With training camp and preseason basketball closing in, the Spurs are about to get their first real look at a roster that looks very different from the one they had before. San Antonio has five exhibition games on the schedule, but the matchups against the Jazz and Hawks stand out as the best chances to sort through a new-look bench and start figuring out what this group can really do.
The offseason brought plenty of additions to the Spurs’ roster, with Tobias Harris, Jayden Quaintance, Tarris Reed Jr., Ja'Kobi Gillespie, and Maliq Brown all joining the mix. That kind of turnover gives Mitch Johnson a lot to work through when it comes to lineups and rotations, but it also leaves San Antonio with no shortage of options.
Depth is not the concern here. The challenge is putting the pieces in the right places.
Utah and Atlanta are the two preseason opponents that should tell the Spurs the most. San Antonio will also face the Suns twice and the Kings, but those games are less about pressure and more about giving younger players a chance to settle in and collect meaningful minutes. The Jazz and Hawks, though, bring different kinds of problems that should force the Spurs to learn something.
Utah offers an early test for San Antonio’s young interior players. With Jaren Jackson Jr., Jaxson Hayes, Jusuf Nurkic, and Mo Bamba in the mix, the Jazz have the kind of size and rim protection that can make life difficult around the basket. That makes this a clean opportunity for Johnson to get Tarris Reed Jr. and Maliq Brown on the floor and see how they handle it.
Atlanta is a different kind of challenge, but still a useful one. The Hawks may not match Utah’s depth inside, yet Quin Snyder’s team has an experienced bench and a strong defensive profile. That should give the Spurs a chance to test their own bench combinations and see which offensive groupings actually hold up when the pressure rises.
The Suns and Kings may not ask the same questions, but they still matter. Those games should give younger Spurs players a chance to build confidence and get their legs under them before the real thing begins.
That matters because San Antonio cannot afford to treat this stretch like a formality. The Spurs are one of the favorites to win the 2027 NBA Finals, and that makes the work in camp and preseason even more important. This is the time to establish the tone for the season and to start learning how the bench should function.
Having depth is one thing. Organizing it is another.
Over the next month, that’s the task in front of Johnson and the Spurs. They won’t have every answer by their October 20th season opener against the OKC Thunder, but if they come out of preseason with a better read on their rotations, that alone would be a meaningful step.
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