San Antonio Spurs: Key factors in constructing lineups for 2019-20

The most prominent lineups

Of course, lineups will depend on specific game situations and on a game-to-game basis. The San Antonio Spurs will find a five-man and a four-man line up that will take the lion’s share of the minutes.

This is including the closing minutes, which often depend on how a specific game is going.

LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan will be on the court as much as possible, and Dejounte Murray should join them. Rudy Gay should take a sixth man role where he has fit in the past.

In the 2017-18 campaign, he only started six of the 57 games he played, but still played 21.6 minutes a game.

Incorporating Derrick White and Bryn Forbes won’t be difficult as the two can fit into the system and complement each other. The Spurs do not have a shortage at the guard position. Marco Belinelli will play key minutes on the wing off of the bench when starters need a break.

My prediction for the opening day starting lineup consists of the usual. Murray, Forbes, DeRozan, Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl should round it up.

This allows Murray to start at point guard and will let Forbes be a key piece in spreading the floor. DeRozan can play where he needs to play to have his best chance of taking over the game. Aldridge can play his more natural spot at the 4 and Poeltl will allow him to do that.

Although I predict Gay to end up playing more minutes than Poeltl unless it is matchup specific like the Nuggets series.

A solid training camp and preseason could jet White into a starting role over Forbes. White has proven himself as a scorer, but one has to be reluctant to put him in the starting role. There is a large disparity in 3-point shooting between the two of them.

White shot 33.8 percent last year to Forbes’ 42.6 percent. If Forbes keeps up high-quality shooting, he will earn hefty minutes.

Bench players like Belinelli, Patty Mills and DeMarre Carroll should get a solid amount of minutes, probably around 20-25 a game. Lonnie Walker IV will also work his way up in the rotation.

Rookies like Luka Samanic and Keldon Johnson will be the ones scraping the bottom of the garbage time minutes. The Spurs have plenty of players to move around and play with, allowing them to find the best lineups for any situation.

Their rise to legit contention will be based around how the lineups mesh.