Last season, one of the most mind-numbingly annoying situations the Spurs found themselves in time after time was their struggle to surpass their opposition in field goal attempts. Their opponents took more shots than they did in just about every single game, and it wasn't by a small margin. One or two shots aren't that difficult to overcome, but five to ten more shots are.
A defensive possession isn't over until you secure the rebound. San Antonio must be better at doing that and not allowing second-chance opportunities to the other team. They can't turn the ball over at a high rate. In fact, they should have the players that empower them to turn their opponents over more than ever and flip the script on that tiresome stat.
The entire Spurs team must play a huge factor here
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At the beginning of the season, when the Spurs were winning more games, they hovered around 10th in the league in offensive rebounds. That was usually when Jeremy Sochan was playing and starting. When he got injured and when he was benched, they dropped in that area. Teams were able to secure defensive rebounds more easily to stop San Antonio from getting any second bites at the apple.
There's more size in the 210 now, and [Kornet is a solid offensive rebounder](https://airalamo.com/spurs-luke-kornet-resolve-most-glaring-recurring-issue). He'll provide more chances to get points when the team misses. Victor Wembanyama already provides double-digit rebounding, so you can't really blame him for this. It's the other players who need to come along for the ride.
The Spurs were 15th in field goal attempts last season with 89.8 per game. They were 26th in opponents' field goals per game with 92.5. That's too large a discrepancy and is a direct correlation to many of the close games this team lost last year.
They didn't even turn the ball over at an egregious rate. They were 10th in committing the fewest turnovers nightly with 13.9 and 12th in steals with 8.2. So, the culprit really is the rebounding. Fixing it has to be a team effort.
San Antonio was 28th in opponent offensive rebounding in 2024-25. They allowed 12.1 per game. That's an absurd amount of second-chance opportunities for the team you're trying to defeat.
The injuries to the backup bigs definitely hurt them, but there was also a lack of aggression on the boards. Whether it was Zach Collins, Charles Bassey, or Sandro Mamukelashvili, there just wasn't enough effort put into that, but again, rebounding must be a team effort going forward. Guards and wings alike need to go after that ball.
When you have one of the best defenders and rim protectors in the league, it's frustrating to allow repeated second opportunities. It has to be fixed this year, and a lot will change.