The San Antonio Spurs have rebuilt their core, but kept players from the dark days of the rebuild. The players still on the roster learned to adapt.
In the seasons leading up to drafting Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs emptied the coffers. Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, Jakob Poeltl, and Josh Richardson were all high-volume players in San Antonio, but the Spurs opted to move on from them.
Reasons for the trades included their value being higher than it should have been, a tanking effort, and the simple fact that transitioning some of them to a smaller role would have been a bigger headache than it would have been worth.
Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson remained on the roster, and both have slotted into a smaller role. Both were once seen as franchise centerpieces. Vassell is now safely the fourth option in the starting lineup, and Johnson is now one of the best players in the NBA.
Both have managed to take the "demotion" in stride.
Devin Vassell Is Happy to Take a Back Seat
The year before Wembanyama was drafted, Vassell averaged 15.7 shots per game, and his usage rate sat at 24.4 percent. This season, he's still a starter, but only gets 11.3 shots per game, and his usage rate has dropped to 18 percent.
He's very much aware that he still plays a key role, although taking a back seat has been instrumental to the Spurs' winning.
"Obviously, the roles are a lot different for sure, but whenever coach asks me to get a bucket or settle the team down or do something like that, I know he has all the trust in me because I was in those positions years and years, so it's molded me into the player that I am today, and I don't have to go out there and shoot 20 shots like I used to do," he explained.
The Spurs have long had a "next man up" mentality, and even though the offense isn't flowing through Vassell every game, he knows that anyone on the roster--himself included--is always ready to step up.
"We have so many great players who come in," Vassell added. "I mean, Steph having a game that he had to close out the series, Fox, Dylan, I could go down the line. Everybody's just been playing so great, so I just come in and step up when my number is called."
In Vassell's six seasons and Johnson's seven, the Spurs have never made the playoffs. Now, in their first postseason appearance as a unit, they've made the Western Conference Finals and will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder.