Before we get started, I still want everyone to know that I would still want the San Antonio Spurs to commit to the rebuild. This sets up the Spurs better for the future. However, me being a spoiled Spurs fan, the losing was hard to get used to. It seems as if Gregg Popovich has done it again though. He figured out how to make the Spurs a winning team again. They are looking like a competent and competitive team once again. Of course, some of the changes that transpired I could see a mile away, but until Gregg Popovich sees them, nothing will change.
One of the main reasons why they are winning again is because they are not playing Marco Belinelli significant minutes. THANK THE LORD SWEET BABT JESUS. I could tell about 5-10 games in the season that he needed to be benched and play less than 10 minutes a game. He is absolute trash. Instead, his minutes are now going to Lonnie Walker, a personal fan favorite of the Spurs Fan base. He is the epitome of why Spurs fans should be excited for the future with him and two others from our young core in Derrick White and Dejounte Murray.
This simple change has worked wonders for the Spurs so far, Lonnie Walker is better skilled offensively and defensively than Marco Belinelli, the only area that Marco has Lonnie beat is shooting and even then this season was close. Walker provides more versatility on both sides of the ball, which has helped the San Antonio Spurs tremendously.
LaMarcus Aldridge And Demar DeRozan
The other noticeable change was LaMarcus Aldridge shooting more 3s. This has really spread out the floor for Demar DeRozan and Aldridge himself. With both of them being excellent mid-range shooters, the spacing for the Spurs would be non-existent. In fact, until this change, these two guys were killing the Spurs in advanced analytics. LaMarcus Aldridge shooting numbers have sky-rocketed from 3 because of this and DeRozan’s numbers have increased as well. Such a simple but effective change has worked wonders for these players, which has helped the Spurs in turn.
Because of these changes, the Spurs have beaten two of the best Eastern Conference teams in consecutive games. They beat these teams pretty convincingly too. The Spurs beat the Bucks by 22 points at home and beat the Celtics by 15 points on the road. Their schedule for the rest of January is quite favorable, facing a number of teams that are below .500 or teams dealing with injuries. This works out well for the Spurs in their playoff hopes, but not for their future in my opinion. Their schedule difficulty picks back up again in February
If the Spurs start playing well, this could be the end of all Demar DeRozan trade rumors. Which if that happens, Demar DeRozan, who is on a player option this year, could walk away from the Spurs for free and the Spurs are only left with Jakob Poeltl from the Kawhi Leonard trade. I don’t honestly believe the Spurs could win a championship, or even be close, with Demar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge at the helm. If we trade Demar DeRozan at the trade deadline, we are at least giving our future a chance to make great acquisitions for success later on. We could trade LaMarcus Aldridge next year if anything. But as I said, I wish the San Antonio Spurs would commit to the rebuild. I do like winning though, it’s not the worse thing in the world.
