Two assistant coaches now in protocols
The Spurs faced Oklahoma City on Wednesday night without two of their assistant coaches after Mitch Johnson joined Becky Hammon in the NBA’S COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Johnson and Hammon are the latest members of the coaching staff to go into quarantine. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said firstyear assistant Matt Nielsen, former head coach of the Austin Spurs, recently cleared protocols.
“It’s hit everybody, I guess,” Popovich said.
Asked if the Spurs could call up coaches from the G League to fill in, Popovich said: “We coaches aren’t that important anyway. We’d rather have all the players.”
Along those lines, the Spurs welcomed back reserve point guard Tre Jones, who cleared protocols Wednesday afternoon. Jones, who missed seven games, was the last of the nine players the Spurs lost to protocols during an outbreak of the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus that hit the team in late December and early January.
Spurs forward Doug Mcdermott praised the team’s training and medical staffs for their work in helping players get back on the court after stints in the virus protocols.
Mcdermott was one of seven players who entered protocols during the team’s recently completed seven-game road trip.
In all, the athletic and medical staffs have assisted 11 players in weaving their way through protocols this season.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams and this is probably the best training staff and strength and conditioning staff I’ve been around,” said Mcdermott, an eighth-year pro who is with his sixth team.
As the team’s director of player performance & wellness, Xavi Schelling oversees the program designed to help players get through protocols. Will Sevening is the Spurs’ head athletic trainer.
“The way they prepare us, they give us great feedback and know our bodies so well,” Mcdermott said after morning shootaround at the Spurs’ practice facility. “That’s helped us so much throughout this season.”
Schelling and his staff have been aided by a motivated group of players, who, even while in quarantine, continued to work out in their hotel rooms or alone in gyms.
“We were stuck in a hotel room for five or six days, but, for me, I was able to get in a gym maybe four days after that,” said Mcdermott, who spent part of his quarantine in Detroit. “I got a little rust off there . ... It’s nice to have a facility we can use like this when we did have to stay home.”
Point guard Dejounte Murray, in particular, has played well after leaving the protoocols. He entered Wednesday’s game averaging 23.8 points, 8.8 assists, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals in the eight games he has played since being forced to sit out five contests.
“Dejounte, whatever he was doing, I should have maybe taken some notes,” Mcdermott said. “(Guard) Derrick (White) has come back strong. I expect Tre to do the same.”
Aussies reunited at AT&T Center
Wednesday’s game reunited the Spurs first-year big man Jock Landale with Thunder rookie guard and fellow Australian Josh Giddey.
Landale, 26, and Giddey, 19, competed against each other last season in the National Basketball League, the top men’s pro circuit in Australia and New Zealand, and for spots on the 12-man Australian national team.
Giddey, the 2021 NBL Rookie of the Year, was left off the Boomers squad that included Landale and earned the bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The Spurs signed Landale during the Olympics and after he earned NBL Grand Final MVP honors for leading Melbourne United to the championship.
“He’s a good fellow, comes from a great family,” Landale said of Giddey.
Giddey’s father, Warrick Giddey, helped the Melbourne Tigers (now Melbourne United) win NBL titles in 1993 and 1997.
“(Warrick Giddey) is a Melbourne Tigers legend,” Landale said.
Selected sixth overall by the Thunder in the 2021 NBA draft, Josh Giddey entered Wednesday’s game averaging 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists. He became the youngest player in NBA history to record a tripledouble with 17 points, 14 assists and 13 rebounds in Oklahoma City’s 95-86 loss to Dallas on Jan. 2.
In a 117-112 win over New Orleans on Dec. 26, Giddey logged the first NBA double-double in 50 years that did not include points (10 rebounds, 10 assists).
“The work speaks for itself,” Landale said. “The guy is having a great year. Really good kid, quiet, humble. He’s got a bright future ahead of him.”