With the injury to Joffrey Lauvergne, the San Antonio Spurs may be forced to follow the rest of the NBA into small-ball.
For many years the San Antonio Spurs have played traditional basketball. They have had two big men in the frontcourt, a shooting wing and two guards. This all sounds pretty much like a true basketball lineup.
However, when the Golden State Warriors formed their Death Lineup, things changed. Draymond Green was a good enough player defensively to move from power forward to center, making the Warriors harder to contain.
This caused a number of teams to try and find similar lineups. Only a few teams have bucked this trend — notably, the Utah Jazz, the New Orleans Pelicans and the aforementioned Spurs.
Now, due to the injury to Joffrey Lauvergne (day-to-day), the Spurs are running low on big men. They have the 37-year-old Pau Gasol, second-year player Davis Bertans and LaMarcus Aldridge. Here’s hoping the injury to Lauvergne is not too severe.
They may no longer have any other option than to play small-ball. However, as you know with any Gregg Popovich-coached team, what they do, they will do it well.
Here are three players who are crucial to the success of a potential small-ball lineup for the San Antonio Spurs.