The San Antonio Spurs are 0-2 to start the NBA preseason and will take on Darryn Peterson and the Utah Jazz on Monday night. In both games, Dylan Harper was given a starring role in the absence of De'Aaron Fox, who was scratched from both games with soreness.

Even though both games so far resulted in a loss, the reception couldn't have been more different. In the opener against the Atlanta Hawks, the Spurs' starters jumped out to an early 23-point lead, giving the reserves and rookies plenty of time to play. Against the Phoenix Suns, the Spurs came out flat, with the star players getting blamed for the loss.

After spending the offseason making it clear that they will use the Finals loss as fuel for the season, the Spurs still do not look very motivated to win. Getting Fox back in the starting lineup should help light a fire.

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After scoring a cool 16 and 15 points in the first two games, Harper looks like the starting point guard. It should be up to Fox to steal that job back, not on Harper to prove that he belongs.

Meaningless preseason games are exactly where Fox can set the tone. The Spurs have made it clear that they lack the fire to compete in preseason.

"The motivation is just not skipping steps," said Castle. "Last year, I don't think we skipped any steps from preseason to the start of the season; whatever it was, it kind of shaped our identity. We started to figure it out towards the end of December, mid-January is when we really started to figure it out. I think we'll do the same thing here."

Guys like Castle, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama don't have much to prove until the season starts. Their roles are securely locked up. It's the guys who have stakes to worry about who should thrive and ball out. Both Harper and Fox fall into that camp, and having both of them trying to get downhill and score should help set the tone for the rest of the team.

Unlike Fox, the rest of the roster doesn't have much to prove individually, but they do have a lot to prove as a unit. They've talked the talk about wanting to get back to the Finals. It's preseason, which is ripe for overreaction, but so far the Spurs don't look like a contender.

Maybe Fox's response to the pressure can fix that.