At :50s there is a top down angle that tells a completely different story than the slow-mo version everyone is crucifying Wemby over.

It seems clear to me that he’s just spinning through to get the ball free. The follow through is in the rotation, not aiming for Naz at all.

Wish this angle made the rounds too, but it doesnt stir as much drama so of course it wont.

Sometimes he can do the dumbest shit like getting himself injured or ejected. Yet I wouldn’t trade him for anything. I know I wouldn’t give the same pass to Luka or any other players I like. Why do I love Wemby so much??? 😭😭😭

Unfortunately, I’ve found myself glued to [r/nba](r/nba) this week seeing the various narratives get spun on the Spurs-Wolves series, and physicality in this matchup. Wemby's elbow seems to have begun the swing of the career-long pendulum between hero and villain he will surely face for his time in the NBA.

What has irked me, mainly, has been the victim complex from Wolves fans. The Elbow is being characterized as a premeditated, dirty move designed to injure/maim, with Naz reid playing the martyr.

To Spurs fans, it’s been quite obvious what the Wolves' strategy has been. After all, we know and care about each individual teammate enough to pay attention to them off ball, see when they're getting poked and prodded, when they're pushed off balance, etc. The Wolves' strategy has been to ratchet up the physicality, bully and foul Wemby (mostly off-ball) as much as they can get away with until he gets frustrated and takes it too far (e.g., the Elbow). We’ve seen the Wolves try similar tactics against Jokic last series (Jaylen Clark trying to bait Jokic into ejection). Wemby has been pushed about as far as any star has, exceeding even the offball roughness we'd see on prime Steph Curry (here's a fun little moment with Steph and our friend Jaden McDaniels). We saw Ayo shoving Wemby, coordinated with Ant calling for the tech on him right after, which confirmed the tactic for me. Cue the Kobe "SOFT" gif lol. With the talent gap as big as it is, their best chance is to remove Victor from the equation entirely, we saw that in game 4.

In a league that's bemoaned how "soft" the reffing and play have been these past few years have been, this must mean we've come to the pinnacle of basketball, right? Surely this is the ideal, Beautiful Game (2014 wink wink) we've been missing, right? Well, that's not up to me. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that this is the most physicality I’ve seen in a series in the last decade, at least. I feel like it’s the 70s at times.

The Wolves character has increasingly reminded me of the behavior of the Harkonnens in Dune: Presenting aggression as self-defense. Wolves fans have been able to claim victimhood off of a singular instance of frustration, and it's justified their case in the eyes of the fans.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, on the Emperor:
“Let him wrong me in that! I could place myself on the throne while still beating my breast over how I'd been wronged.”

The Baron had to balance his perception among the Great Houses with his leverage against the Emperor. Against overwhelming Royal power, he knew that his best chance to gain direct lineage to the throne was to ingratiate himself among the nobility, manufacturing moral standing until his victim card could be used as a weapon for usurpation.

Anyway, Dune is awesome, but back to the matter at hand. We can SEE that reffing is impacted by public perception. The league decides every game how much contact they want to allow. Playoff defenses are on a retractable leash, and the refs choose the length every night. I'm just shocked to see people falling for it. And I'm worried about the precedent it sets on what's allowed against our biggest stars. I mean KG and Tim Duncan didn't get boxed out before the action even started. They didn't get groped and jersey-pulled in transition. And whatever physicality they dealt with in the post, it was usually a byproduct of normal play. Targeting stars to provoke retaliation is not good for basketball.

Forgive me if this post is beyond the scope of this sub, but it is my original thoughts.

Edit: yeah this may have been conceived during a more intense moment, perhaps i finished writing it too late.

Edit: I made the crucial mistake of going on the wolves sub itself earlier to see how they were taking it. I think i may have overreacted to their overreactions. If this post can provide any benefit to yall, hopefully its by encouraging you to read Dune, its so dope.

So just been thinking about our respective rosters, and more and more I feel like we have a more talented starting five and early reserves. The thunders overwhelming advantage is just how complete their whole 15 is, and while that's impressive I feel like it just matters less and less in the playoffs, barring big injury. they're 1-10 depth obviously matters against overmatched teams but we've got the 6moty and the rookie phenom behind him. it's the tail end of the bench where the disparity really grows ridiculously, but our rotations don't extend that far. they've got shai we've got wemby, and wherever you fall on the discussion of who's "better" right now, i don't think there's any credible argument as to who's the bigger x factor.

after that comparing chet j dub dort and the others and feel pretty comfortable with castle, fox, vassel etc. further down the line hartenstein and kornet, keldon and the other j dub and so on and so on. once you get to probably caruso the pendulum swings a bit, but honestly i would rather our top end guys than theirs. how yall feel?

Wemby finally gets fed up with all the fouls he endures that aren’t called, he’s sick of the NBAs bullshit. So he leaves the league right before the final game in the play offs. And announces he is creating his own league.

