There is something special brewing in San Antonio...

There's something special brewing in San Antonio as we are seeing the ascension of a young superstar that we have talked about so much on this channel but today just highlighted more and more of what we're going to see here in the future. We have Spurs post-game talk and the game is still going on as I'm recording. The reason why I am doing this now here at Kingdom Warner Spurs Digest is we saw what we needed to see we know some of the bench players are going to be playing right now but we saw the main rotation guys play for a good majority of this game and we're going to speak on that when a lot of the guys came out the Dylan Harper Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, all of them you get the Jordan McLaughlin's in Luke Cornett Harrison Barnes and the role players are playing for the remainder of the game it looks like this was the score of the game and we're going to dive deep into this game exactly how the Spurs got to this point obviously they were down six would they have won the game we don't know most likely they have a lot of really good players on it but Jalen Green, Luke Kennard and the Phoenix Suns were putting up points Malawach had 13 14 rebounds ish already during the time period that the actual starters were playing but before all that there is a guy on the screen that we're going to need to talk about in full and Dylan Harper is the guy Dylan Harper the way that he played today he mimics somebody and looked like somebody that is an all-time great and we're going to discuss that here in just a second but before we do that we've got to talk about the fact that Dylan Harper's sixth man of the year is there trade $25 for a massive payout for that and it has a really good chance of being a yes and truly hitting that mark and this video is sponsored by Calshi on Calshi you're trading directly against other users not the house like traditional sports books buying yes or no on contracts outcomes events whether it's the weather politics legitimately pretty much anything an example here seeing Dylan Harper there or the Spurs to get to 60 wins on the season and if you're interested in trying out Calshi use the link in the description in the pinned comment and use code Digest NBA to get 55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25 thank you to Calshi for sponsoring this video and thank you for Dylan Harper for reminding me of this guy when i was watching dylan harper today on the floor i saw the armband you see the fro you see like the goatee ish and you're like wait a second I feel like I've seen that before from a young star from a young stud and it's Kobe and we're going to deep dive into Dylan Harper in the Kobe comparison and why I think that his trajectory and his peak is actually Kobe but um we're gonna dive into that here and then we're gonna talk about some of the other players because it wasn't just Dylan Harper who played today we had a lot of players obviously who played for the San Antonio Spurs today but Kobe Bean Bryant rest in peace to the late great Kobe Bean Bryant just an absolutely amazing ambassador of the game of basketball the work ethic when you talk about squeezing every single ounce that you possibly can out of a career that's what this guy had but the tenacity the ability to get downhill the ability to hit jump shots to get off of the dribble to be able to do so much athletically at the rim he the ability to pass even though he obviously we think of Kobe as just a shooter and the score and the way and the mamba mentality and relentless he could still pass to uh just all of that encompasses who Kobe is and there's an interesting comparison that I wanted to make here with Kobe this might be a little bit harder for you to see so I'll explain it guys Kobe's per 36 a minute we know obviously as a rookie he came in he wasn't a highly he didn't play high minutes in his first year or really even in his second year as much obviously and then he continued to grow and grow and grew into the player that we know and love now I wanted to pull his per 36 and I wanted to pull that because he was averaging 17 4 and 3 in his per 36 moments as a rookie so putting up production not shooting the most efficient from the floor only 41 percent on 37 percent from three during that stretch year two that jumped up to about 21 points per game four rebounds five or three and a half assists there this is in that per 36 mold he was second in six man of the year in year two and an all-star you're trying Dylan Harper has that kind of capability in the talents in which to go do those types of things I mean Dylan Harper the way he plays the way he gets downhill it mimics a little bit of that Kobe style he's got that swagger he's got that confidence in the same kind of way and I think the progression can be very similar we didn't think Kobe was going to be what he ended up being but he was that Dylan Harper I see so many flashes of him where it's like he plays under control he's more mature than for his age he just the way that he plays is just it's just too good almost the way he plays I love seeing it but let's talk about more than just Dylan Harper here let's talk about the game in which we just saw so throughout the entirety of that stretch where the main starters were playing they shot a little bit worse from the floor they didn't shoot great from three only 32 percent they did shoot well from the free throw line got a little bit out rebounded but the assists were there which is what you like to see what you