How to line up the Spurs' new season's quintet?

If last season's Spurs were troubled by a shortage of outside players, with the only two defensive guards lying in a hospital bed at one point, and 5 sets of starters in the opening 10 games, almost everyone had their functions and limitations, so that until the last game, the Spurs 'key moment lineup' still had all kinds of problems ......

The Spurs will have to face another level of alignment problems in the new season - a crowded guard line, a rotation of three forwards, a relative shortage of but not so short inside (depending on how many positions you treat Ade as), and it is difficult to guarantee the status of each person, it may appear last season "too many functional players, can not put together a perfect puzzle. It could be another embarrassment of "too many functional players to put together a perfect puzzle" last season.

So let's put aside the so-called possibilities and examine the Spurs' new season's permutations - I was going to write this, but a prediction article that leaves out the possibilities loses its meaning and is essentially no different than "you have to have 7 out of 3456".

So let's start with the most basic needs of the Spurs and explore the various possibilities of the Spurs' new season.

Last season's Spurs lacked two things: defense and three points. Their defense was at the bottom of the league at the beginning of the season and only improved slightly with the return of White. And the league's top three-point percentage doesn't cover up the fact that they are averaging the fewest three-point attempts in the league. Rondo's three-point percentage is also good in wide-open situations, but can you say that Rondo is a threat from space?

So the new season of the Spurs is bound to make up for these two points, even in the early part of the opening game, they will sacrifice a certain amount of space to ensure the defensive intensity of the starting space - defense is a tradition that the Spurs have adhered to for more than a decade, and is the key to preserving their regular season lower limit. Otherwise, the roller coaster experience of going into a single game with the Lakers Thunder and other powerhouses spiking each other by 140+ and retreating to be cut by the Magic Timberwolves by more than 20 points is so exciting that it will inevitably give people a heart attack.

It can be expected that the new season's Spurs will put out Murray + White's backcourt combination, a defensive two, a defensive plus/minus league top, the Spurs' backcourt defense will quickly evolve from '10,000 people stabbed' to the top two in the league. This is also a good thing for Ade and Purcell, as the improved level of defense of the guards can share the pressure of the interior defense to a great extent, and also allow them to focus more on the offensive end.

But on the other side of the coin, if White and Murray can't practice consistent 3-pointers in the new season, the space for this lineup will become even more crowded than last season - can you imagine a scenario where all three guys on the outside don't have 3s? That picture is too beautiful for me to see.

Also, White and Murray playing guard mean DeRozan will have to play the three again - DeRozan playing the three is like having size 42 feet and only having size 41 shoes.

Or back to the simple space issue, for DeRozan, a veteran who has been in the league for 10 years, the possibility of him practicing the three is diminishing to the naked eye. 17-18 season I once saw the dawn of him practicing consistent long-range shooting, and he ended up shooting only 28.6% from three in the playoffs. So I'm looking forward to White and Murray practicing 34%+ threes more than DeRozan.

What? You're saying DeRozan is already practicing his 3-point shot in the offseason? Well, Howard and Zhuang Shen are also practicing their threes.

Similarly, although Murray's actual training video has been shot a few G, and we have seen his dashing stance in the face of the assistant coach's defense still backward jumper, if the training video is the standard, then Anthony is not so far from working now.

So whether the Spurs can sacrifice DeRozan's in-game experience a little and discharge this terrible defensive lineup still depends on Murray and White's actual shooting level.

But the Spurs don't just have two guards in White and Murray, Mills and Forbes are two shooting guards who also need position and time, and the defensive level of the MiFo duo is so sensational that most of the time, the Spurs will probably split up White and Murray and let them partner with Mills and Forbes respectively to achieve the effect of both defense and shooting.

And let's not forget second-year Lonnie Walker, for goodness sake ......

DeRozan may not go back to the two spots, so we can logically conclude that Gay, Carroll, and Lyles, will take up the few remaining rotation spots at the three or four spots.

Gay will likely continue to play the role of backup power forward engine and continue to help open up the rotation with enough starting possessions (White, DeRozan, Ade). So Carroll becomes the starting option for the spatial four. He averaged 4.6 three-pointers per game last season, accounting for a good chunk of the attempts, although hitting only 34%, but considering his 36% career three-point level, it remains to be seen if this is a temporary low for Carroll or his new three-point norm.

As for Lyles, his playing time depends on the level of defense, on the one hand, his defensive attitude and defensive options are problematic, on the other hand, he is only 24 years old this year and is facing the most important moment of his career, whether Lyles can find his 17-18 season form and continue to play in the NBA, all depends on his performance in the new season in the Spurs.

After all, if even the Spurs can't save him, then he's really out of luck.

The frontline players have a lot more freedom than the guards, with Gay, Carroll, and Lyles all able to play the forward swing (in extreme cases, Gay and Carroll can even swing to the five). The Spurs' power forward lineup is not the problem, the question is still the status of the three power forwards - can Gay continue his peak efficiency from last season? Can Carroll get back to his 36% career 3-point shooting? Will Lyles be able to return from his prodigal son and get back on his feet? These are the unknowns.

And Gay and Carroll are both 33 years old in the new season, the two veterans still have a lot of gas in the tank, also to play a not-too-small question mark.

Thanks to a crowded backcourt and a wealthy frontline, the Spurs' interior rotation is pretty straightforward, with Aldridge and Purcell getting more time to rotate at the five, which is a good thing for them.

But don't rule out the possibility of the Spurs swinging the twin towers. Purcell is guaranteed playing time in the playoffs, and he provides the coverage, defense, and rebounding ability that the Spurs need (as for Metu, he probably still won't see much action, as a third backup to Ade and Purcell, in preparation for possible injuries that may come).

As for the key moment five, ideally, it should be Murray-White-Derozan-Guy-Ade, which is probably the lineup the Spurs will dump in the first game of the opener, and will be their key moment fight lineup. There is no doubt that this lineup is a good defensive unit, but the offensive ceiling depends on the ability of the outside guards to shoot, so the Wyatt-Forbes-Derozan-Guy-Ade combination might be more realistic.

A bold assumption - if White/Murray hit the stride, towards the direction of quasi-star power, then the Spurs may have to make trade-offs from Mills and Forbes, the two more homogeneous guards; and if Ronnie Walker's progress is equally pleasing, then this alignment problem may be more difficult to do, and the Spurs are likely to trade away one or two guards in the middle of the season for other assets (and if the guards continue to be uninspiring, the Spurs will be more likely to push for a trade).

At the end of the day, it's the guards that are the problem - the rotations and roles of the front line and interior are clear, the only thing to worry about is the state of the veterans. The group of guards, on the other hand, simply possesses too much uncertainty, and these uncertainties directly affect the Spurs' offensive ceiling. Ideally, the Spurs can put out a backcourt combination of offensive and defensive excellence and good shooting, but once they continue to stay the same: those who can defend can not shoot, those who can shoot can not defend, then this alignment problem, only more and more difficult to do.

In the new season, the Spurs will still let Mifo with White and Murray, and then let Gay and Carroll play space four, Ade will reduce the number of the low post and increase the number of mid-range block shots so that the Spurs' offensive space is at least not so congested, the defense will also have This way, the Spurs' offensive space will at least be less congested, and the defense will have some protection. Taking a realistic balance, the Spurs will still be a bottom-half playoff team in the new season, with the playoff goal of taking as many wins as possible from their first round opponents.

With that expectation in mind, let's take our time and look forward to the possibilities of the Spurs' new season and that exciting and panicky uncertainty.