De'Aaron Fox on the importance of winning the possession game

(1) De'Aaron Fox on the Spurs needing to focus on winning the possession game (2) Final record projections (3) Injury updates for Wemby and Charles Bassey

After over a week off for the All-Star break, the San Antonio Spurs are preparing to return to regular season play Thursday against the Phoenix Suns in Austin, Texas. Before tip-off, here are the three topics for this Thursday evening edition of The Off Day.

• (1) De’Aaron Fox on the importance of winning the possession game

• (2) Record projections for the final 30 games of the season

• (3) Injury updates for Wemby and Charles Bassey

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(1) De’Aaron Fox on the importance of winning the possession game

Wednesday in Austin, De’Aaron Fox participated in a lengthy press conference with the media, where answered a number of different questions. One of Fox’s answers really stood out to me, and that was in response to a question about the expectations being raised for the Spurs, with the addition of a player like Fox (former All-Star/All-NBA level player). In his answer, Fox explained the importance of the possession game.

“A big reason that I wanted to come was, I felt like they had obviously a young group of guys, but a group of guys that have a lot of potential, that could definitely do big things in this league, and Brett Brown (Spurs Assistant Coach), the first thing that he told me was, they didn’t turn people over, and I think offensive rebounds have also been a problem for us, and with Mike Brown (former Kings Head Coach), he always talked about the possession game - which is turnovers, free throws, offensive rebounds. Can you win the possession game? If you win the possession game, you give yourself a great chance to win the game. I feel like in my first couple of games, we started turning teams over. Just with the length and athleticism on this team, I feel like being able to fly around defensively, and obviously having someone like Vic (Victor Wembanyama) behind you, who could protect the rim, that gives you a sense of comfort knowing that at times, you can gamble for steals, and if you don’t get it, you’ll have another line of defense. I think we’ve done a better job in that than they have previously throughout the season, but, I think that’s kind of that next step. Being able to constantly win a possession game.”

Fox was right about the turnovers increasing since he joined the team. Before Fox joined the team, the Spurs were only forcing the opponent into turnovers on 13.1% of their possessions (ranked 25th per CleaningTheGlass.com). Since Fox’s arrival, opponents are turning the ball over on 15.5% of their possessions (ranked 9th).

On the offensive end, the Spurs themselves are also improving in taking care of the basketball with the addition of Fox.