The San Antonio Spurs are off to a disappointing start to the season, beginning 1-2. Victor Wembanyama has been inefficient, and head coach Mitch Johnson has come under fire for his insistence on starting three point guards.
The single bright spot all fans can agree on is a welcome surprise: Tarris Reed Jr. looks ready for a bigger role. Picked 26th in the 2026 NBA Draft, Reed is a physical, bruising center. He scored his first basket during the Spurs’ win over the Dallas Mavericks, finishing with two points and three rebounds in six minutes. His two offensive boards helped kick off a much-needed run, and he outplayed Luke Kornet easily.
With Kornet struggling in both the preseason and to kick off the year thus far, there have been calls for Reed to take over his minutes. Now, six minutes is a small sample size, but the foundation is being laid for Reed to eventually be the go-to backup big man. There’s even a possibility that he’ll get some spot minutes alongside Wembanyama in a twin-towers lineup.
Before the Spurs take on the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, veteran Keldon Johnson gushed about Reed and the other rookies.
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Keldon Johnson Outlines Veteran Role
Johnson, now in his eighth season, is the longest-tenured player in San Antonio. He’s slowly morphed from a klutzy sparkplug to a veteran leader, although he hasn’t lost any energy along the way.
Reed and the other two healthy rookies, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Maliq Brown, have been used sparingly so far, although Johnson is sure all of them are ready for a bigger role. Remember, all of them spent four seasons playing college ball and are more experienced than most rookies.
“We got Big T-Reed, he’s been great for us,” praised Keldon Johnson. “They’re pretty mature. They’re good people to have around, and I’m excited for their future as well. I feel like they’ll be able to definitely help us down the road and even right now if they get the opportunity. But I’m excited to see how they develop and how they continue to work and be around the team.”
Brown and Gillespie have only played in garbage time. In the preseason, when the stakes were lower, Gillespie averaged 12 points, fifth-best on the team. Reed, meanwhile, posted 9.2 rebounds per game (3.2 on the offensive glass), and Brown showed flashes of why he was the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year while at Duke.
Reed is not expected to have much of a role on offense, but managed to find ways to impact the game. He grabbed 17 boards in a preseason game against the Utah Jazz, and has the highest rebounds per 36 minutes of anyone on the roster.
“It was huge,” Johnson said of Reed’s rebounding effort in his debut. “He came in and gave us a spark, and it’s just a little sneak peek of what we see each and every day. He dominates the glass. He crashes offensive glass, and he plays hard and screens and rolls, and does his job.”
The rookies look to Johnson as their veteran leader. Wembanyama may be the star of the team, but Johnson has been here the longest and is sort of Gregg Popovich’s representation. After all, he played under Pop for five full seasons and won a gold medal in Tokyo alongside the legend.
Johnson called out DeMar DeRozan, Dejounte Murray, and Patty Mills as his best mentors early on in his career. Hopefully, in seven or eight seasons, Reed and the other rookies are reminiscing about their early days and how Johnson helped guide them.
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