The 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs were a team in literally every sense of the word. They were the first team in NBA history to not have a single player average over 30 minutes per game, they led the league in assists and they played a steady nine-man rotation all the way to the NBA Finals, which is almost unheard of.

Chris Webber said on an episode of Open Court: “The best teams always have the best role players,” and while that’s not always true, it sure feels like some rotation players will always have a huge impact.

Just think about the Finals over the past few years. Jason Terry kept the 2011 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks alive in Game 6 against the Miami Heat in the first half, finishing with 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting while Dirk Nowitzki struggled to get going. It allowed the Mavs to keep it close at the halfway mark and pull away when Dirk finally exploded in the fourth quarter.

For the Heat in their consecutive title runs, it was Mike Miller, “the one shoe assassin“, somehow getting healthy and making seven three-pointers to put the Oklahoma City Thunder away. After a horrible series, Shane Battier hit six threes to clinch Game 7. And of course there was the Game 6 shot by Ray Allen.

But the best example is the entire Spurs bench in the 2014 NBA Finals.

There are just guys who impact the game when it matters the most. It’s not an accident that Robert Horry was the one at the end of the crucial lucky bounce (why wasn’t he rebounding the ball?!?!).

The difference between winning and losing in the NBA often comes down to making just one more play than your opponent. And often it’s not the stars that are responsible for them.

The Stats:
Being clutch isn’t about the big shots for the Spurs, but the continuous precision and effort every player shows in executing Gregg Popovich’s schemes. When you get the ball you do something. Immediately. Whether it be drive, pass or shoot, there’s a beautiful rhythm and geometry to everything the Spurs do on the offense.

Pop trusts his guys and they trust him. It doesn’t matter if you only play five minutes because in those five minutes, you’ll execute your heart out and do whatever you can to help the team when you are on the floor.

The actual rotation numbers are incredible. Did you know that Marco Belinelli played the fourth most minutes per game out of all the Spurs this season?

No other team since 1996 came even close to playing like the Spurs. Patty Mills was the “ninth man” on the Spurs, and his minutes average was up 40 percent from the expected.

On the other side of the curve, Tony Parker played 22 percent less than the average minute leader.

The difference of 10.5 minutes between Parker and Mills compared to the 24-minute difference between the usual No. 1 and No.9 rotation player is a 56 percent decrease!

No one plays like this. Ever. Not just championship caliber teams; The average team minutes distribution graph is pretty close to a normal championship rotation.

Impact on the League:
It’s easy to say that if other teams had the kind of depth the Spurs had they could rest their stars the same way; While the Heat took great care of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James was put through a nightmare-ish season, having to cover for Wade and carry the burden on both ends of the floor night after night. Somehow the Heat felt like they couldn’t help LeBron at all, and while I can’t say definitively that it impacted the Finals, it sure didn’t help.

After some injuries to Kawhi Leonard, Parker, Danny Green and Tiago Splitter, the Spurs went on a crazy 26-4 run at the end of the season to clinch the No. 1 seed. It literally looks like you’re better off just taking a break for a couple months in the middle of the season and then getting ready for a playoff push if you’re an elite team. Thanks to that month or two break for each of these Spurs, they looked really healthy and fresh all the way to the Finals.

The era of guys playing over 40 minutes per game should be over. The truth is we have too many games today. With how fast, strong and athletic players are today, playing 3000 minutes (amounts to over 36 per game while playing all 82) a season without rest is not a viable option anymore.

Of course, holding the fort is difficult, even if the Spurs system makes it look easy. The Indiana Pacers were horrible when their starting lineup rested, the Heat basically collapse without either Bosh or James, and the Mavs turn into a below .500 team when Dirk sits (compared to the .600 mark they hit this year).

It’s just hard to be good without your best players on the floor, or more accurately, it’s hard not to totally collapse when that happens.

The league always tends to take on the personality of the champion, whether it be an increase of small ball or valuing nuances in offensive and defensive rebounding. Other teams are always trying to emulate the best.

For example, would Roy Hibbert have collapsed so completely if he had been played more conservatively? He’s 7’2″ and it’s already a burden for him to get up and down the court, and if he slows down even 1/7 from full speed, his effectiveness decreases exponentially.

It’ll be interesting to see how player rotation shapes up league wide next season. To me it’s obvious that players need more rest.

It's not easy but I think it would be good to try playing this way. This team has a lot of similarly talented players with few that stand out above the rest. You could make an argument for a ton of different lineups and you wouldn't be wrong. We have guys that don't require a lot of minutes and would still perform about the same. Then when Fish gets a chance he can extend role player minutes in blowouts and give starter days off during the year. I'd like to give a kid like Early some minutes rather than burn Melo 40 minutes a night. IMO no reason Larkin can't get minutes and keep Jose fresh.