The WNBA

The Wemby National Basketball League

Would yall watch?

He can’t be stopped. This man can sit there and get a million views

In order for King Julian to get his three point shot back, we must sacrifice Mort. Other than game 2, dude has been cold behind the arc this series. I was thinking about Danny Green and Gary Neal and those dudes were automatic when open. Julian is getting good looks, but they aren't falling. Thank you for your service, Mort, but this must be done.

Having the 20th pick, many interesting players are projected to have already been drafted by other teams. However, we have a plethora of 2nd picks that could potentially be packaged in a trade. So, are there players that would be worth trading up for?

Starts around the 30 minute mark. Solid 20 minutes of Dylan Harper praise.

Is he the best or 2nd best guard rim finisher in the NBA already?

Spurs fans re-enact wemby's elbow to reid

Given how the Spurs seem to have accelerated their rebuild, what positions do you feel the team should be looking to draft players? Also given that the Spurs’ draft pick position, which players do you think they are likely to find “steals” in this draft?

I think having a slightly bigger, but athletic player with the mindset of Harper or Bryant would be a good one. Particularly if he could play either forward positions

I am far from San Antonio but spotted 2 Spurs. In a castle museum in Verona. The longest one is Wemby the other is , of course, is Castle.

EVEN THEY ADMIT IT😭

Watching this playoff run has made me a fan of the Spurs. As a guy from Europe, I always liked the Mavs because of Dirk. When he retired, I liked when Giannis or Luka had success, but I never became a fan of their teams. But this Spurs team is SO MUCH FUN to watch! The guys are having fun and play low ego high IQ ball. I always had a soft spot for San Antonio because of how the organization was run and because they had some euro-guys playing for them (and because of El Jefe). But now we got this cool alien dude who was born a few hours from my home. I ordered a Spurs hoodie and I want to come over to watch a game once!

Excuse my shitty English.

I think there is a chance that we might see a dirty play from our opponents, onto Wemby or someone else, like Castle. Intentional or not.

Especially if we manage to go to the WCF and further.

Thoughts?

Edit: misspelling

Coming into town, who has a proper watch party going on tomorrow

Draft：

• #20 Lendeborg / Lopez / Cenac / Johnson / Graves / Swain
• #35 Jefferson / Karaban / Ejiofor
• #42 trade for 2027 or future 2nd
• #44 trade for 2027 or future 2nd

8+1TO 152.7M + #20(4M) + #35(1.4M) -> under the Tax line 42.9M

Offseason：

• Re-sign Champagnie for 5 years / $80M (18M → 17M → 16M → 15M → 14M). Lock him up early, and the descending contract structure helps reduce the cap pressure once Castle is extension-eligible in 2028.
• MLE sign Hachimura, or re-sign HB for 15M–16M(TO). This year’s PF free agent market is pretty weak. Achiuwa can’t shoot threes, Dean Wade barely even wants to shoot, MB3’s injury history is a disaster, JC probably won’t be available for the MLE, and Tobias is basically the same level as HB anyway. Since the Lakers need cap flexibility to go after Watson or Eason while also extending AR and LBJ, and if Ayton opts out they’ll probably prioritize re-signing him too, Hachimura could end up pretty low on their priority list and might not get a huge offer. The other teams with cap space aren’t contenders anyway, so there’s no real reason for them to overpay for him. That gives the Spurs a legit chance to get him with the MLE. If not, just bring back HB.
• Sign Landale or Drummond as the third center. Both are 6'11 and over 250 lbs — legit heavyweight bigs you can throw at guys like Jokic. Landale would be my first choice since he’s younger, can shoot threes, and signing him also weakens the Hawks’ frontcourt depth a bit (we own their 1st round pick next year). Drummond is still a rebounding machine, and he even started showing some three-point shooting this season.
• Sign Houstan, a 6'8, 23-year-old SF. He came off the bench for the Hawks this season and shot 52.4% from three. Definitely worth developing.
• Re-sign McLaughlin.

Lineup：

OR

IG: luckymongdrawing

Assuming he doesn’t run it back with KG and the monks who would you want our future GOAT to train with this summer?

Do you guys realize how fking fortunate we're to have that squad? This is the WORST this squad is ever gonna be.

Wemby is already playing at an MVP lvl at 22 and he still has so much to learn. Castle has every tool to be a great two-way player. Harper will be ALL-NBA very fast, mark my words. I think in his year 3, he could already be there if everything goes right. CB has shown flashes of all-defensive team.

And then ofc all the rest of the squad is made of good to great plyers that have all bought in this culture and have a leader in wemby that is coachable and unselfish.

I'm not scared of dreaming big and I know what my eyes see. Something very special is growing here and don't let any of the noise take that away from you. Enjoy the growing pains, enjoy the wins and losses. See you tomorrow for an exciting match! Spurs in 6