Starters: first iteration of the guard trio

[u/Candid-Recover6822]

I'm a believer. Let's make this work and we don't have to see Harper coming off the bench. And wemby + tons of ballhandling and slashing just makes sense to me. You can afford to go a bit smaller with the tall fella and it also leaves you a lot of flexibility for secondary lineups.

[u/No-Housing1669]

There's actually 5 guards there

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/No-Housing1669]

This is actually the correct take LMAO. Wemby might be dribbling the most. This modern era sometimes, man...

[u/orangekingo]

Hoping we see some legitimate effort from the guys tonight to just get in the right mindset for next week. I feel like they pretty clearly (and understandably) haven't really been trying these last few preaseason games.

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/orangekingo]

I agree the guys need to build up that sense of urgency again, get their heads right before the opener against OKC 👀 We might face them again in the WCF, gotta keep that psychological advantage and put BTA

[u/AccessEcstatic9407]

Devin at the 4 is crazy shit.

[u/FireBeeChin]

like the experimentation but feels like if we run 3 guard the 4 should be champ or tobias for size and vassell replacing the shot creation off the bench

[u/Willing-Criticism-36 → u/FireBeeChin]

Agreed. Vassell is listed at 6’5 so he’s giving up a ton of size against opposing 4s.

[u/Patricksometimes → u/Willing-Criticism-36]

Vassell has a 7 foot wingspan I believe. So small but he got reach. And that gives us 5 players who can dribble/shoot/pass at an above average level.

[u/Noteful → u/Willing-Criticism-36]

Everyone says it's a good problem to have so many good guards to start, but it's really not. Fox needs to be humbled and come off the bench. Starters should be Harper, Castle, Vassell, Tobias, Wemby.

That is objectively the most balanced starting lineup the Spurs can field.

[u/digital_deer → u/Noteful]

"Fox needs to be humbled" y'all take this so personally it's weird

[u/Noteful → u/digital_deer]

Nothing personal about it. Harper is the better point guard. If Fox had the humility, he'd understand that and come off the bench for the betterment of the team.

[u/BnKrusheur → u/Noteful]

Harper is an excellent scorer coming off the bench. When he had to take on more responsibility during high pressure games he also made some mistakes. His ball handling and playmaking are also not there yet (albeit it might change early in the season)

[u/Noteful → u/BnKrusheur]

Well Harper is starting for the foreseeable future. Guess we'll see how he does. I think he's gonna kill it

[u/digital_deer → u/Noteful]

You're genuinely telling me you and others would respond well to the news "Fox begs Spurs to let him come off the bench"

[u/Noteful → u/digital_deer]

Not sure what you are getting at here.

[u/digital_deer → u/Noteful]

Has an athlete in the history of ever told his team he wants to play less and not gotten absolutely slammed for it?

[u/Noteful → u/digital_deer]

It's not his choice, but it would make the situation so much easier if he did.

[u/digital_deer → u/Noteful]

Well the team wants to start him so idk who he needs to humble himself to

[u/dumbmozart → u/Noteful]

You admit it’s not his choice yet fault him for “needing to be humbled” you’re an idiot lol

[u/Artistic-Lecture-888]

four guards and a center, idk about this

[u/birdmanjones666]

GSG!

[u/InterestingShake8730]

Need a bigger 4/5 to pair with Wemby

We are trying to give Harper his respect as a starter but will need to drop Vassell to the bench and then be disrespecting him 🤣

[u/1966jpgr → u/InterestingShake8730]

No Julian or Tobias tonight, so there's not really an option at the 4 besides Barnes or Keldon

[u/titoxtian → u/InterestingShake8730]

It’s preaseason anyways… send vassell to the bench and put reed in idc ahahahaha

[u/astanton1862 → u/InterestingShake8730]

Carter Bryant

[u/AfroHouseManiac]

This lineup is going get killed on the boards .. there’s no beef whatsoever on this lineup. Okc gets away with it because they cause a lot of turnovers.. this team doesn’t generate steals … Vassell as a 4 isn’t a good idea.

[u/throwaway_macgregor]

I’m sorry but is today not 10/14 here in San Antonio?

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/throwaway_macgregor]

Ye, it's just showing my timezone (I live in france oui oui)

[u/throwaway_macgregor → u/Candid-Recover6822]

Oh fun! My apologies, I somehow thought Twitter time stamps would align with their zone of origin 😭🤯

[u/Noteful]

I made a $50 bet a few months ago with a user that Harper would start and Fox wouldn't. I'd say I'm half right. What say you all?

[u/lordbubax → u/Noteful]

And makes the statement untrue if both clauses are not fulfilled. You lost the bet I would say.

[u/Noteful → u/lordbubax]

Lol

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/Noteful]

Fox was hurt and didnt start for most of the preseason games. There you go, $50 for you

[u/Noteful → u/Candid-Recover6822]

Talking about regular season starts. Mitch told reporters that tonight's lineup is the expected lineup moving forward.

