The San Antonio Spurs are off to an early vacation after the New Orleans Pelicans sent them packing in round one of the Western Conference Play-In Tournament. Although a 34-48 season wouldn’t typically be cause for celebration, Gregg Popovich and company deserve a round of applause for remaining competitive amid the first year of their rebuild.
NBA awards voters understandably rarely reward players on losing teams with All-NBA, All-Defense, or other prestigious hardware, but since plenty of guys around the league already get snubbed this time of year, why not bestow a few of the finest Silver and Black contributors with some team-specific accolades for their commendable efforts?
Most Valuable Player: Dejounte Murray
Anyone who tuned in for a single minute of Spurs basketball could tell you Dejounte Murray was indisputably the most valuable player in San Antonio this season. The sixth-year guard paced the club in points, assists, steals, deflections, and free throw attempts. He also ranked second in rebounds and minutes played.
Advanced metrics also loved the spindly point guard as he finished first or second on the roster in PER, LEBRON, VORP, BPM, TPA, and RAPTOR. And considering he recorded 13 triple-doubles, the second-most in the league behind Nikola Jokic, it should come as no surprise he earned the first All-Star appearance of his career.
The Silver and Black went 4-10 when Dejounte didn’t suit up, and three of their four wins came against the openly tanking Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons. Despite ultimately ending the season with the ninth-worst record in the NBA, there’s a good chance this would have been a bottom-five team without him.
Murray blossomed into a potential cornerstone for a franchise devoid of a proven go-to option heading into the year. Although his drastic increase in per-game productivity derived from the departure of DeMar DeRozan, few ball-handlers raise their shooting and passing efficiency when assuming a nearly unprecedented workload.
Defensive Player of the Year: Jakob Poeltl
Dejounte Murray has a strong case for this award after leading the NBA in total steals and deflections. But event creation is only one facet of a more extensive equation when deciphering defensive impact, and Jakob Poeltl was the unquestionable anchor that held things together for a squad that funneled opponents towards the interior.
San Antonio allowed the most attempts inside the restricted area this year but maintained the second-best defensive field goal percentage from that zone. Their success patrolling the rim starts with the Austrian Center, who contested the most shots in the NBA, and held opponents 8.3 percentage points below league average within six feet of the basket.
The Spurs’ point of attack defenders often got caught on screens and had problems recovering, which placed Jakob in the compromising position of covering two players at once in drop coverage or switching onto a quicker playmaker. However, he consistently found a way to be serviceable on the perimeter without committing many foolish fouls.
Need more proof of the effort that went into his defense? Look no further than the approximately 72.3 miles Poeltl traveled on this end of the court, the seventh-greatest distance among the 112 centers that suited up for at least one game this season. And his 1.7 blocks per game (5th in the NBA) certainly helps bolster his sterling resume.
Rookie of the Year: Josh Primo
This award mostly goes to Josh Primo by default, but don’t let that delude you into thinking the rookie combo guard was a disappointment in his first go-round in the 2-1-0. Subpar shooting splits and turnover troubles aside, the youngest active player in the league showed no shortage of poise and two-way versatility across his limited appearances.
Draft pundits scoffed when San Antonio took the six-four Canadian in the lottery last July. But he is gradually changing the narrative. Primo became the second 18-year-old in NBA history with four blocks and three steals in a single game, and his flashes of self-creation from beyond the arc should leave even the most skeptical Spurs fans with an optimistic outlook.
Gregg Popovich and the front office shipped Primo off to the Austin Spurs to begin the year, and he received some much-needed on-ball reps and G League experience. He eventually earned sporadic minutes, burst into the rotation, and found himself in the starting lineup of a postseason matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans. Not too shabby for a rook.
Most Improved Player: Keldon Johnson
Dejounte Murray was rightfully named a top-three finalist for this award a couple of days ago. But he already took home our Spurs MVP, and Keldon Johnson made a late-season push without the safety net of his star guard that drove his name into the Most Improved Player conversation. And that warrants a hundred words or so on his tremendous strides.
There wasn’t an immediate “Olympic Leap” after the 22-year-old forward won gold in Tokyo, but Keldon steadily crept towards a breakout. Though Johnson was virtually the same player with slightly more offensive duties at the beginning of the season, everything opened up once he became an extraordinary standstill marksman in early November.
Keldon torched the twine to the tune of 46.9% from beyond the arc for a 41-game stretch in the middle of the schedule, forcing defenders to close out more aggressively. That newfound respect as a long-range threat was just what he needed to get back to his comfort zone as a slasher, and the human battering ram ramped up his assault on the rim.
The Kentucky alumnus was always a fierce driver. His execution bordered belligerent as he forced difficult shots, picked up charges, and overlooked open teammates. A switch finally flipped during the last leg of the season, and suddenly Keldon was creating for others off the bounce. And while he is far from a finished product, the Spurs have something special.
Sixth Man of the Year: Josh Richardson
Though Devin Vassell and Lonnie Walker IV were both worthy candidates, Josh Richardson had the most meaningful influence off the bench for San Antonio. The 28-year-old swingman only played 21 games after the Spurs acquired him, but he was instrumental in helping them make a last-minute push to qualify for the play-in tournament.
Richardson averaged 13.7 points on .459/.448/.963 shooting splits across his last 13 games while filling in for an injured Doug McDermott. The Silver and Black went a respectable 8-5 over that span, and the six-five veteran quickly cemented himself as a fan favorite for his cheerful demeanor and tenacious perimeter defense.
His success made it much easier to come to terms with the Derrick White trade deadline deal with the Boston Celtics, and his inherently low-usage playstyle meshed seamlessly regardless of the lineup. Calling Richardson a 3&D specialist isn’t entirely inaccurate. However, that tag undersells his value as a facilitator for a team lacking ancillary advantage creation.
Comeback Player of the Year: Zach Collins
The league never explicitly admitted it, but they almost definitely phased out this award amid the 1986-1987 season because players returning from drug-related suspensions winning this trophy marred their reputation. The NBA essentially settled on the explanation that picking criteria for a fitting honoree was too challenging, but that still feels like an easy out.
We are nearly four decades down the road, and this trophy still finds itself out of circulation. Fortunately, in our faux-reality, accolades only go to the Spurs, so that doesn’t have to be the case. And no one on the roster owns a more emphatic argument for comeback player of the year than second-string center Zach Collins.
The 24-year-old seven-footer was out of commission for 540 days due to a stress fracture in his left foot that required multiple surgeries to correct previously botched operations. Despite making his debut in the middle of the season, Collins swiftly developed chemistry with new teammates and claimed a role as the first big man off the pine.
Collins posted career-highs in field goal (49%) and free throw percentage (80%), points (7.8), assists (2.2), and free throws attempts (2.3) per game in 28 appearances for the Silver and Black. Perhaps the most encouraging sign was his newfound ability to finish at the rim and drain a few midrange jumpers after struggling from those zones in Portland.
