San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Spurs’ Popovich could be the last coach of his kind.
Old ACC rivals Vassell and Jones have become fast friends as rookies
At this time a year ago, it was fair to say Devin Vassell considered Tre Jones more of a foe than a friend.
Vassell had just completed his sophomore season at Florida State. Jones had starred at rival Duke, which as far as everyone else in the Atlantic
Coast Conference is concerned meant he might as well have played his home games on the Death Star.
Flash forward to the NBA draft in November, when the Spurs selected Vassell 11th overall, then used the 41st pick to take Jones in the second round. Now?
“We talk to each other every day,” Vassell said. “I text him, call him. It’s a unique year. Me and him just bonded together.”
Just as there are no atheists in a foxhole, there are no college rivalries in the midst of a pandemic
season.
Throughout the 2020-21 campaign, Vassell and Jones have found common ground in a rookie orientation unlike any in NBA history.
The pair had to pass a COVID-19 test to get in the building for their first day of work.
There was no NBA Summer League to help them get their feet wet. Training camp was a threeweek blur. Preseason was but a rumor.
The NBA games started coming and kept coming, packed together to accommodate a pandemic-compressed schedule. The Spurs haven’t had time for a full-length practice since March. Under stringent NBA coronavirus protocols, road trips have felt akin to house arrest.
Being an NBA rookie is difficult enough under normal circumstances. In 2020-21, it has been like a crash course in rocket science.
“That’s what makes me respect them so much more than the average rookie,” third-year guard Lonnie Walker IV said. “Coming in and not having Summer League, not having the opportunity most rookies get to try and find your rhythm. … I would say it’s really impressive how they are just ready to play, game in and game out.”
The flip side of this season like no other is that both Vassell, 20, and Jones, 21, have been afforded playing opportunities they might not have otherwise.
Like many a first-year Spurs player before him, Jones was dispatched to the G League at the beginning of the season.
A COVID-19 outbreak in midFebruary among the Spurs, which included Vassell, resulted in Jones being summoned from the G League bubble to play with the NBA club.
More recently, Jones earned his first career NBA start in the
Spurs’ short-handed overtime loss to Philadelphia on May 2.
With the Spurs getting pummeled in a 126-94 loss in Utah, Jones logged an unexpected 24 minutes and scored a season-best 11 points with three assists.
“He’s a competitor,” coach Gregg Popovich said afterward. “He’s a winner. He just has a great way about him. He’s a natural leader.”
Vassell has remained with the NBA team throughout the season but has been in and out of Popovich’s rotation.
When Derrick White went down with a season-ending ankle sprain April 24, Vassell started the next five games.
He returned to the second unit for the Spurs’ 113-104 victory at Sacramento on Friday, logging 15 minutes and scoring five points.
“With injuries and the COVID episode we had, a lot of guys got some time they would not have gotten,” Popovich said. “They were thrown into situations they were not ready for, but I think they did a good job considering.”
Heading into Saturday’s game at Portland, Vassell was averaging 5.2 points while shooting 37.2 percent from 3-point range
He missed six games after his COVID diagnosis, and he has struggled for playing time and consistency since.
Vassell’s top game came April 17 at Phoenix, when he scored 18 points to lead a Spurs skeleton crew to a 111-85 demolition of one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
“He has a ton of potential,” forward DeMar DeRozan said. “From him being able to catch and shoot, how athletic he is, putting the ball on the floor, getting to his spots. It’s all about experience for him.”
If DeRozan could stress anything to Vassell about his maiden NBA voyage, it’s that none of this is normal.
One day, for instance, Vassell will be able to play or practice without undergoing a daily nasal swab, will be able to leave the hotel on the road, will be able to participate in a team dinner.
“Usually, you have a Summer League, you have a training camp, you have practice time,” DeRozan said. “You have so much opportunity to understand what you need to be better at. Him being thrown out there in the fire, sometimes when he makes mistakes he can get down on himself.
“I just tell him it’s all right to make mistakes.”
Vassell takes DeRozan’s counsel to heart. But in truth, only one other player on the Spurs roster understands what he is going through.
Even during games, it is not out of the ordinary to find Vassell and Jones pow-wowing on the bench.
“If he sees something while I am on the court, he will say something,” Vassell said. “When he is on the court, I am telling him, ‘Look, this is your time. Be aggressive and show everybody why you should be out there.’ ”
At this time a year ago, Vassell and Jones were the bitterest of college rivals. Now they are Spurs teammates in the same foxhole.
When Jones got his start against the 76ers and had his moment against the Jazz, nobody on the Spurs’ roster was as thrilled for him as Vassell.
“It just makes me happy to see Tre go out there,” Vassell said. “The whole season he hasn’t played much, but when he is out there it makes me happy.”