.

Overall, he finished 1–5 with 2 missed free throws. He needs to work on his shooting and getting under control when handling the offense.

There’s so much potential, but Castle needs to slow down and try to learn from Paul as much as possible.

Extra time working on getting his legs under his shot will pay major dividends.

Wrap Up

This was a big win for the Spurs. And it was a very legitimate win unlike the Jazz victory.

I don’t give the Wolves any credit for having played last night. First of all, playing back-to-backs isn’t grueling. Second of all, this was game 6 of a brand new season.

I haven’t heard the Wolves cite to it at all so this isn’t directed towards Minnesota, but just peremptorily, I hate the back-to-back excuse. NBA players have every accommodation possible, you can play two 48 minute basketball games in 48 hours without there being a built-in excuse.

The Spurs are now a .500 basketball club and head to Los Angeles for a showdown with a still very competitive Clippers team on Monday.

That should be a good one.