The San Antonio Spurs are 1-2 to start their season and have come under fire for their insistence on starting Dylan Harper alongside Stephon Castle and De'Aaron Fox. Last year, they won the Western Conference and plowed through the regular season with a steady starting five.

This season, despite retaining all five starters, Mitch Johnson has opted to replace Julian Champagnie with Harper. The resulting play, especially from the second unit without an established floor general, has been poor.

Still, the Spurs know that they have 79 more games to go, and figure that having their five best players on the floor to start each game is a winning recipe. Devin Vassell understands that there will be some growing pains, but he remains optimistic. 

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Vassell is the best shooter on the roster and a more-than-capable defender. So far this season, he's averaging 9.3 points per game on inefficient shooting, but his ability to get out in transition and defend some of the better wings in the NBA makes him incredibly valuable.

In fact, his plus/minus per 100 possessions is second on the Spurs, behind only Victor Wembanyama. He expects things to get better, but knows it'll be an uphill battle.

"It's definitely an adjustment," he said of playing alongside Harper, Fox, and Castle. "It's all working pieces. I think that it's going to be great. We can all switch. We can all guard. We can all push the ball off the floor. It just takes time, and we've never really played with this lineup, so it's three games down. We have a lot more games to go. I'm excited for it, but we've got to get Vic more involved. We talked about it in the film. We'll see where he can get more touches, and we can help him out with rolling and getting to the basket, but I'm excited for it."

Wembanyama, it seems, is not touching the ball nearly as much as he should, and when he does, he's often 30 feet away from the basket. Despite having three point guards, Castle is the only true pass-first guy, and the lack of spacing is catching up to them.

To Vassell's credit, he knows he's being asked simply to knock down shots on offense and let his defense speak for itself.

"I try to mold my game into whatever the team needs," he added. "If that's being a spacer, if that's being a dog on defense, whatever the case may be, whatever the team needs in that game, that's what I'm going to try to do."