Surprise Surprise The Spurs Are Back?

 Surprise Surprise The Spurs Are Back? 

Last season we spent our first season in the NBA in 23 seasons without the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Playoffs. The first time generation Z didn’t see Coach Greg Popovich sit at the end of the bench in any playoff series. San Antonio played 284 games over the course of that time. No team has 200 besides the Lakers with 218. The Heat have the third most games with 196 which is only 16 more games played than the Spurs have playoff wins in that time with 170. There are only seven teams with more playoff wins in franchise history compared to the Spurs' playoffs made run. Going into the 2020 offseason especially with everything going on in the world things didn’t look to be looking up in San Antonio. Many believed Popovich is one foot in one foot out after the passing of his wife in 2020. That he’s just setting a foundation for the future. Spurs fans shouldn’t expect to be playing in any big games anytime soon. With their aging stars and young players who aren’t ready to carry a team in the West. For the first time in a long time the Spurs looked to be in rebuilding mode. Hold your horses!!!! The Spurs with three games until the All Star break are the fifth seed in the West. It’s time to take a look into how the Spurs have made 2020-2021 another season that they contend for the playoffs once again. Are the Spurs for real? Is Popovich doing the best coaching of his career? What is making the Spurs nearly a top four team in the most competitive basketball conference in the world? Lets take a look at Spurs season to see if they were just on vacation last year and are back or just another pretender who should have stayed on vacation. 

Offensive Struggles 

Coming into the 2020-2021 NBA season coaches, players, front offices had many adjustments to make. Well first the player’s union and owners had to agree on a start date for the NBA season, how long the season would be, how the playoffs would work in a shortened covid season. Everyone came together to figure that out. Even with all these changes though one thing that didn’t change is the Spurs being relevant. Last season we thought we were seeing the change when the Spurs went 32-39, finished the 11th in the West, and really had no chance at making the playoffs when in the bubble. They still have to pay LaMarcus Aldridge 24 million in the final year of his deal. DeMar DeRozan seems to be fading towards the end of his huge deal. Are Murray and White really the guards of the future? Does Pop even want to coach anymore? The Spurs had many questions. However fast forward 6-7 months later and boom the Spurs are still relevant. They haven’t answered many questions besides they win games through team basketball. Which we already knew. To be honest they had many cancellations due to positive covid tests in their locker room. Where many teams would be badly affected because rhythm is a big deal in basketball it has done nothing but help the Spurs. San Antonio averages 115 PPG on 3 days rest while shooting 46% from the field. That number only decreases with less days off. On 0 days rest the Spurs drop all the way down to 96.5 PPG while shooting a terrible 41% from the field. Where many would complain about the cancellation you can see why the Spurs may not. They are better when they get to regroup. Even though they are the fifth seed which may be due to the fact they’ve played four to five less games than everyone else. Remember seeding goes off winning percentage not games won. Some teams have played six more games. A team like the Warriors are the 8th seed with two more wins but have four more losses than the Spurs. Obviously by the end of the year with no drastic cancellations the schedule will work itself out with everyone playing an even amount of games. Nonetheless the Spurs only have played 29 games but only need to win two of six to have as many wins as the Warriors or any team behind them with more wins in 36 games. Which they can definitely can do in their next six the Spurs play the banged up Nets probably without Irving and Durant, the Rockets who can’t buy a win, the struggling Celtics, the worst team in the East Pistons, and the never can get to excited about Knicks, and Pacers all more than winnable games. San Antonio deserves to be the fifth seed at the moment they are getting in by playing less games for now. They are winning which is amazing considering all the covid tests and how terrible they are on offense. 

San Antonio is well known for their team basketball style of play through the years. Many complimented the beautiful ball movement, the pick up defense, and the better shot is always a pass away mentality. Popovich did draft the most unselfish superstar of all time in Tim Duncan to establish  the Spurs team first culture. He is still on the bench as an assistant. How the Spurs are winning lately is hard to say. It’s not because of one thing specifically. The offense is not great. Which is surprising in an offensive powered league they can have such success. Being a top five team in the West they only are  22nd in PPG with 110.9, they aren’t efficient only ranking 20th in offensive efficiency. San Antonio doesn’t shoot well from the field only shooting 45.5% ranking 20th in the NBA. They don’t win games by much, only ranking 18th in scoring margin. Their margin of scoring is actually in the negative somehow. The league has changed to a shooters league and even in that they only shoot 35.9% from behind the arc which is still at the bottom half of the league ranking 18th. It’s not like they get all these second change opportunities either; they're 21st in offensive rebounding and 16th in total rebounding. To be fair though they do rank 7th in defensive rebounding. San Antonio does make sure no one else can get second chances either. Gregg Popovich has never been recognized as an offensive guru or anything. Especially in his elder age. He was able to design game plans to keep pace with the Warriors during those amazing runs that would change the league forever. Unfortunately with injuries and lack of star power the Spurs came up short as we know. Offensively San Antonio is average or slightly below average at every offensive stat it seems like, so how are they a top five seed in the West? 

