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Spurs Sub: 1,000 Shots a Day in Push For More Minutes
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- Spurs Sub: 1,000 Shots a Day in Push For More Minutes
(Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images)
Carter Bryant is trying to make his mark in the regular season as he did in the preseason ... hoping his offseason shooting work pays off.
Back in preseason?
Bryant made four of his seven 3-point attempts Oct. 14, when the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 123-103 at Frost Bank Center. He finished with 16 points, five rebounds, and two blocks in 20 minutes off the bench.
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Bryant scored 11 points when the Atlanta Hawks beat San Antonio 123-116 to open the preseason . He sat out the Oct. 12 loss at Utah, one of nine Spurs held out as coach's decisions.
After the Suns game, Bryant pointed to confidence as the piece of his game he dialed in on this summer.
"I was working out four or five times a day. At the end of the day, I was making well over 1,000 shots," Bryant said. "So that was something I really focused on this summer, and just providing what the team needs. The team doesn't need me to play one-on-one and get a ton of paint touches off the bounce. So just understanding, playing off of closeouts and getting catch-and-shoot shots."
And now? He's pitching in a little bit, with low numbers (seven minutes and 1.3 points per) but budding confidence.
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A lot of Bryant's work on the practice court is makes-based.
"I was making 1,000 a day, yeah. I was — I was going at four. My first workout was four in the morning," Bryant explained. "Then I was going at seven, come back home, go back to work out at about 3:00, 4:00, and then I would go shoot in the evening. That last one would be just straight shots. And I would make about 500 there. So the total of my day was, for sure, over 1,000 shots."
Bryant Built Summer Around Shooting
San Antonio drafted Bryant 14th overall in 2025 out of Arizona. He was the first Arizona player taken in the first round since Bennedict Mathurin and Dalen Terry in 2022.
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In his lone college season, he played 37 games, started five, and averaged 6.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks. He shot 37.1% from 3-point range for a team that reached the Sweet 16.
Bryant posted a 39.5-inch max vertical leap at the 2025 draft combine. He turns 21 on Nov. 26.
As a rookie, he appeared in 71 games and averaged 4.2 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11.5 minutes. He shot 33.5% from 3-point range. Over the final 34 games of the regular season, those numbers rose to 6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds, and he made 37.3% of his 3s.
Bryant grew up in Riverside, Calif. He has always been wired to outwork people.
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"I was a Kobe Bryant guy," Bryant said. "My last name is Bryant, obviously, but being from Southern California, seeing him, hearing all the stories, coming across people in the basketball world that have seen him come into Long Beach State, going to Pepperdine to work out at American Sports Center, where the men's volleyball team, national team works out, just hearing stories. And then also, all of my favorite players growing up were Kobe disciples. They were all guys that really loved Kobe, and you hear their stories and picking people's brains. And I've always been wired like, the only way to get better than people is outwork them."
"You kind of hear Kobe talk about the idea of compound interest. You just keep working and working and working. And over time, you're just going to be too far for guys to catch you. And then I think also going through a full season and making a lot of bad mistakes, really bad and embarrassing mistakes, gave me a baseline of just being honest, being like, 'OK, this is what it is. This is what I need to get better at.' And I think I just attacked that this summer, playing off of closeouts and making open shots for me. So that's not too difficult of a role, especially when you have guys like Fox, Dev, Steph, Dill. They just make my life easy. I just have to make shots, get paint touches, and finish at the rim," Bryant continued.
Bryant Learned How to Work More Efficiently
Bryant's evening session started the summer at about an hour and a half. By the end, he was finishing it in 45 to 50 minutes.
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"Yes and no. I think the biggest thing I learned was the efficiency of working out," Bryant said. "You always hear stories about, 'Oh yeah, I'll work this guy, I'll work this guy,' but understanding what outworking really is. HB is the best example I've ever seen. HB will work out for 35 minutes, 40 minutes, and work his ass off for those 35, 40 minutes and get a great workout in and work on the things he needs to work on, and then he'll be done, and then he'll come back and do the same thing."
"So understanding, getting better doesn't always look like you just running yourself into the ground for two hours, two and a half hours, because sometimes that's just unproductive. You just start getting tired. You're creating bad habits and getting bad reps. I think that's why everybody on this team is so talented. You look down the list, and it's like, these dudes work. They really work. A lot of stuff is makes-based for myself, and the better you get, the less time you're spending, because you're making a certain amount of shots a lot faster, and I saw myself do that as the summer progressed," Bryant added.
Fox is De'Aaron Fox, Dev is Devin Vassell, Steph is Stephon Castle, and Dill is Dylan Harper. HB is Harrison Barnes, who is entering his 15th NBA season.
Bryant averaged 8.5 minutes in the playoffs during San Antonio's run to the NBA Finals, where the New York Knicks won in five games.
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Bryant Wants to Be a 'Ceiling-Raiser'
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson scored on Bryant three straight times during one short stint in that series, which Bryant thinks might have been Game 2.
"I think the biggest thing is understanding when I'm in the game, I'm trying to be like a ceiling-raiser almost," Bryant said. "We're a damn good team with me off the floor, but how can I make this group better when I'm on the floor? How can I be important? How can I be valuable on the defensive end of the ball? Whether that's getting deflections, getting steals, just being a pest and making dudes wear down."
"I think I learned that a lot last year as well. Being a great defender doesn't always mean that you're getting stops every time. I think [it] might have been Game 2. I think I subbed in for like three minutes. I was picking up Jalen Brunson full court, and he just came down and scored three times in a row, but I was making him work. He was taking tough shots at six, seven seconds left in the shot clock, and nobody else had touched the ball. But that's what great players do. That's what really good basketball players do. So understanding that, you're just trying to see how much better you can make your minutes and how conducive you can be in those minutes," Bryant noted.
Bryant and the Spurs are off to a 1-2 start and play host to the Kings on Tuesday.
