The 2015-16 NBA Season starts in less than two weeks, preseason hoops are in full swing, and playoff prognostications have begun in earnest. Since season previews can get bogged down by team-specific minutiae, and we cover every basketball team, we’re providing our readers reasons why you should care about all 30 teams in the Association.
DIME MAG’s 2015-16 NBA Season Previews
The Spurs might be the most exciting team in the NBA. Despite the titles, that wasn’t the case 10 years ago when Tim Duncan’s peak meant a lot of slow-it-down games where the ball was pounded into the post and the team relied more heavily on his offensive and defensive abilities.
But Duncan got older. Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker also showed they could lead the offense with a more pick-and-roll heavy attack. So Popovich instituted the basics of the motion offense with then-assistants Mike Budenholzer and Brett Brown, now the head coaches in Atlanta and Philadelphia, respectively.
This Spurs juggernaut was run-and-gun, thriving on spacing, increased pace, passing and some misdirection that probably resembles jazz, if we knew anything about jazz.
Basically, the became a basketball purists handbook for excellence and if you’re like us, your Old Man gets choked up every time they get an easy layup on some brutal back-cut.
With so much to choose from — Duncan’s swan song, Tony Parker’s health, Slo Mo Kyle Anderson’s development, will we ever get a Matt Bonner bobblehead mailed to us — it’s hard to simply pick two things that make the Spurs matter. There are almost too many to list.
But last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, Kawhi Leonard, and this summer’s big free agency splash, LaMarcus Aldridge, are what we’ve selected. Except, we’re going to discuss the one area of Kawhi’s game he still needs to improve upon — his offense — and the biggest question after Aldridge signed in San Antonio — what role does he inhabit in San Antonio’s motion offense.
Will Kawhi Leonard improve his offensive abilities enough to become an MVP candidate and top-10 player?
There’s no more debate about the quality of Kawhi Leonard.
The San Antonio Spurs wing is one of the best players in basketball, an ever-improving 23-year-old whose burgeoning, versatile game is superseded by his unsurpassed ability on the other end. Many may prefer the all-encompassing scoring influence of Carmelo Anthony, and some still believe Paul George is a more well-rounded two-way player. After LeBron James and Kevin Durant, though, Leonard has a case as the best small forward in the NBA – that’s what a Defensive Player of the Year award and sweeping strides with the ball in his hands do for a young player’s reputation.
With Tim Duncan approaching 40 years-old and an aging Tony Parker hobbled by injury, Leonard emerged as San Antonio’s primary offensive option in 2014-15. He posted career-highs in usage rate, free throw rate, and percentage of baskets unassisted last season, flashing legitimate prowess as both a pick-and-roll ball handler and post player – an extremely rare combination reserved for the game’s elite playmakers.
The next step for Leonard to reach full-fledged superstardom is frequency and consistency. Due to the summer acquisition of LaMarcus Aldridge, however, it seems the Spurs will continue spreading the wealth among their litany of talented players – at least for 2015-16. There will come a time when Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and even Parker are no longer wearing silver-and-black, and that’s when Leonard will take full control of San Antonio’s perimeter reins while Aldridge holds down the interior.
Until then, the San Diego State product must work to avoid the seldom valleys interspersed with so many peaks. Leonard proved his immense offensive worth to a national audience in the first half of his team’s first-round epic against the Los Angeles Clippers last spring, averaging 24.8 points per game on 60 percent shooting – and 56.3 percent from beyond the arc! – in the first four games of the series. But he tailed off starkly in the ensuing three contests, struggling from the field and lacking the overall composure that propelled him to prior dominance.
Leonard isn’t James, Durant, or Anthony – he’s an extremely effective player with the ball in his hands, but not one blessed with the preternatural comfort and mentality that makes him nothing less than an alpha dog. He’s more liable to settle in as San Antonio’s offensive co-captain over the long-haul than become its bellwether force on that end of the floor, an outcome that’s long appeared his most likely destiny. The question was always who the Spurs could bring in to supplement that likelihood, and R.C. Buford answered it this summer by signing Aldridge.
There’s much more to Leonard’s game than defense. He made that abundantly clear last season, and will continue proving vocal skeptics who believe otherwise wrong in 2015-16 – even if the improvements he makes on that side of the ball are still subtle enough that some can’t see them for one more year.
Is LaMarcus Aldridge right when he said after signing with the Spurs, “that they didn’t want to change me”?
Aldridge’s comments came when talking to Spurs assistant, and Aldridge friend, Ime Udoka, who got on a flight with LMA to further sell him on the team despite no plans to actually travel.
Here’s the full quote:
“So we rode…I went to the back of the plane and talked the whole flight. It was just conversation, about the system, about me. It wasn’t really a lot of questions. It was just him telling me how I’m going to fit in. Everybody was making this big fuss about how I’m not going to be able to take shots anymore, or be the scorer that I am, and he was just telling me, ‘We need a guy to score down there. Tim (Duncan) is older, and we need a guy to command a double team down there.’ So I was like, ‘Maybe I’m not a Spur, because I’ve been averaging 23 (points per game) for the last three to four years, and maybe I don’t fit into y’all’s system of let’s all average 17 (points per game).’ And he was like, ‘No, we’re not trying to change who you are and make you average 16 or 17. We want you to be you, because you’re going to help us be better and vice versa.’ He kind of reaffirmed that they didn’t want to change me, and that who I am is ok.”
But is this true? In a word, yes, but how San Antonio uses Aldridge in their motion offense will be in flux, like the Spurs offense itself. San Antonio’s offensive system is basically just a free-flowing, screen-and-cut heavy motion with counters, misdirections and pick-and-rolls thrown in. It’s constantly mutating, which is why some believe LMA will struggle. But we’ve already seen LMA in preseason and he’s found a nice little niche in high pick and pop’s that are basically unguardable because of his high release. Here are two examples, one at the top of the key and one of the left side.
But LMA does most of his work in the post, where more than 36 percent or his 2014-15 possessions ended in a shot, foul or turnover. That same emphasis on post touches has happened already, where Synergy lists 12 of his first 26 preseason possessions as post-up plays, something you haven’t seen a lot of in San Antonio since Duncan was considered swift in the open court.
But LMA gives San Antonio a matchup advantage down in the paint almost every time.
And he’ll continue to throughout the year.
Listen, we could ramble on and break down more film, like Zach Lowe already did at Grantland, but watching the various ways Popovich uses him will be a true joy for hardcore hoop heads and a fun introduction for casual fans who never got to see him play when he was in the Pacific Northwest.
