SAN ANTONIO SPURS
2017-18 Review:
Obviously, the biggest story involving San Antonio last season was all the drama around Kawhi Leonard, who only ended up playing nine games. As Leonard is one of the best perimeter defenders in the history of the league, we could think that the Spurs would regress on defense without him, but in fact their regression was on offense:
Season
|
Off Rtg
|
Rank
|
Def Rtg
|
Rank
|
2017-18
|
107.7
|
17
|
105.2
|
4
|
2016-17
|
111.7
|
7
|
104.0
|
1
|
2015-16
|
110.6
|
4
|
98.9
|
1
|
2014-15
|
108.8
|
8
|
101.8
|
2
|
2013-14
|
110.6
|
7
|
102.2
|
4
|
2012-13
|
108.0
|
9
|
101.1
|
3
|
San Antonio managed to continue being a top 5 defensive team last season, but the offense was just average when they used to be in the top 10. Leonard was coming from his best offensive year ever in the previous season by averaging 25.5 points per game while shooting 48.5% FG, 38.0% 3pts and 88.0% FT, and without him available, San Antonio’s offense wasn’t ready to keep its regular level even with LaMarcus Aldridge playing the best basketball he had ever played with the Spurs.
During the regular season, San Antonio beat the lowly teams with comfort as usual, with a 26-7 record against teams with records below 0.500, another sign that they are a team who doesn’t commit a lot of unforced errors. However, when the difficulty level of the games increased, the Spurs were unable to stay competitive, ending the regular season with the worst record against teams with winning record among all playoff teams, a very disappointing 21-28 record.
In the playoffs, San Antonio received a “gentlemen sweep” of 1-4 against Golden State in the first round, in a series where they only averaged 98.4 points per game against a Curry-less version of the Warriors.
2018-19 Outlook:
With Manu Ginobili retiring and with Tony Parker going to Charlotte, this will be the first season in a lot of years where San Antonio won’t have a single player from their traditional “big three” in the roster. On the other hand, Leonard leaving the team was inevitable and the Spurs decided to trade him and Danny Green to Toronto in exchange for DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl.
We’ve already seen that San Antonio is capable of still being an elite defensive team without Leonard. However, their challenge to stay good on defense won’t be easy this season. Green also left the team and he is a good defender as well, while all the players who joined the team in the offseason aren’t known for their good defense: DeMar DeRozan, Marco Belinelli and Jakob Poeltl. Will head coach Gregg Popovich’s defensive system compensate all these issues?
However, the X Factor for the Spurs this season will be on their offense. They were one of the slowest paced teams in the league last season, with their focus being on their halfcourt offense built around Aldridge. This was how San Antonio was #4 in the league in volume of mid-range shots, while Aldridge shot 60% of his attempts from this area of the court, the #6 player in the league with the highest volume of mid-range shots. On the other hand, DeRozan was #13 in the league last season on this area in Toronto. So, how will these players co-exist offensively this season?
San Antonio’s offense has been different from other league offenses over the last three seasons, as they refuse to shoot three-pointers. Now with mid-range lover DeRozan joining the team, this scenario won’t change. So, we need to wait and see if they’re able to get back into the top 10 of the league in offensive efficiency.
Rudy Gay will have a shot to prove that he deserves a new contract at the end of the season. He had a solid last season, especially considered he was injured for a while, and his offensive numbers were good even though he only played 21.6 minutes per game. Can he maintain this level this season, while playing close to 30 minutes per game?
Gregg Popovich will also have a good group of players who will give him some quality and versatility off the bench: Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, Quincy Pondexter, Dante Cunningham and Jakob Poeltl.
Dejounte Murray is an elite defensive player, but he is still a work in progress on offense, not only at shooting the ball but also in terms of playmaking skills. With Parker gone, he was supposed to be the undisputed starting Point Guard of the team this season, but unfortunately he suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason. Popovich was expecting to replace Murray in the lineup with Derrick White, a young guard that the organization trusts a lot, however he is also injured and he will miss the first few weeks of the season.
Therefore, Popovich will need to be very creative at the PG position for a while. He doesn’t want Patty Mills to start at PG, but he may not have an alternative in the first weeks of the season unless the Spurs sign someone else.
We can expect the Spurs to beat the lowly teams once again, but their biggest challenge for this season will be to get back at being competitive against the best teams in the league. Even with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green gone, we can never count San Antonio out, as Gregg Popovich is still coaching the team and he is an expert at creating efficient systems and developing players.