San Antonio Spurs: 3 big questions heading into 2019-20

How will the young core pan out?

Any San Antonio Spurs fan or viewer should be talking about the young core. The word that will come about the most has to be the universal, and exhaustingly used “underrated,” although it reigns true in this case.

For example, theringer.com released its complete rankings of the NBA’s young cores and put San Antonio at No. 15. This was based on FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO ratings, an algorithm for predicting future seasons.

So you have to fight computers on this one, but FiveThirtyEight’s preseason rankings have usually gotten the Spurs wrong.

The young core (we can say players that are 25 and under and expected to contribute to the team) consists of guards Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and Derrick White. Frontcourt players Jakob Poeltl, Chimezie Metu and Trey Lyles also hold it down.

I’m comfortable leaving the rookies off of this list for the time being. The Spurs aren’t going to be looking to Luka Samanic, Keldon Johnson or Quinndary Weatherspoon to supply quality help.

Dejounte Murray is the clear piece in the future of the organization. He averaged 13.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per 36 minutes in his sophomore season, and the hype around him was strong, even post-injury.

If he plays close to every game this season and handles more minutes well, Murray should break into a new level.

This question needs to be at least half answered this season, let me explain. This isn’t the year that the Spurs need to get to the Western Conference Finals. This is the year where they need to show growth and a clear plan for the future.

“Will the young core pan out?” can’t be answered in one season, but you can start to answer it.

You can’t judge players off their first one or two seasons in the league, and I am a firm believer that you can’t judge teams off of their first one or two seasons playing together.

This will be the first season where the Spurs get to display their young talent, so can they get on the path of a ground-up, farm style of growth? The Spurs are looking to the draft and their development team in order to become elite again.