San Antonio Spurs 2022-23 Preview
What does a rebuild with Popovich look like, and will their offense ever change?
Welcome to the start of our 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.
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Note: if you are reading this in the e-mail-only form some of the gifs and videos do not always show up correctly. All stats taken from Cleaning the Glass.
Stats
Net Rating: -0.3 (20th)
Offensive Rating: 112.6 (18th)
Good
The Spurs under Popovich have been a consistently low turnover team, ranking 1st in the NBA for 4 straight seasons - with last season finishing 2nd. One way to create good offensive looks is to not give the other team the ball when you are trying to score, so keeping turnovers low is great.
Bad
San Antonio takes SO many mid-range shots, which isnāt THAT bad of a thing but when you donāt go to the rim and shoot poorly from 3 pointers - your offense is going to suffer.
Ugly
Ranking dead last in FT Rate, the Spurs didnāt generate free throws nearly enough for an offense that was middling most of the season.
Defensive Rating: 112.9 (16th)
Good
On the flip side of not drawing fouls, the Spursā defense did not foul their opponents and ranked 7th in the NBA in defensive FT Rate.
Bad
Being a middle-of-the-pack team in defending shots will usually mean you are a middle-of-the-pack defensive team. The Spurs ranked 15th in defensive eFG%, which means they finished in the middle of the NBA for defensive rating.
Ugly
A combination of allowing shots at the rim, 27th in the NBA with over 35% of shots at the rim with allowing 27% of shots missed to be rebounded back and itās a recipe for poor defensive performances.
Film
Floppy Double Curl
Although Floppy action was super common in the ā80s & ā90s and even into the mid-2000s, teams generally donāt run it much anymore.
One way the Spurs get shooters open is to run this as a double curl designed, with the first player intentionally curling opposite and then the second shooter coming off the screen.
Horns Chicago
A way to get the ball to a big and run a pindown into a hand off is an Elbow entry, or Horns entry. The pass is made and then the player clears, so the big goes opposite into āChicagoā action and rolls to the rim.
Horns Exchange
A set that was common overseas around 5 years ago has trickled into American basketball first with Gonzaga and now with NBA teams.
Designed to work great against modern defenses that either ICE or Switch as the common coverage, this set starts off with a fake ballscreen and the player rolling to clear.
Then it flows right into a handoff into a ballscreen almost at the same exact time, making this a nightmare for the defense to navigate.
Oklahoma
The Spurs use this āOklahomaā set as a counter to double ballscreen action - I got the term from a clinic I saw Igor Kokoskov give on YouTube:
In the double ballscreen the shooter is the first screener, who fakes rolling to the rim and as the point guard clears the second screener he rescreens for the first.
Oklahoma Empty
When teams know that the Oklahoma action is coming, the Spurs run this play empty so the roller is available when the defense overreacts to it.
Ram 2 Chase Oklahoma
Another way the Spurs disguise this action is by running āRam 2 Chaseā or a big screening for a guard and then following into a double ballscreen.
After the normal action, the big then rescreens - just like the normal set - for the guard.
Thru Rip Turn Chicago
A good way to disguise what play or action you are looking to run is to have a common action before it. One of the most common actions is to cut a player thru into the lane.
The guard who cuts into the lane then sets a backscreen for the opposite wing.
As the player clears he turns and sets a screen down for the corner man, flowing into āChicagoā action.
If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!
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Note: if you are reading this in the e-mail-only form some of the gifs and videos do not always show up correctly.
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Coach Pyper