NBA: Ranking all 30 starting small forwards for 2018-19

24. Marco Belinelli, San Antonio Spurs

Over the last four seasons, Marco Belinelli has started in a grand total of 18 games. He’s only started 218 of a possible 724 games in his entire NBA career. There’s a chance Gregg Popovich goes with Rudy Gay here instead, or he could go with two guards in the backcourt and use DeMar DeRozan as a 3.

However, for the sake of spacing, the San Antonio Spurs almost need Belinelli in the starting lineup. Gay and DeRozan can’t shoot 3s, and neither can the team’s starting point guard, Dejounte Murray. Imagine Patty Mills being the only real 3-point threat in a Murray-Mills-DeRozan-Gay-LaMarcus Aldridge starting lineup (or Murray-Mills-DeRozan-Aldridge-Pau Gasol).

The Spurs were already one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league last year by every measure, so although Belinelli is a poor defender and 32 years old, he’s averaged double figures in limited minutes in each of the last four seasons, shooting 38.5 percent from deep last year on a career-high 5.3 attempts per game. The Spurs need that kind of floor-spacing, so he gets the nod.