Good morning everyone. We welcome you to the San Antonio Spurs Preseason Press conference. Today we are here to talk about the team's outlook on this season upcoming season. First off we as always would like to thank our loyal fan base who's always supporting of franchise through the ups and downs no matter the situation. Last season ended with our team losing in the 2nd round to the eventual champs the Denver Nuggets. Even with losing to them our season last year was a success. After missing the post season 6 consecutive seasons prior to last it felt good being back in contention. Talked with some fans after the season ended and they felt great about the direction the team is going. We as a organization feel the same. Last season was good but we are looking to do even better this upcoming season. Our goal is to be a better team and try to bring home another trophy.
We also had to make some moves and parting ways with young players who played a key part in getting our team into the 2nd round of the playoffs. Parting ways with these guys were a tough decision but had to be done. Silva was a great person on and off the court and contributed a lot in the San Antonio community since his rookie season. We wish him the best of luck in Chicago. The city of San Antonio and organization will miss him. The guys on the team now are hungry. It showed in training camp. Bryce worked really hard this camp. He was motivated by not being in the starting lineup during the playoffs and vowed he will work hard so that he can contribute not only in the regular season but post season. We are happy with the results of he camp and are ready to see what he will bring to the table this season. We had Josh Smith to come over to the facility to talk to the young guys about preparation and what it takes to win a championship. I think he did a good job of relaying the message cause it showed during camp. All we can hope now is that these guys dig deep this season and Maybe this Spurs team can reach our goal of being better than last season and hopefully with that comes a parade.
With that said as always if anyone has any question I will answer them the best to my ability.
Since the Spurs are over the luxury tax apron and a number of players due to be paid after this season, is there pressure for the Spurs to win it all this season?
Sham Smith, Bulls.com: We saw Tua Tagovailoa coming off the bench last year to lead your 2nd unit. After a positive training camp for Tua, what will his role be on this team for the 2025-2026 season?
Wombataholic wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:12 pm
Since the Spurs are over the luxury tax apron and a number of players due to be paid after this season, is there pressure for the Spurs to win it all this season?
I guess in a sense there is pressure to win it all this season but there is always pressure to win in this business whether the Taxman is looking for his money or not. After this season some of the guys that are coming off the books may not return but we will have to wait til that time comes to determine what we are going to do. Right now we are hoping this team we put together can win games and hopefully a title
garbageman wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:18 pmSham Smith, Bulls.com: We saw Tua Tagovailoa coming off the bench last year to lead your 2nd unit. After a positive training camp for Tua, what will his role be on this team for the 2025-2026 season?
We will start Tua to start this season at the 3 and go from there. Tua has worked hard this off season and I think we should reward him with a starting spot. He's earned it. We may even experiment with him playing the Manu Ginobili role this season if that gives our team the best chance at winning games
What are your theories on how Al Horford still continues to play at an All Star level at the age of 40? How long do you expect him to remain as a Rocket?
JNR wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:05 pm
You seem to have a glut of bigs led by Vernon Desantis. Are you thinking of trading them for help elsewhere?
I have a ton of bigs because I want to make sure I have a defensive and rebounding presence on the court. Defense was lacking last season and needed to be addressed. My team could score with anyone last season but couldn't stop anyone from doing the same. Hopefully adding Desantis will help on the defensive side of things on the back end meaning blocking or altering shots and no 2nd chance opportunities.
NOLa. wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:08 pm
What are your theories on how Al Horford still continues to play at an All Star level at the age of 40? How long do you expect him to remain as a Rocket?
Horford is on performance enhancing drugs IMO. We will request to send USADA to the rockets facility to investigate why he is still blue at 40. I expect him to be rocket 2 more seasons and retire as a Blue/Blue player. Then someone within the rockets organization coming out with a book talking about how during the latter part of his career he was on roids.
false9 wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:50 pm
The power poll has you on top of over the defending champs. Do you consider yourself the favorite for the title?
I feel like we have a shot to win it but there are so many things that can happen during a 82 game season. Even tho The polls has our team at the top we still have to play the actual games. I am not going to consider this team as a favorite at the moment.
Xist2Inspire wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:11 pmRandom Reporter: What's the one thing you feel your team absolutely has to do in order to win out and reach the Finals?
Play defense. Last season we could score a lot of points but could not stop anyone. I feel if our team defense plays at a high level we will be in a great position to contend for a title. I still feel like with this roster we can put up a lot of points.