The Spurs need to prioritize offensive talent this offseason

PATFO is known for valuing defense above all else, but this season has shown they need to focus on offense more.

20 years ago was the pinnacle of NBA defenses. The average points per game scored across the league in the 2003-04 season was just 93.4: the lowest for a non-lockout season since the introduction of the shot clock in 1954. The second coming of the Detroit Bad Boys won the championship, and that was followed up by a matchup between them and the “boring” Spurs in 2005, leading to seven straight defensive slugfests and one of the lowest-viewed NBA Finals ever.

Since then, the NBA has embraced the entertaining side of the game more by empowering offenses, three-pointers have become much more common, and scoring today is at its highest in 60 years. It’s gotten so out of hand that the NBA’s Competition Committee is reportedly looking for ways to bring some balance back to the game (a good place to start would be allowing a little more physicality and eliminate foul baiting), but no matter what they do, it’s a era, offense his here to stay, and the Spurs are going to be left behind if they don’t adjust.

The old saying goes that defense wins championships. That was true for the Spurs’ five championships and remains true today. Look no further than the fact that the top four teams in the standings — the Celtics, Timberwolves, Thunder and Cavaliers — are also the top four teams in defensive rating this season, but here’s the thing: in this day and age, you also have to score enough no matter how good your defense is, and the Spurs just don’t have the personnel to keep up.

They score a paltry (by today’s standards) 112 points per game and haven’t won a single game when scoring under 113 points this season, going 0-27. And although their defense has improved since moving Victor Wembanyama to center, providing some hope for the future, they’re still allowing 120.6 points (for reference, only five teams average more points per game than that). It’s not surprising that a team with that wide of a point-differential gap isn’t going to win many games, so the Spurs have to do something to only close the gab, but reverse it as well.

One thing Gregg Popovich has always been known for is valuing defensive talent, and when looking back through the Spurs draft history under his guidance, they have almost never drafted a player who was known for his offense over defense, or at least lacked defensive upside. They have certainly drafted players who turned into much better scorers than they foresaw. Kawhi Leonard and possibly Devin Vassell would be good examples, but even then they were both drafted for their defensive upside and tantalizing wingspans, with their offensive ceilings at the time projected as glorified 3-and-D players.

Otherwise, when scanning through their recent draft history, the only first round picks that were seen as scorers first and foremost when the Spurs drafted them are Lonnie Walker and Malaki Branham. Unfortunately, Walker never found a level of consistency and is now a journeyman role player, and so far, Branham isn’t looking much more promising (but there’s still plenty of time for both). In fact, before Victor Wembanyama, you theoretically have to go all the way back to Tony Parker to find the last player that the Spurs said “we want this guy to be a scorer” when they drafted him, and it worked out.

All their other first round draft picks that are relevant to this era — Jeremy Sochan, Blake Wesley, and Keldon Johnson (and even Josh Primo in a universe where he doesn’t sink his career with the Spurs), plus notable second round picks like Tre Jones and Sidy Cissoko — were drafted for their defensive upside or at least potential two-way potential, not scoring, and this is why the Spurs are struggling to keep up with today’s NBA offenses. Yes, defense still matters plenty as noted above, but you simply aren’t going to defend your way to victory these days without the offense to back it up.

As a result, the Spurs’ main focus this summer needs to be finding more scorers, be it through the draft, free agency, and/or a trade. They are the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA and traded away their most reliable outside shooter in Doug McDermott at the deadline for no immediate help. It takes multiple players catching fire for the Spurs to win games, which is not sustainable and certainly not a recipe for long-term success. There may be more internal growth in that department from players like Sochan and Jones, but even then the Spurs need many more upgrades on offense.

The good news is notable voices like Jeff McDonald are saying you should not expect them to run it back next season, and they will look to upgrade. They stuck to their word that this would be an “observation” season to see what would work with Wemby (although Pop probably made a mistake when he said the goal was to get back to winning, which raised expectations), but if they’ve learned anything, it’s that this isn’t it. He needs other scorers and playmakers to get him the ball and take defensive pressure off of him, and the Spurs in general need to catch up with today’s NBA offenses.

None of this is to say they should stop prioritizing defense — they still are far from good enough on that end to be a contender as well — they just need to start treating both sides of the court more equally. One thing that hasn’t changed in the last 20 years is with rare exception, championship teams have had both top 10 defenses AND offenses, and right now, the Spurs have neither. In fact, they’re nowhere close.