The San Antonio Spurs are again near the top of the NBA’s rankings at 17-4 through the NBA’s first slate of games. They’re sprinting towards the playoffs and putting last year’s Finals loss in the rearview mirror. But so far, only Tony Parker (30.2) averages over 30 minutes a game, and that’s how they’re able to run so hard, even through an 82-game regular season that matters a lot less to a team with title aspirations.
The Spurs currently lead the league in net rating between their offensive and defensive efficiency (points per possession). That’s because they’re the only team ranked in the top 5 in each category (No. 2 on defense and No. 4 on offense). They still don’t care at all about offensive rebounding, preferring to get back on defense and limit transition buckets, and for the most part, they’re successful at this despite being one of the older team’s in the league.
They still get the majority of their offense from Tony Parker and Tim Duncan pick-and-rolls, preferring to shoot corner three’s and shots in the restricted area over the midrange game that’s increasingly becoming obsolete with advances in analytics. One of those advances includes the new SportVU software tied to six catwalk cameras in every arena. The new data from SportVU cameras shows an interesting trend among the Spurs bench players, which you may not have noticed before. Those under-the-radar Spurs run really fast when they’re on the court. Like, bonkers fast, when you look at their aging personnel.
Among the leaders for the top average speed in the NBA (this includes sprinting, jogging, standing, walking, backwards and forward while a player is on the court — though we’d like bench movement to be measured for our own amusement), there are four Spurs within the top 15. The only other team with a second player within the top 15 is Sacramento, with their rookies, Ray McCallum and Ben McLemore, and the Kings’ second round pick, McCallum, has only appeared in two games this year.
Now when you look at the average speed list, the players aren’t stars, they’re usually relegated to bench positions — usually closer to the No. 15 man in a rotation than a starter, but the Spurs bench players usually see an inordinate amount of time compared to their peers on other teams. Of San Antonio’s 14 roster spots, eight players average over 20 minutes a night. But the two players who get the least amount of playing time on the Spurs roster, Nando De Colo, and Cory Joseph, also sport two of the fastest in-game speeds in the league. Both average 4.7 mph when they’re on the court.
Patty Mills, who averages 16.2 minutes a night backing up Tony Parker, is tied for fastest in-game player in the league, averaging 4.8 mph when he’s on the court. Patty has also traveled more than 15 miles more this season than the two other role players tied with him (Toney Douglas and the aforementioned McCallum) for the league’s fastest on-court player.
Danny Green, a Spurs starter, is only averaging 23.1 minutes per game, but during that half-game where he’s on the court, he’s sprinting his ass off to get open looks behind the arc and stifle opponents in transition, averaging 4.6 mph and traveling 36.1 miles in 21 games.
Aside from Green, Joseph, Patty and De Colo aren’t going to make-or-break the Spurs’ season and they’ll definitely see less time when late April rolls around. But it’s not hard to extrapolate why the Spurs continue to run roughshod over the rest of the league every regular season: even their reserves play hard in the limited time they’re on the floor, and that’s reflected in their average speed. While Joseph, De Colo and Mills might not be household names or even Popovich favorites, but they bust their butt for him and the team for every precious minute they’re on the court.
It’s not just the Spurs bench players who run this hard, either, as evidenced by Danny Green’s hyper pace. Tony Parker, one of the best point guards in the league and the focal point of San Antonio’s pick-and-roll offense, averages a speed of 4.5 mph, which places him among the 50 fastest in-game players in the league. Parker also leads the team in minutes played — even if it’s below most other players of his caliber.
The Spurs have won more than nearly every franchise over the last half decade even as their Hall of Fame center and Sixth Man wear down. The vestiges of time haven’t ravaged their winning percentage, and a large reason for that is reflected in role players motoring around the court at a faster pace than most other second teams.
When you’ve got players running so hard, winning comes a whole lot easier.
How does Popovich get his role players to run so hard?
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