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1 week ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Bill Huan
Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: I’ll give them a 7, with context. If you were told coming into the season that Victor Webmanyama would only appear in 46 games, and they would all come in the first “half” of the season, you probably wouldn’t have guessed they’d still come within a game of their preseason Vegas predictions with 34 wins.
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2 weeks ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Bill Huan
Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: After looking so hopelessly lost last season, I’m surprised the Pistons not only leapt out of the cellar, but all the way up to securing a playoff spot— not play-in, PLAYOFF. It’s the leap we hoped the Spurs could make with similar off-season moves to add veterans, but injuries got in the way. Kudos to the job J.B. Bickerstaff has done. My surprise bad team would be the Suns.
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3 weeks ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Jacob Douglas
Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: When there was no clearly defined top prospect last year, there was room to talk about swapping picks as high as number one. This is not one of those years. While Cooper Flagg is no Victor Wembanyama, he is clearly the top pick with the potential to be a franchise player, and teams who win the lottery don’t just give that away.
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2 months ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Jacob Douglas
Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: I didn’t have a problem with it since they needed a fourth team, and unless this tournament format is here to stay (I bet it’s not), there isn’t any reason to widen the All-Star selection pool (especially since, in some cases, it can have implications on how much a max contract is worth — whether it should or not is a story for another day).
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2 months ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Bill Huan
Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: He would be an upgrade who would help with some of the team’s offensive woes, but I do not believe he is the piece that puts it all together for the Spurs, so the asking price has to be right. The Kings reportedly covet Stephon Castle, but the Spurs do too, and I don’t think they are anywhere close to ready to part with him.
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2 months ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: There’s always a chance, but the odds seem relatively slim at this point. Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan seem like the two players with the most potential to have a “breakout” season where they either wow the fans or coaches enough to get that one-time vote or slip in as an injury replacement (like Dejounte Murray in 2022), but a few things will have to happen.
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2 months ago | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Bill Huan
Rob Gray-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: You could make an argument either way. Obviously Nikola Jokic belongs, then it comes down to whether or not you believe LeBron James and/or Kevin Durant got in based on “legacy” votes more than on-court performance. In other words, are fans (and players, in this case) going to keep voting for them until they just aren’t on the ballot anymore because they’re legends?
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez |Marilyn Dubinski |Mark Barrington |Bill Huan
Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images Marilyn Dubinski: It’s definitely a success when you look back at preseason expectations (not to mention the strength of schedule), and at the time most considered .500 to be their absolute ceiling, and yet they’ve made it look easy (until recently).
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez
Scott Wachter-Imagn Images The Spurs missed the opportunity to get a quality win against a contender. Despite leading by 12 at the half, they couldn’t hold off the Grizzlies’ comeback and lost 129-115 at home. Rookie Stephon Castle recorded a career-high 27 points but it wasn’t enough to overcome a poor defensive performance against an elite offensive team.
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
poundingtherock.com | Jeje Gomez
Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images Stephon Castle returned to the starting lineup in two of the Spurs’ last four games due to an injury to Jeremy Sochan. The rookie shot 25 percent from the floor in those two matchups, made just one of nine of his three-pointers and had some bad moments on defense. His performance off the bench in between both starts wasn’t much better. In the past four games, San Antonio has come out on top once, an inspiring win over the Nuggets, and has lost the other three.
