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Doug McDermott, the only player on the season's initial roster over the age of 30, is no longer with the San Antonio Spurs. The team acquired veteran forward Marcus Morris in the trade that sent McDermott to the Indiana Pacers, but he's yet to report to the team and is headed for a buyout. Without both McDermott and Morris in the fold, the Spurs don't have a single player on the roster older than 28-year-old Devonte' Graham.
It's something not lost on Victory Wembanyama.
“Yeah, It's definitely a challenge. But we do have some vets who show the example,” he said of San Antonio's ever-young roster. “But, of course…As a young team, sometimes it's hard to do without this quantity of guidance from veterans, for example.”
Asked in the wake of McDermott's depature whether he'd like the franchise to bring in more veterans as he goes through his career, the generational prospect didn't hesitate.
“Yes, of course, yeah.”
Other veteran presences around young Spurs
Spurs legend Manu Gibobili, who's now a special advisor to basketball operations, and recent San Antonio big man Gorgui Dieng, who earlier this season was named a basketball operations representative, are around the team often. Theirs is the closest the Spurs come to a veteran presence on the court now that McDermott is back in Indiana.
“They're not with us all the time on the road, for example, but, you know, they're at every shootaround, every practice at home, so it's really precious because they've been through this. I think this is the kind of guidance we would need right now,” Wembanyama said.
There is, at least, one subject in which it benefits the 20-year-old star to have the counsel of a Hall-of-Famer and 34-year-old who just retired.
Wembanyama learning to manage ‘dog days' of NBA
Before registering a historic triple-double in Monday's 122-99 victory vs. the Toronto Raptors, Wemby was coming off his most pedestrian five-game stretch since late December.
“It all depends on what's our current pains, our current problems with the body,” the top overall pick in June's draft said, alluding to the physical realities that come with an 82-game regular season schedule.
In none of his first four games in February did Wembanyama reach 20 points.
“Whenever we can get some more shots up [at practice], we do. Sometimes we've got to take care of our body. For example, I was sick a week ago so I did some steam room and different kind of treatments. And, yes, sometimes, it's best.”
Though Wembanyama may not have a veteran teammate to rely on when it comes to the grind, he does have the ear of the longest-tenured coach in NBA history.
“I'm seeing signs of it in everybody but that's the same with, basically, every team. It's the dog days and it's tough. I wanted to see how we would react here on the road trip because we had, before that,” Gregg Popovich said. “That's tough, along with the rodeo road trip so I understand why they'd be tired but we can't use that. They've got to try to fight through it and I think they're having a little bit of a tough time getting through that.”
“He told me a little bit about it. It's not more complicated than that, it's just hard to do. We've just got to work our a** off and keep going and not change our ways even though sometimes things are not going our way,” Wembanyama said.
“I feel fine but the facts are that all of our bodies are impacted so the challenge is going through it and making those extra efforts. Even though we don't feel it, we're going to jump a little bit less high and we're going to run a little less fast than the beginning of the season, of course.”
Following a 27-point, 14-rebound, 10-block, 5-assist performance, Wembanyama has reason to believe the “dog days” may be behind him.
