I really wonder what do the players learn from shitshows like these. What is the point except absolutely wreck morale ? You can see glimpses of spurs basketball trying to be executed on the offense and it was bound to be a complicated evening lacking any PG. But seriously. No sets. No pick and rolls/pops when you have a nimbly 7’'4 to play them. No clean entry passes. Virtually no open shots. No offensive boards. What is there to be learned except “we are shit at what we do” ?

But what will solve this on the defensive side ? For the offense is dreadful the defense borders on inexcusable. How many open shots at the rim tonight and the other days ? I have rarely seen such chaos on the defensive rotations. The defense collapses with 3 passes and 2 screens every time. Complete lack of intensity, where no one guards his own man. Is there anything salvageable with this roster, which was already historically bad on the defensive side one year ago ?

I have been following the NBA for 20+ years and I can’t remember sighing like that every 15 seconds between the sloppy offense and translucent defense. And I’m confident no Tre or Keldon would have prevented the wrecking, save maybe cutting 5 or 10 turnovers.

Perhaps Pop is actually waiting for Victor to come to him and say “Coach we can’t go on like this we need sets and order”.

As for him I am somewhat lukewarm. I must admit that although I didn’t expect him to dominate from day 1, I was expecting more basketball IQ from him having seen him a lot before the NBA - i’m french. So many bad shots. So many missed defensive rotations. So many useless jumps on defense. Screens are mediocre to terrible. On the okay looks he gets at the 3pt line - which are basically uncontested since his release point - the efficiency is meh - not counting all the horrible shots he takes. He really seems lost at times on the court. Dribble is too high to allow him to really try to play like a guard - and he accordingly attempts less and less drives as games go by.

And I’m not that sure that more lobs would compensate because I am also quite startled at his lack of physical strength. He really struggles to get the advantage in the paint. If I was 80% sure that sky was the limit back in June, I would say now I’m 50% sure. I can see a future were he remains too frail to really bang in the paint, not shifty enough to play the wing, and not deadly enough from distance to be a modern stretch 4 a la KD/Nowitzki. In any case the “guard in a center body” seems more and more like an overstatement - and once again I saw him play 10 times in person in France last year.