Johnson says he’ll play in season opener
Swingman Keldon Johnson on Tuesday declared himself fit to play tonight, when the Spurs open the regular season against the Grizzlies in Memphis.
Johnson missed all three preseason games with an injured left foot. But the Spurs removed the high-energy second-year player from their injury report before arriving in Memphis, where Johnson spoke to the media via Zoom.
“I feel like I’m pretty much back,” he said. “I’ll be out there tomorrow playing.”
Even with Johnson’s likely return, the Spurs still will be shorthanded against the Grizzlies after they ruled out guards Derrick White (toe) and Quinndary Weatherspoon (knee).
But the club should get a boost on both ends of the floor from the return of Johnson, who said he sprained a toe about three weeks ago in a freak accident at home.
“I was running up the steps at my house and I slipped and jammed my toe on the step,” he said.
Johnson said he participated in workouts after the injury but had to stop after the toe became swollen. He started playing three-onthree about a week ago before graduating to five-on-five work.
“Practice-wise, I’m going fullgo right now,” he said. “I feel like I’m in pretty good shape. But there’s nothing like game shape until you start playing. We’ll see how it goes.”
The Spurs hope Johnson can pick up where he left off during the seeding games this past summer in Orlando, Fla., where he averaged 14.1 points and 5.0 rebounds after spending most of the season in the G League.
“I feel like I definitely have
some momentum coming out of the bubble,” said Johnson, who scored 20 or more points three times in Orlando, including a 24point, 11-rebound double-double Aug. 11 against Houston.
The former Kentucky standout, taken 29th overall by the Spurs in 2019, said he worked on getting stronger in the offseason.
“I’ve put on like seven or eight
pounds of muscle,” he said. “I’ve been hitting the weight room pretty hard.”
Jones seeks to turn tables on big brother
Spurs rookie Tre Jones has always come up on the losing end in one-on-one matchups with older brother Tyus.
“He never really let me off the hook,” Tre said. “It could be at the community center, high school, in our house, it didn’t really matter. He was always trying to beat me, and was always beating me. He helped me along the way, but he never let me off the hook.”
In the regular season opener Wednesday against the Grizzlies in Memphis, Tre hopes his fortunes will change against his brother in a team matchup.
The Spurs drafted Tre, 20, in the second round after his sophomore season at Duke. Tyus, 24, is embarking on his sixth NBA season and second with Memphis after spending the first four years of his career with his hometown Minnesota Timberwolves.
“There are a lot of emotions going through my mind with it being my first regular-season game and also it being against my brother,” Tre said. “I feel very blessed to be in this position, to go into my first NBA game but also have it be against my brother, my biggest role model throughout life so far.
“I know I’m really excited. I have been talking to him every single day like normal. But it’s just funny we get to go against each other for the first time ever.”
Club picks up options on rookie-scale deals
In expected housekeeping moves, the Spurs on Monday exercised their fourth-year team option for guard Lonnie Walker IV and third-year team options for Johnson and forward Luka Samanic for the 2021-22 season.
The options were included in the rookie scale contracts each player signed after the Spurs drafted them in the first round (Walker 18th overall in 2018, Johnson 29th overall in 2019, Samanic 19th overall in 2019).
Walker is set to collect $4.4 million next season while Samanic and Johnson are scheduled to earn $2.9 million and $2.1 million, respectively.