New Year’s Resolutions for key members of the San Antonio Spurs

San Antonio Spurs Keldon Johnson Lonnie Walker Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

The San Antonio Spurs look improved from last season, but each of the key guys could use a New Year’s resolution to help the team succeed.

With the most unusual and unpredictable year of our lives finally coming to a close, we can finally say good riddance to 2020. After the NBA finally returned from its hiatus in the Orlando bubble, the San Antonio Spurs saw themselves with an unlikely path to the playoffs. For the first time in over two decades, the Silver and Black missed out on the postseason. A strange, strange year indeed.

Five games into the 2021 season, the Spurs find themselves in the playoff hunt at 2-3 (it’s early, and those numbers mean close to nothing at this point in the season). With that being said, we have enough game film from the bubble and from the beginning of this season to give our New Year’s Resolution for each player. We start with the team’s leading scorer.

DeMar DeRozan – Gain 3-point consistency

This is the least shocking one on the list: Continue to develop the three. DeMar DeRozan has attempted 13 treys so far this season, converting on seven of them. Those aren’t crazy numbers by any means, but it’s encouraging for DeRozan, who is notoriously allergic to the triple.

It’s important not to get ahead of ourselves with DeMar. In his first season in San Antonio, he attempted nine triples through the first three games of the season. He launched 32 of his 45 attempts that season through the first 22 games and then only attempted 13 threes in the last 60.

If DeMar continues this pace, he’ll attempt the third-most threes of his career. It’ll help his game age better as he enters the twilight of his career, and it’ll help the spacing for his teammates this season immensely. The Spurs have shot the fourth-least long bombs to start the season. Any consistency he can sustain from beyond the arc will clear up driving lanes and inevitably more open looks from deep for their better shooters in Lonnie Walker IV, Patty Mills, and Keldon Johnson.

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