Welcome to the latest edition of The Rundown, where the start of the San Antonio Spurs’ 2025-26 regular season is just hours away. Here’s what we have in store for this edition:
Tuesday, the Spurs and Dallas Mavericks released their injury reports for their opening night game on Wednesday.
For the Spurs, there weren’t too many surprises, with De’Aaron Fox (hamstring), Jeremy Sochan (wrist), Lindy Waters III (eye procedure), and Kelly Olynyk (heel) all ruled out for Wednesday.
The expectation was that Fox, Sochan, and Waters III would be out, but there was a thought that Olynyk might be ready for opening night. It appears he’s not, after he missed all of training camp and the preseason recovering from heel surgery back in April.
For the Mavs, Kyrie Irving (left knee surgery) and Dante Exum (right knee) will be out. Daniel Gafford is listed as doubtful with a right ankle sprain.
Before the preseason started, I had a series going where I was looking at upcoming questions this season for some Spurs players. I began with questions for the projected starters, then moved on to players expected to come off the bench at the guard and wing positions. In the final installment, let’s look at questions for three players expected to come off the bench in the frontcourt: Luke Kornet, Sochan, and Olynyk.
Let’s begin with a player who will be both the backup center for the team and also spend some time on the floor with Victor Wembanyama, Kornet.
Kornet’s career average is 5.2 points per game, and last season with Boston, he averaged six points off the bench. Based on what we saw in the preseason, Kornet looks like he’s going to get plenty of opportunity to achieve this, with how he was able to crash the offensive glass for putbacks, and how he can finish with alley-oop dunks and layups off the passes from creators like Wemby, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper.
It was just the preseason, but Kornet averaged 12.6 points off the bench, which doubles what he averaged last season.
Kornet almost met this mark last season with the Celtics, averaging 2.6 offensive boards per game. Again, based on what we saw in the preseason (3.6 offensive boards), he should get plenty of chances with the Spurs to achieve this objective, especially since he’s usually rolling and ending up in the paint when any of his teammates put up shots.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Sochan plays, since Sochan also likes to roll and hover in the dunker spot. He, too, is known to go after the offensive boards, so that may mean fewer opportunities for Kornet.
Kornet has averaged one block per game in the last two seasons in a backup center role. Given his status as the backup center with the Spurs and his role as the drop big when playing alongside Wemby, this goal should be achievable for him this season.
To get the answer to this question at the end of the season, I’m going to use the percentiles available on CleaningTheGlass.com. When I say defensive anchor, I want to filter out what the Spurs’ defense looks like this season when Kornet is playing the five and Wemby is off the floor. Basically, can the Spurs still maintain a solid defense even when Wemby rests? That hasn’t been the case in the past, but Kornet could help change that.
Early on in the preseason, it looks like we’re going to see a lot of the Kornet-Wemby frontcourt lineup. As the season progresses, I’m eager to see what the Net Rating will be for the double big lineup, and by the end of the season, if it’s a lineup Head Coach Mitch Johnson sticks with all season long.
This is going to be a tougher one because Kornet comes off the bench, but if he has a good month protecting the rim and rebounding, can he at least get some votes as a nominee for the Defensive Player of the Month in any of the months during the season?
While 33% isn’t a highly efficient number, it at least means a shooter is getting one point per shot on their outside attempts. This would be a big step forward for Sochan, who is a career 29% outside shooter and shot 30.8% last season.
Sochan averaged 2.4 offensive boards per game last season, but now, with the addition of Kornet, he’ll have some competition in going for those second chances. Wemby has also been crashing the offensive glass a bit more in the preseason, and that’s also a part of Olynyk’s game, too.
Similar to Kornet, this will be a challenging task for Sochan, since he’s likely to come off the bench. Sochan is known for his 1-on-1 defense and versatility, as he can defend guards to big men. During any month of the season, does the league take notice and give Sochan a nomination for the Defensive Player of the Month award?
This one primarily comes down to how much Sochan’s outside shot has improved this season. If there isn’t a dramatic improvement, this becomes very challenging. Another way he might be able to start is if the Spurs’ defense isn’t meeting expectations and they need to add a better defender, like Sochan.
During the 2023-24 season, Sochan played in 74 games. In his other two seasons, he’s played fewer than 60 games in each of those seasons. Can he remain relatively healthy this season and meet the 65-game mark, which is the mark used for awards during the regular season?
Sochan is already going to miss opening night due to a new wrist injury he sustained last week.
Sochan will very likely remain on the team all season long, but since the Spurs did not sign him to a contract extension on Monday, we need to ask this question. If Sochan doesn’t show improvement and he finds himself out of the rotation during the season, this question will get much more interesting before the February trade deadline.
37.1% is Olynyk’s career average in accuracy from three. With a role off the bench this season and select minutes, can he make the most of his outside opportunities when presented with long-distance shots? Whether he plays alongside Kornet or Wemby, he’s likely going to end up spacing the floor when sharing the court with either player.
The 2.5 assists are also Olynyk’s career average. With his ability to find cutters, run some pick-and-roll, and use dribble hand-offs, this could end up being an achievable number if he gets a good chunk of playing time.
Since we still didn’t get to see Olynyk play in the preseason due to injury, I’m eager to know what his role will be. Does he get into games against certain matchups, or is he a regular part of the nightly rotation when everyone is healthy?
This one goes back to the previous question. Initially, I think the answer is he shares more minutes next to Kornet. However, I could also see him playing in quarters where the Spurs need a big man who can space next to Victor against teams that really like to pack the paint.
As I mentioned when I started this series, I’ll be revisiting these pieces in April once the regular season has concluded to find the answers.