It’s All About The Team

What the Spurs do better than any isn’t even defense either but they do protect the ball and capitalize when you don’t. Teams are averaging 111.2 points a game which 12th in the league they also rank 12th in defense efficiency. The opposing team doesn’t shoot well against the Spurs either ranking 10th in opponents field goal percentage. They do need to improve perimeter defense. The opposing team is shooting a good 38% from behind the arc which is 27th in the league. For the Spurs to stay competitive in this NBA they’ll need to knock that down. Shooting the three is a huge part of the game. Players are shooting way more threes than years before. They are even adding the wide open three on fast breaks to their arsenal. Hard to expect that from the Spurs but teams are doing it which they’ll have to be prepared for. Nonetheless the Spurs play good defense. However it will always go back to team basketball for the Spurs. The team forces mistakes and they don’t make mistakes. The Spurs rank 1st in almost all turnover categories from turnover per offensive play, turnovers in general, steals per game, and turnovers per possession. They force teams to make turnovers and they don’t make any. That gives more possession especially when they don’t make many on the glass on their own. Guess what the Spurs are also first in is Assist/ Turnover Ratio. The ultimate team stat if you ask me. They dish the ball very well to each other and help defense forces the other team to make mistakes. San Antonio plays very good team defense and never really makes mistakes. Which is no shock they are still coached by maybe the best coach to ever do it. It might not be exciting but it’s their style and as of late that way wins games. 

Team basketball has to be the reason for the Spurs success. They are the only team that’s competitive that doesn’t have a true superstar. DeRozan is the closets thing to a superstar but he’s not what he was in Toronto. Demar DeRozan only averages 20.3 PPG which leads the team, but he does average 7.0 APG, and 4.8 TRB, while shooting 49%. He’s not having a bad year but he’s not no number one superstar year. Aldridge was supposed to be that especially for the 20+ million he’s paid but he’s not. Aldridge is more of a role player. He’s missed 11 games already. Only played in 18 of them. He looked good in the win against the Pelicans last night. He came off the bench which was his first game back since missing most of February because of his hip. He scored 21 points in 23 minutes. Even though 10 were from the free throw line points are points. Aldridge's role is not determined yet but if he gives great minutes off the bench why not keep him there? Kelvin Johnson is your leading rebounder with 7.0 TRB per game. Just keep Johnson out there in the starting lineup and bring Aldridge in later. That’s my personal opinion. They need team basketball to win LaAmrcus Aldridge, Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker, Rudy Gay, and Patty Mills all average below 16PPG. They don’t score much. Murray's contribution is much more than scoring however. His 7.2 TRB at guard is very impressive, he dishes the rock with 5.1 AST a game, and his 1.6 steals leads the team. Murray has been a big reason San Antonio has played as of late. Dejounte Murray has gone 4 straight games without registering a turnover. You get the trend here right? If the Spurs don’t turnover the ball over they win. That’s how they win. They are 6-4 in the last ten; their turnovers are all down in all six wins. Team basketball is the old way and the new way for the Spurs. 

San Antonio seems to be a contender meaning they aren’t on vacation like they were last year. Their different style of play seems to cause problems for teams. With the schedule coming up it doesn’t seem that they’ll be slowing down. Maybe they should go on vacation to get better draft picks. That however is not the Spurs way. You win no excuses. That’s the cultures guidelines. The future can be bright with Murray at guard. Also being in the final years of DeRozan and Aldridge big deals. With some witchcraft in the offseason maybe the Spurs can convince a big time free agent to come to the south side of Texas. San Antonio won’t be a championship contender but their relevance is fun to see. They can cause headaches for some teams but don’t expect to go farther than the second round of the playoffs. No matter how they win they win but it seems to always go back to team basketball. The San Antonio Spurs aren't as talented as everyone else. However their team chemistry does make them as legit as everyone else but it’ll be a tough fight for them if they don’t improve that perimeter defense and their own scoring. If they can do that they’ll be an actual problem in the West. 

By Matthew Doherty