Things have not exactly been bright in San Antonio this season.
The San Antonio Spurs have gotten off to a very slow 19-13 start, just not being able to win all of the games that they have been able to win in the regular season before. Winning close to or more than 40 games has been a common thing for the Spurs for a very long time, but a record this bad through their first 32 games hasn’t been seen since the year before Tim Duncan was drafted.
Is a lot of the struggling truly the fault of the players? Well, yes and no.
Unfortunately for San Antonio, the team hasn’t been fully healthy this season, with star players like Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard and important role players like Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills all having missed significant time. In fact, the most consistent Spurs have been Duncan and Manu Ginobili, who both have had to play many more minutes than they should have at this point.
Offensively, the Spurs haven’t had their full suite of shooters available to spread the floor, and their primary pick-and-roll initiator in Parker has been gone for a majority of the season. Many people want to throw Parker out of the top five point guards in the NBA conversation all the time, but in reality he is the most important player on the floor for San Antonio in every single game.
What many take for granted is that Parker can get to pretty much any spot on the floor that he wants. He is still one of the quickest guards in the league, and he’s been around long enough to know how the defense is going to react to whatever he tries to do, leaving him with enough opportunities to penetrate and get into the lane where he can begin to do his damage.
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Parker is arguably one of the best finishers the NBA has ever had because he has a variety of moves around the basket and has the perfect body control to get to the basket despite being bumped in mid-air.
When he isn’t looking to score, Parker is great at reading the defense and making the right pass both in and out of the post, leaving defenses speechless when the Spurs get the quick bucket right away. Parker is one of the smartest guards in the game right now, and his pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop chemistry with Duncan makes him the perfect player to run coach Gregg Popovich’s offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, Splitter and Leonard have both been important anchors capable of making big plays in bigger moments. Splitter is an excellent shot blocker when teamed up along with Duncan, and Leonard is arguably the best perimeter defender in the league. Both help hide a lot of the faults of the rest of the team, as the Spurs have become more centered on playing at a greater pace on offense and scoring more points rather than worrying about being a lockdown unit on defense.
As far as the bench is concerned, Mills and Marco Belinelli have been important scorers off the bench, but both have been missing from action, leaving a lot to be desired from San Antonio’s second unit.
All things aside, Popovich has always been one of the best coaches in terms of getting his guys ready to play no matter who has suited up, and that has shown, as the Spurs haven’t exactly been blown out all season. A lot of their losses have been within 10 points or less, so it’s not like San Antonio lacks players who can perform at a high level.
Should the Spurs be truly concerned at this point? No, they really shouldn’t.
When healthy, this is still the deepest team in the league, with stars who are capable of making plays and hitting shots when it matters. As a cohesive unit, there is no team more balanced and capable on both ends of the floor than the Spurs.
When this team gets healthy, things will be back on track and the Spurs will once again be in the thick of the playoff race for top seeds and home court advantage.
Don’t worry, Spurs fans. San Antonio isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.