Trois de faits
Aperture - We didn’t know what the future would hold when De’Aaron Fox, through his agent, Rich Paul, requested a trade from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs midway through the 2024-25 season. At the time, we were starting a 39-year-old point guard (albeit a legendary one) and evaluating how capable our rookie combo guard had the potential to be on the ball initiating offense (turned out…extremely capable). I mean, let’s face it. Just a season and a half before Fox’s trade request, the-man-the-myth-the-legend himself, Coach Pop, had an extremely rare tactical miscue when he attempted to start Jeremy Sohan at point guard at the beginning of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season (2023-24). The experiment proved to be a failure that stunted both Jeremy and Wemby’s development (just a tiny bit on the latter). So yeah, when you are only that far removed from being the laughing stock of the league at the point guard position and the opportunity presents itself to trade for an all-star and clutch player of the year caliber point guard right smack dab in the middle of his prime without giving up any of your most-prized assets, it’s a no-brainer. You do it 100 times out of 100. The Spurs didn’t become the second-winningest NBA franchise of all-time (to date) and win the fifth-most championships (to date) by whiffing on the easy decisions. On February 3rd, 2025, the San Antonio Spurs traded Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Sidy Cissoko, three of the least valuable in our stockpile of first round picks and three second round picks for De’Aaron Fox and Jordan McLaughlin in a three-way trade with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls.
If San Antonio Spurs general manager Brian Wright had had the magical power to see into the future and know that a mere four months later, the franchise would have the basketball gods smile down fondly upon us yet again to bless us with a third-straight year of lottery luck and the number two overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft (with a point guard as the consensus number two prospect in the draft class), of course he might have paused to consider if we might be better served to keep our powder dry and hold on to the assets we were going to need to give up to secure Fox’s services in case they might be better allocated later to pursue needs at other positions. If Wright had known then that in a mere five months he was about to draft Dillon Harper, he might have paused to consider Swipa-ing left on Fox, but I think he has proven he’s a savvy enough team builder to have known 100 times out of 100 includes the one in a hundred time where you can have your cake and eat it too. In the sorcerous world where the Spurs’ general manager had the magical power to see our Dylan Harper future during the moment he had the De’Aaron Fox trade deal sitting on the table, he pulls the trigger regardless.
On Sunday afternoon at the Moda Center in Portland, De’Aaron “Swipa” Martez Fox officially silenced all of the critics, doubters, naysayers, and unapologetic haters who view him as an expendable overpaid underwhelming pseudo star whose acquisition is now serving as a roadblock for Dylan Harper getting the keys to the car. The player of the game dropped a cool, calm, and collected 28 points (a lion’s share of them during a furious second half comeback) along with seven assists, six rebounds, one steal and two incredible blocks to lead the Spurs to the largest halftime-to-final turnaround in NBA playoff history. Fox was at the controls for roughly 20 of the 24 second half minutes on Sunday orchestrating the high-octane explosion of dominant offensive execution that propelled us back from a 17 point halftime deficit to a 73-35 (+38) second half and a 21 point victory that puts us up 3-1 in the series heading back home for Game 5. Head Coach Mitch Johnson said in his postgame press conference that Game 4 against the Blazers “might have been his (DeAaron’s) best game as a Spur.” Do I wish our 2025-26 roster construction allowed for Dylan Harper to have a bigger role playing more minutes? Of course, I think every Spurs fan does. Nonetheless, it’s performances like the one De’Aaron had on Sunday that remind all fans across the “Fox is Great/Fox is Trash” spectrum (full transparency, I find myself pulled to both extremes from time to time but mostly hovering firmly left of middle) how integral he was to the team’s 28 game regular season improvement this season over last and how unquestionably vital he is to San Antonio having realistic postseason title ambitions way ahead of schedule. Part of what we brought him into our program for was to be a veteran leader who we could rely on to have ice in his veins during clutch playoff situations. It took him a little bit longer to get revved up than expected but as of our 114-93 Game 4 come-from-way-behind second consecutive first round road playoff victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Swipa the Fox has arrived.
