Confidence is Key for Development of Spurs' Keita Bates-Diop

San Antonio Spurs forward Keita Bates-Diop has been among the top standouts for the team during their preseason.

With the San Antonio Spurs being in the early stage of a rebuild, identifying diamonds in the rough, so to speak, is an important part of roster construction. Have they found one in Keita Bates-Diop?

Bates-Diop has been around the Spurs organization for three training camps after stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets. He went from averaging a career-low 8.2 minutes per game in 2019-20 up to 16.2 minutes per game last season. Now, he's comfortable in San Antonio with a chance for more. 

“After a couple of years, you’ve kind of figured things out,” Bates-Diop said. "The first year is kind of hard no matter where you go. After a few years, I’m comfortable here.”

Bates-Diop has been more aggressive looking to score early in preseason action. He's averaging 9.5 points per game entering Sunday's matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans — trailing only Devin Vassell (12.0), Doug McDermott (10.5), and Zach Collins (10.0).

An instrumental development for the 6-foot-8 forward would be an improved 3-point shooting ability. So far, in his NBA career, Bates-Diop is shooting 30.4 percent on 227 attempts from 3-point range. The Spurs want him being more aggressive taking these shots.

“We want him to shoot those shots. When he first came here, he wouldn’t have done that. Or if he did, he probably wouldn’t have made it. But he’s obviously getting more confident and getting it off quickly and knows when he is open. He did a fine job tonight,” he said.

A two-game sample size is too tiny to reach major conclusions. For Bates-Diop he made all four of his attempts against the Orlando Magic after missing all three of his looks against the Houston Rockets in the Spurs' preseason opener. Going 3-7 (42.9 percent) is effective overall, but again, these results are needed for a longer duration. Regardless, he remains confident in his progression.

“I worked a lot on it this summer. He (Coach Popovich) has confidence in me shooting, and I have confidence in myself shooting it,” Bates-Diop said. “I think that’s part of the reason Pop trusts me to be in there. He trusts me with my length to be able to do a lot of things.”

In terms of what's actually changed, Bates-Diop attributes mechanical adjustments from former Spurs shooting guru Chip Engelland for his shooting improvement. However, Popovich has been important in giving Bates-Diop confidence.

“It was definitely a mechanics thing and a mind thing,” Bates-Diop said. “Pop gave me the confidence. Chip gave me the confidence. So how can I not believe in it?”

The continued development of Bates-Diop displayed in his latest training camp with the Spurs seems to be leaving an impression. With the Spurs having 16 players on their roster with a maximum allowable amount of 15, Bates-Diop has maximized his chances of sticking.

Bates-Diop's $1.9 million salary for 2022-23 is non-guaranteed unless he remains on the roster for the regular season opener. Other cut candidates could be Romeo Langford or Joe Weiskamp despite both having guaranteed salaries for this season.