Bleacher Report’s latest starting lineup rankings have the Spurs sitting at No. 6, and that placement feels far too low for a San Antonio team that turned heads last season.
After LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, Bleacher Report put out its Top 10 Starting Lineup Rankings and slotted the Spurs behind the 76ers, Thunder, Knicks, Pacers and Nuggets. The full list had San Antonio at No. 6, with the Cavaliers, Hawks, Rockets and Raptors rounding out the top 10.
That’s a tough sell when you look at what the Spurs just accomplished. This isn’t a team trying to claw its way into relevance.
It’s the defending Western Conference champions, and that alone should put them in a different tier. For a group with that kind of résumé, anything outside the top five lands like a miss.
To be fair, not every team above San Antonio is outrageous. Oklahoma City and Denver make sense because both are expected to bring back key starters who were mostly missing last season. New York also deserves a serious look as the defending NBA champions.
But Philadelphia and Indiana are the ones that really raise eyebrows.
The 76ers have star power, no question, but there are clear concerns baked into that group. LeBron and Joel Embiid are not as durable as they once were, and there’s also the issue of chemistry. That starting five hasn’t proven it can function together yet.
Indiana’s situation is different, but it comes with its own uncertainty. Tyrese Haliburton is coming back from an Achilles injury that cost him a full year, and that naturally leaves questions about both his availability and how close he’ll be to his old self.
San Antonio doesn’t carry those same warning signs. The Spurs’ starters fit together, and they aren’t heading into next season with major health red flags hanging over them. Put that together with what they did last year, and it’s hard to justify ranking them behind either the 76ers or the Pacers.
There’s also a chance the Spurs’ starting five won’t stay exactly the same. Bleacher Report projected the same group San Antonio used last season, but that could shift as the year unfolds. Dylan Harper and Tobias Harris could play their way into that mix before the season is over.
That kind of flexibility is part of what makes this team so intriguing. Mitch Johnson has plenty of different combinations at his disposal, and that ability to mix and match is a big reason the Spurs stand out from so many other teams in the league.
In Other News...
Chris Paul Still Cannot Believe What Wemby Went Through Before Spurs
Chris Paul spent part of his time in San Antonio doing more than just helping the Spurs on the floor. As a veteran voice in the locker room, he also served as a mentor for younger players, including Victor Wembanyama, and one of the most striking parts of that relationship was learning how different the French stars path to the NBA really was. Paul talked about the contrast between the American high school-to-college pipeline and the European academy system, where basketball development is built around a very different structure.
Wembanyama came up through that route in France with Nanterre 92s academy, which is a long way from the familiar U.S. model most NBA players know. For Paul, the broader lesson was less about basketball skill than about perspective, because Wembanyamas upbringing reflected a level of independence and a developmental track that simply does not exist for most young American prospects. [Read more 🡒]
The Spurs Are Becoming The Playoff Team Nobody Wants
The Spurs are starting to look like the kind of playoff opponent nobody in the West wants to see, because the roster gives them more than one way to beat you. Victor Wembanyama is already the obvious problem, a 7-foot-4 rim protector whose presence can warp a game plan, but the larger issue is how San Antonio can keep changing the terms of the matchup from one night to the next.
If teams load up on Wembanyama, the Spurs have downhill answers in Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper, and if the series turns into a more physical grind, they can lean on size and depth with Luke Kornet, Tarris Reed Jr. and eventually Jayden Quaintance. That flexibility is what makes them so awkward to prepare for, because they can survive a defensive slog or turn it into a faster, more open game without giving opponents much comfort either way. [Read more 🡒]