As dominant as De’Aaron and the offense were in the second half on Sunday, it takes more than one side of the ball to have a half where you outscore a playoff opponent by 38 points in 24 minutes. As mentioned above, Fox had two seemingly out of nowhere impressive blocks and a steal to add a little two-way spice to his epic performance. Of course, we can always rely on Stephon Castle to bring the pit bull point of attack perimeter defense. He did that effectively once again in Game 4 and while it didn’t necessarily translate to the box score (only one rebound and one steal), he played a role in limiting Scoot Henderson to an eye-popping ZERO points on 0-7 shooting in 27 minutes but more critically, his harassment of Deni Avdija got under the Blazer all-star’s skin culminating in a late sequence where Avdija was checking Steph on the perimeter (with obnoxious aggression haphazardly slapping his arms repeatedly trying to force a steal with Portland down 112 points and a little over two minutes left to make them up) and Steph drove right through him and got all the way to the basket for an “and one” layup. Being the good sportsman that he is, Castle politely handed the ball back to Deni so the Blazers could inbound under their own basket but or some reason, the Israeli small forward they call “Turbo” took exception to Steph’s kind gesture and shoved the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year for his troubles. Not being know as someone who is ever going to back down (and someone the likes of Avdija probably doesn’t want to mess with), Steph shoved him back resulting in double technicals. This about the point in a seven game series where we can expect the “who can get under the opponent’s skin enough to get them rattled” mind games to begin. Advantage Castle.
It goes without saying but, as well as the Spurs played defensively as a group in the second half of Game 4, there was one singular reason why the Blazers squandered their entire 17-point halftime lead within a matter of minutes and could only muster 35 second half points altogether. Welcome back, Victor Wembanyama. We didn’t get an alien sighting in the PNW on Friday night but we surely did on Sunday afternoon. Finally cleared on Sunday from concussion protocols, the greatest defensive force on the planet (perhaps the greatest defensive force in the history of the planet) was utterly breathtaking on that end of the court in the second half of Game 4. Wemby had 11 defensive rebounds, seven soul-crushing blocks and four back-breaking steals but that doesn’t tell the whole story because he completely discombobulated everything Portland wanted to do on offense. It was a masterclass by the 22-year-old. As if that weren’t enough insult to injury for the Moda Center crowd who (up 17) had just spent halftime making their Game 6 plans, Vic hit them on the other end with 27 points (9-17 from the field, 8-8 from the line), three assists, and one offensive rebound in the first 34 road playoff minutes of his career. It’s often said that, with a few rare exceptions, it’s proven to be a requirement for a team to have a first-team all-NBA super duper mega star to realistically have a shot at winning a championship. Well loyal readers, I’m happy to report…the #BlackAndSilver have one and then some.
With a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the Spurs are back in San Antonio tonight to attempt to end the Portland Trail Blazers season at the Frost Bank Center. For a young group on their first playoff journey together, this will be another first. We have not yet experienced the desperation of a playoff team with their backs against the wall facing elimination as a group. I fully expect Deni Avjida, Scoot Henderson, and company to come out swinging and fight like their lives depend on it. I fully expect them to do everything in the power to get this series back to Oregon by stealing one tonight. Even though we’ve already had to play 1.75 games without our MVP candidate in this series, this will be the hardest game in the series thus far for us to win. Closeout games are always harder. That being said, if we come out focused and draw energy from another raucous crowd letting off more “seven years since we last made the playoffs” steam, we have an excellent opportunity to end the series and should have full confidence that this special group will get the job done and get some rest before the next round. The Denver Nuggets kept their season alive last night winning at home to cut Minnesota’s series lead to 3-2 and forcing at least a Game 6 for either of our potential second round opponents. That’s all I’ll say on the matter for now because you never want to look ahead when there’s still work to be done in the here and now. Tonight, we have an opportunity to punch our ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2017. Tonight, we have the opportunity to show the world that our title contention window has arrived. Tonight, we have the opportunity to let ‘em know.
Featured Image Source: Pitchfork
Headline Image Source: Yahoo Sports