don't love to see is nine turnovers throughout that because that's pretty much on pace for 14 to 16 depending you don't love that but you also don't hate that especially in a 48 minute NBA game Dylan Harper over that stretch of the first half he had 13 2 and 3 played extremely well in the first half in just the first half box Wemby nine and five Castle nine five and four Champagny had seven Keldon four off the bench Harrison Barnes six and you got a grasp of what this team can look like but it's going to be different obviously when De'Aaron Fox comes back into the lineup when he is starting there most likely we still don't know exactly how things are going to go and then you go to the box for the entirety of the game of which the starters played harper got to 15 wemby 13 7 and 6 castle 13 7 and 5 julian champagny 10 i liked the way that the spurs were able to play you saw during the game what some of their best lineups were throughout it in this first half especially some of their best lineups there the castle champagny harper Vassell, Wemby, the starting five they didn't get off to a good start so that's where that plus minus is down but the Champagny, Harper, Johnson, Vassell and Wemby when Harper was the main creator you saw that lineup working well when the Barnes, Champagny, Johnson, Wemby you saw the lineups with either Castle and Harper as that main guy working well when they were together didn't work as well obviously super small sample size it's a five minute stretch obviously they didn't start the game really well so that's where that comes down to but this San Antonio Spurs team when it comes to the game couple things that I wanted to really mention and wanted to bring up here too Victor Wembanyama don't love him continuing to be a point center there is a lot of times where you saw him bringing the ball up the court and yes he has the ability to do that but you'd prefer it to be in the Charles Barkley sense where it's the get the rebound get out and run and I can lead the break in transition rather than there were some times where it was off of a make and you would see Wemby or off of a rebound but a slow up and they're still trying to get into a half court set where Wemby is bringing the ball up the floor obviously he had the six assists today but those are the things that led to the lack of execution late in games where he was putting himself way too far away from the basket so he had to take contested threes instead of being able to get to that mid-range there was a shot right before the end of the half that Dylan Harper was able to get the ball to Wemby had a little push shot elbow shot that i really liked it was a i am just really tall long and athletic and i can get this shot over anybody at any given time i think those are the things that you need to lean into more obviously again it's a pre-season game that you can't read too much into we don't have the full requisite team together playing on the floor at the time but those are the little things where you kind of check out tendencies and that's the big thing about preseason what is going on what are the tendencies who is seeing what are they doing that is different from last year what are the things that it looks like they're starting to work on obviously when game one starts we're going to see a whole new pretty much system and what the Spurs plan on their point of attack being this year those are the things that really stood out to me one more thing that did stick out to me too Vazell played regular Champagne played regular Cornette did exactly what you expected Keldon did exactly what you expected that Wemby bringing the ball up the Dylan Harper and the Kobe mindset and like just the thought of what Dylan Harper's confidence in year two is already becoming and then Stephon Castle was really not hesitant on some threes like it was just catch and shoot like he's confident in that three which I like obviously you don't want him to fall in love with it because right now he is not a proven shooter but you don't want him to take threes where it's like oh let me hesitate here oh let me I'm not sure about it you saw in the playoffs when he was really rolling from three it was when he was just catching and letting that thing go he did that multiple times today he didn't make every three that he took I believe we'll see right here what he was I don't fully remember off top of my head yet one of three from three 33 that's typically where he lives but i like the way that he just catched and he shot it that first one snapped the net because of it but overall the san antonio spurs playing like the san antonio spurs do i think that they're going to have a very good season they're going to be a contender of course Dylan Harper the intention is there i like the way that this team is looking i'm really interested to see what adjustments mitch Johnson makes with the lineup throughout the year what he makes with the rotations throughout the year how he gets the offense rolling because those are the big things that led to us not hoisting the Larry O'Brien last year and things that need to change if we're going to be hoisting the Larry O'Brien this year but let me know what you guys thought in the comments about this game did you actually like it love it hate it are you still enjoying it right now or is it over as this is when you're watching it, whatever the case may be. But I appreciate every single one of you. This has been Spurs Digest with your host, Keenan Warner. I appreciate all of you guys, and I'll be seeing you guys again very soon.