5 Freezing Cold takes the San Antonio Spurs are destroying this season

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San Antonio Spurs Keldon Johnson Derrick White Patty Mills (Photo by Kim Klement-Pool/Getty Images)

Offender: The Athletic

On December 20th of last year, John Hollinger wrote an extensive preview (subscription required) of the San Antonio Spurs’ for The Athletic. In it, he detailed what was wrong with the team in 2020 (hint: a lot of things). Like many others, Hollinger assumed this season would be much of the same, with veterans inefficiently dominating the ball to the tune of another mediocre season.

While wishing for a starting lineup of Murray, White, Lyles, Jakob Poeltl, and Keldon Johnson, he didn’t sound very convinced that would be something Coach Popovich might test. Surprisingly, Coach Popovich granted one of these lineup change wishes early on, inserting Johnson into the starters in what’s been the smartest lineup change all season.

Fortunately for the Spurs, the days of stubbornly relying on veterans seem to be a thing of the past for Popovich and the coaching staff, as the statistics suggest. Although all four veterans are still crucial for San Antonio on offense, they haven’t been unnecessarily dominating the offense, as Hollinger suggested might happen.

Through 27 games, here are the top seven scorers (points per game) for the Spurs:

1. DeMar DeRozan – 19.82. Dejounte Murray – 15.13. Keldon Johnson – 14.54. LaMarcus Aldridge – 14.15. Patty Mills – 13.26. Derrick White – 11.87. Rudy Gay – 11.2

As you can see, the youth movement has infiltrated the veteran offense party that hurt the Spurs last season. In their 32-39 season last year, the leading scorers were DeRozan, Aldridge, and Mills, with Gay at the seventh spot. Their combined 63.4 points per game made up 55.6 percent of the team’s total points.

This season, the four veterans are combining for 58.3 points per game, equating to 52.5 percent of the total offense. There’s no question that the Spurs being less predictable on offense is leading to success.

Hollinger wrapped up the preview by predicting a similar record to that of Bleacher Report, suggesting they’d go 31-41 to finish 13th in the West. Brrrr.

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