3 Antonio Spurs Players Who are Underperforming so Far this Season
Photo by Patrick McDermott/GettyImages
The San Antonio Spurs have won just two of their first seven games, and all but one of them were winnable. Monday’s blowout loss to the Pacers showed what could happen when the team leaves their hustle and energy behind them. And it’s not pretty. While in sports, that’s something that’s a necessity, so os the improved play of some players on the team who’ve had rough starts.
It’s hard to expect the Spurs roster to click and execute well for a period of time so quickly into the season, especially without a true all-star roster. But this isn’t about putting blame on these three players about the Spur’s unfortunate season so far, it’s simply to bring to light the lack of late execution as a team paired with a brutal schedule for the Spurs. Still, the performance of these three players is a little underwhelming in one way or another and hasn’t helped anything.
1. BRYAN FORBES
The San Antonio Spurs brought in Bryan Forbes back to do one thing: put the ball in the hoop. He started the regular season making just one of his first 10 shots from out deep.
However, let’s give Forbes a break. In his last three games, he’s hit on nine of his 14 attempts to shoot, which included a 3-of-3 night against the Pacers. That helped him bring on his early 10% mark all the way up to above 40% everyone is expecting from him.
Still, the Spurs need Bryn to either be more efficient on offense or cut down on some of the turnovers he’s already had in the early season. That or show some improvement on defense. After averaging in double-figure points in each of the last three seasons, Forbes is at just 6.3 points per game through seven games so far this season. Granted, his minutes are expectedly down, but per-36 minutes also show a decent rise in production.
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2. DREW EUBANKS
Drew Eubanks, also playing limited minutes, really hasn’t done much when it comes to showing off. The fourth-year center is averaging about 3.6 points per game and 3.7 rebounds, although his production with assists and blocks are up at a decent level.
However, one big issue the Spurs face when putting Drew into sub isn’t all his fault. The main problem a lot of fans agree on is it means Jacob Poeltl is off the court. As an undersized center, Drew struggles a little to stay on his man and in front of a lot of bigger guys in the league, leading to trouble on the defensive end and issues getting stops in the post.
And his ability to block after beating off the dribble is also non-existent compared to Poeltl’s. That’s a big issue in basketball where just about everyone has the ability to athletically get to the basket. The biggest reason Eubanks will need to pick up the pace on his game is that there’s another center waiting that has better skillsets for this team. Jock Landale has already shown mere flashes at what he can do, hopefully, someone notices that before it’s too late.
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3. DERRICK WHITE
Last but not least we have Derrick White. Before the season started, a lot of speculation was around White being the Spur’s lead scorer. So far, he hasn’t taken that title.
Through seven games so far, White is fourth on the team in points per game behind Dejounte Murray, whose 17.6, Keldon Johnson, who's 14.9, and Jakob Poeltl with 13.9. He’s also stepped into the 3-point percentage shooting just about 34.2% on 6.1 attempts per game.
There are some bits of good when it comes to White though. He’s been distributing the ball better than ever recently at 6.3 assists per game and is playing the best defense of his career. But everyone Spurs fans know he’s much more capable of doing more than what he’s done. White has all-star potential and is right up there with Murray in terms of talent, but his offense hasn’t been great yet. Against Indiana, he was way too passive on offense was got beat by rookie Chris Duarte and Caris LeVert on multiple occasions on defense.
Overall, despite what some may say, the Spurs aren’t a bad team. They’re 2-6 right now and even though Coach Gregg Popovich was planning on a win against the Mavericks, they only lost by 1 point. (That’s gotta suck) the game was 109-108.
But If these three players could start improving a little more, the Spurs might get their chance to earn their spot at the top.
