Shams Charania: A lot of the Spurs' success will be driven by Victor Wembanyama
Boardroom co-founder and CEO Rich Kleiman is joined by ESPN Senior NBA Insider Shams Charania who discusses why he thinks the San Antonio Spurs will see what this core group can do before making any roster changes.
Video Transcript
Do the Spurs, you think, try to speed up a bit of an opportunity?
I mean, when you have someone like Wemby, your window is as long as he plays, um, he's that good, but do you think that they could potentially if they stay on this pace around the deadline, maybe make a move to give themselves a real shot this year?
Right now, I, I think they're more internal.
Like, I think the the big move they made last year was getting Darren Fox, and then I think from there, they really want to see what this group internally can do cause kind of like Oklahoma City the last few years, it's like, we don't really know what we have until we see what our players can do come playoff time.
And I think that's the next step for them is going into the playoffs with this group, seeing what can they do in the playoffs?
Can they get, get by in around?
Can they make a round competitive?
How far can you go?
And then from there, I think you Judgments, you make the right tweaks that you need to make on your roster.
And so, I think a lot with the Spurs internal, man.
I, I, I really do, um, see what Deon Fox looks like with this group when they get back.
Um, but a lot of it is gonna be driven by Victor Romanyama, his health, how he's doing.
And I just, I, I think we have to look at the young stars in today's game, like how focused they are and how determined they look.
When you look at him, Shay goes, Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Luka Dacic, um, You know, I'm probably missing a couple here, but like, these guys just have a drive, a focus, um, and they clearly want to be great, and they want to be, uh, the best versions of the Celtic.
Like Anthony Edwards cut so much, you know, weight, like he's so trim entering this year, um, and now he's got a hamstring injury.
So it's like, that's clearly like he's, he's worked so hard that he pulls a muscle.
Um, but Wemy, you look at the work that he did in the offseason, he trained with KG.
You train with Hakeem Olajuwon, uh, you spend time with the monks, uh, uh, abroad.
So he's, he's done so much of everything.
Like I heard a funny story, you know, he spent a week in Houston working out with Hakeem Olajuwon, and every day they're having these on-court sessions and then afterward, they would play ping pong together.
And someone, someone around Victor Omiyama told me he literally lost every game against Hakeem Olajuwon in ping pong.
He did not win once.
Hakeem beat him every single time, but every day he was back at it, wanting to play Hakeem at ping pong, and he would just take L's.
And I'm like, that's the only L he's taking all all summer, all year, like, cause then he goes up, goes on the court and he's able to absorb all these lessons and just how dominant he looks, his competitive fire, I think it's great to see.
