Are The San Antonio Spurs ‘Playoff Tanking’?
The San Antonio Spurs have always been a very smart organization in a lot of different areas. The team has been so successful because of the consistency behind the scenes. Upper management has always believed in its choices and has never backed down from a decision they have made, whether it be with a player or coach.
The Spurs’ organization trusts its judgment, and gives anyone who they deem as worthy a fair shot at achieving success. In fact, the Spurs love contributors who are interested in being “lifers.” In other words, these players or coaches are in it for the long haul and are not about to leave tomorrow for something else.
This model of trust and consistency is how the Spurs have reigned supreme in the Western Conference for a long time, and they certainly aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, this team keeps inventing new ways to remain competitive and contend for championships.
Back in the early days of the Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili dynasty, head coach Gregg Popovich had this team focused primarily on defense, not worrying too much about putting up 100 points per game but remaining steady about smashing the other team into the ground and stopping them from scoring at all costs.
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Things changed, and as time went on, San Antonio became focused on offense, filling the team with a number of high-quality shooters and playing at a faster pace than the team ever had before. Duncan, Parker and Ginobili all got into fantastic shape to accommodate the chance in playing style, and Popovich has looked like a genius ever since.
That is what’s so great about the organization as a whole. Popovich changed a lot of his schemes and styles in order to keep up with what the rest of the NBA was doing, and he really took a chance on whether this could work, or if he had to try and adapt his old system to the other teams around him.
In the end, Popovich’s gamble proved to be worth it, and now the Spurs are looking to get to the NBA Finals for the third straight year. In order to get there, however, it certainly won’t be a cake walk.
The Western Conference is absolutely loaded, and this is arguably the toughest conference the league has ever seen. To get to the playoffs, a team is going to have to win 50 games to even stand a chance.
Over in the Eastern Conference? Forty wins will probably get that team a low seed in the postseason, something that is laughable out West.
The Spurs aren’t getting any younger, with their three brightest stars and brilliant coach all nearing retirement/back-halves of their careers. Luckily for the fans, that hasn’t stopped San Antonio from remaining creative and committed to winning.
San Antonio may be imploring something that really hasn’t been heard of in the NBA: playoff tanking.
The Spurs have always worried not necessarily about what individual players they face, but about the matchups as a whole. Getting the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs may not be the smartest thing to do this season because of the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s slow start.
Due to the injuries of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the team stumbled out of the gate to a 5-13 record, leaving much to be desired and a lot of ground to be made up.
With Durant and Westbrook back in the fold and looking dangerous as ever, the Thunder will in fact make it to the playoffs, which will scare any top seed because Oklahoma City will most likely not finish any higher than seventh in the conference.
So what does that mean for a lot of the West’s top teams? Things are going to be difficult for any team that lands one of the top seeds in the playoffs, as the Thunder will arguably be one of the best lower playoff seeds the league has ever seen.
Do the Spurs really want to face the Thunder in the very first round of the playoffs, let alone in the second round either?
The Thunder most likely scare the Spurs the most because of the superstar combination of Durant and Westbrook. San Antonio does not have defensive answers for both players, which could ultimately leave the Spurs in shambles when all is said and done.
The Spurs will want as much time as possible to figure out how they can play their best basketball before taking on the Thunder, so they will try as hard as they can to avoid them for as long as possible. This is a perfect explanation to why the team is off to a 17-10 start.
Quietly, the Spurs have rested their top players for a large number of games, whether it be due to injuries or fatigue. San Antonio doesn’t care about what happens in November and December, and now the concern really is at a low now that strategic placement may mean everything in terms of another shot at a title.
The Spurs are going to keep taking it easy and resting their players because they have no reason to want to play too difficult of an opponent in the first round. The idea is to get the most favorable match ups for your team, and this may very well be their way of making that happen.
It truly is remarkable that San Antonio is a good enough team that can literally control their destiny. The Spurs could theoretically get any seed in the playoffs that they wanted, and few if any teams have had that kind of power in league history.
Just because the stars haven’t been out and the Spurs have lost some games doesn’t mean they don’t know what they are doing. The Spurs have always been willing to take chances and stand behind them till the end.
This is just another one of those choices.
*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.