[u/Inner_Emu4716]

I feel like if this is a starting lineup Mitch wants to use long term then he needs to be very intentional with the rotations. I think 1 of Fox or Harper should be subbed out relatively early on for Champ or Tobias, and then check back in with the second unit to be the lead guard for that group. There should never be a moment where Fox Harper and Castle are all sitting

[u/Destanio9357]

Skeptical. This lineup reeks "we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

[u/Smart-Confection-515]

https://giphy.com/gifs/zwnM63LkZC1ri

[u/Willing-Criticism-36]

This is more of a 4 guard lineup with Vassell playing the 4. Might be okay for short spurts during the season but for a more consistent lineup we really need someone bigger to play the 4

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/Willing-Criticism-36]

Harris is hurt to be fair

[u/Willing-Criticism-36 → u/Candid-Recover6822]

Fair point

[u/atxtony23]

Got tix available for the game tn, dm!

Also v excited to see how this lineup works in action

[u/Skoyatt]

I'm excited for this.

And if it doesn't work, it's ok, we'll just change gear.

[u/Master-Ad-9829]

Harper never going back to the bench

[u/TBdog]

So. Starters are guards and Center. Bench is forwards and Center.

I know that the Spurs don't go 5 on and 5 off ever. They usually have 1 starting guard.

Just thinking what the rotation would look like.

[u/digital_deer → u/TBdog]

Gotta imagine we have a guard coming off like 4-5 minutes into games. Maybe match-up dependent, maybe based on who's got it going. Finishing line-up is more important anyway unless the team consistently gets off to horrible starts

[u/Joethetoolguy]

I know I wanted a 3 guard lineup but 4? Why not 5? Just bench wemby and stick gillespie in at the 5. He’s a bucket anyway

[u/xbhaskarx]

Three guards and Wemby bringing the ball up 👍

Pasting my comment from the game thread:

7 minutes left in the first quarter and the Spurs have a grand total of 3 points on a Wemby dunk… We are seeing all the ways a 3 guard lineup doesn’t work, but the big one is that without Harris or Champagnie the big “not getting enough rebounds” issue is even worse than before. Bryant comes in for Fox to end that experiment down 8-3 to Suns scrubs at home…. one minute later it’s 8-7 lol

[u/dreamweaver7x]

Just seeing how it looks. I doubt this lineup will play a lot of minutes in most situations. Whoever plays the 3 (Castle?) and 4 (Devo?) will get beat up too much over the season.

[u/ktdotnova]

Castle and Vassell are big enough... Harper is big for a point guard. Fox is the only small guy

[u/davidsnkr]

It can work. Those are by far our 5 five best and most versatile players and an Alien is among them

[u/heresyforfunnprofit]

What time zone is Jeff in, exactly?

[u/thendnchieftain]

Fox/Harper/Castle had a combined <33 3P% and <75 FT%. They played a few dozen minutes together last year across 2K+ mins.

Really feels like they’re just placating Harper but don’t wanna rip the Fox bandaid off just yet.  I’m just not a believer in this but if it works then it works. 

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/thendnchieftain]

In that logic, dont we need a bit more data before writing this off completely? I just don't see why it wouldn't work theoretically

[u/shadowofthehorns666 → u/Candid-Recover6822]

Yes, we have a very small sample size and it’s absolutely worth seeing if it’ll work, even if it’s a train wreck

[u/mercfan3 → u/Candid-Recover6822]

I actually think it’s incredibly unfair to write it off. This trio played their most minutes together in the semis and Finals (because Juju got played off the floor defensively when Brunson would hunt him)

Not exactly fair to look at the numbers on a trio who didn’t play together prior to the playoffs and had to get it together in the most pressure filled situations of all of their career.

That being said…I really hope we see a lot of the Wemby/Harris/Vassell/Harper/Castle lineup throughout the year, as if they are developed properly it should be our best lineup.

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/mercfan3]

Agree. Harris got hurt last minute so it wasnt like we had many options in terms of trying lineups

[u/thendnchieftain → u/Candid-Recover6822]

The fact that its sample size is nonexistent gives credence to the idea that even the coaching staff knows it won’t work. 

3/5 of your starters being worse shooters than your center is scary

[u/Candid-Recover6822 → u/thendnchieftain]

I see what you're saying but for me this lineup is precisely banking on harper and castle shooting development, as well as a better fox year (closer to how he was playing during wemby's injury back in nov-dec 2025). It might be optimistic but none of these are outlandish expectations. Especially Harper's progressive shooting improvements just look legit to me in terms of eyetest but could be wrong.

[u/Brain_Point → u/thendnchieftain]

It's preseason and base on previous games and lineup iterations, we are experimenting quite a bit.

[u/D3VOUR3DD → u/thendnchieftain]

I agree I don’t like this lineup at all.

[u/Stratys → u/thendnchieftain]

I agree to an extent, but I feel like it'd be a disservice to not play them together more this year, at least in the beginning of the season. Just so we have more concrete data to pull from than the limited minutes they played last year.