Player	          Pos	Desc	        Height	Weight	DOB	        Age

Jose Calderon	  PG	Point Guard	6'3'	200 lbs	9/28/1981	32
J.R. Smith	  SG	Shooting Guard	6'6'    220 lbs	9/9/1985	29
Carmelo Anthony	  SF	Small Forward	6'8'	240 lbs	5/29/1984	30
Amare Stoudemire  PF	Power Forward	6'11'	245 lbs	11/16/1982	31
Jason Smith	  C	Center	        7'0'	240 lbs	3/2/1986	28
Pablo Prigioni	  PG	Point Guard	6'3'	185 lbs	5/17/1977	37
Tim Hardaway Jr.  SG	Shooting Guard	6'6'	205 lbs	3/16/1992	22
Iman Shumpert	  SF	Small Forward	6'5'	220 lbs	6/26/1990	24
Andrea Bargnani	  PF	Power Forward	7'0'	250 lbs	10/26/1985	28

Shane Larkin	  PG	Point Guard	5'11'	176 lbs	10/2/1992	21
Cleanthony Early  SF	Small Forward	6'8'	219 lbs	4/17/1991	23
Samuel Dalembert  C	Center	        6'11'	250 lbs	5/10/1981	33
Quincy Acy	  SF	Small Forward	6'7'	233 lbs	10/6/1990	23
Cole Aldrich	  C	Center	        6'11'	245 lbs	10/31/1988	25
Travis Outlaw	  SF	Small Forward	6'9'	207 lbs	9/18/1984	30

I would go with Larkin or Early rather than play Dalembert. I think they can offer more versatility to the rotation and we can get by without Dalembert's contributions. They don't need a ton of minutes. Just using them enough to be developed and give us a spark with their youth, talent and energy. This is what the article talks about. Being able to use players off the bench who can give you good minutes even in a limited amount of time. Cut the main guys minutes just a bit and let these bench players contribute. It makes your team better equipped to deal with injury or foul trouble down the line as well as preserving the starters for the playoffs.

CrushAlot wrote:I am really curious to see what Smith and Acy bring and what minutes they get. Acy is the kind of guy that will fire up the garden. Also, I think the Knicks should play Amare 30 minutes a night and if he doesn't hold up move on. If he can play those minutes the Knicks become a lot better. If not that deal with Philly is probably still there at the deadline and guys like Acy, Smith and Aldrich get more floor time.

That sounds like a very logical approach. STAT should be given the chance to be a major part of this and see if he can be that guy for a full season and playoffs. Of course they can get him days off and play guys on the bench as well. There's nothing wrong with that approach. When he plays, let him play starter minutes and if you want to rest him let it be full game rest and let the depth players fill in.

I'm not sure how much Acy will play unless there are injuries. It's possible he'll play instead of Early. It all depends on how things go in camp and preseason. I honestly see a very good team here. I was watching a video where they had some analysts saying the Knicks would be 10th in the East and that they had very little shot this year and I really can't see what they're talking about. With a better system, preparation and coaching and good health this summer I think players will come in ready to go and be at their best. I see a year much like the 54 win season but with a more balanced roster and better offensive system that should be more playoff worthy.

EnySpree wrote:It's to our advantage to play everyone. We need all 12 active guys. We gotta trust the system and make sure everyone is comfortable. If we have to plug in someone they should fit in seemlessly. At least that's the team I want. Pop and Phil always played a deep bench. Is a team sport. You need everyone. No need to burn out 8 guys when you have 12 guys to play.

Yeah it should be that you have a team that is totally interchangeable. Guys should be able to come in and the machine just keeps humming. We have that kind of system now and Fish should be preparing the team to be able to function no matter who is on the floor. Guys will have roles now and a very specific set of rules which should allow any of them to function within the system. IMO playing a deep rotation will help this team over the course of the season and the playoffs.

I wanna see these players all committed to the ball and player movement. We haven't seen the best of these players yet. Maybe now we can see the real talent level on this team. I didn't think much of Atlanta but they made the most of their talent simply but playing as a team. The Hawks were well coached and they trusted each other. They didn't have top talent but got farther with sound BB Principles. I think the Knicks roster is more talented and if they can do the same it will make a huge difference.

TripleThreat wrote:

CrushAlot wrote:Also, I think the Knicks should play Amare 30 minutes a night and if he doesn't hold up move on. If he can play those minutes the Knicks become a lot better.

Here's where I draw the line between realistic and fantasy.

If you say, Player X, if he does things A, B, C, D and E on this list, then he and the team can have a lot of success.

If Player X has shown in the past 2-3 seasons that he's capable of doing four of those five things and what you hope for are INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS, then I would label that as being "realistic"

Trying to push your players to each raise their free throw shooting percentage by 3-5 percent each is "realistic"

Asking for a single player to move well off the ball when he's never shown it in his career, defend the rim when he's never done that well in his career, be a plus passer in the post when he's never done that in his career, subvert himself to a team system when he's never done that for his entire career, to me, hoping for that, changes that are DRAMATIC instead of incremental, IMHO, that is riding "fantasy"

The reason the Spurs use a deep rotation is they have aging core players who can't sustain heavy minutes, but their reserves don't offset their pluses with tradeoffs. That's the problem for ANY TEAM when you go deeper into your roster, you begin to deal with more players who offer tough tradeoffs that you must limit or disguise on the court. I've spoken about JJ Barea during the Dallas championship run, great spark plug off the bench, could break down the enemy perimeter defense and cause havoc as a slasher. However you have to hide a player like that defensively. You can't just throw him into games with 9 other guys and expect it all to work out. The four other guys on the court need to be able to cover for his weaknesses. He has to be able to offer something to help cover weaknesses for one of the other four guys on the floor as well.

This year, the Knicks STARTERS can't even compensate for each others practical weaknesses.

JR Smith, Melo, STAT are all ball dominant players. By virtue of position, Calderon must be a ball dominant player. It's not these guys are 2nd year players, these are VETERANS. What you see is what you get. Melo is not going to overnight become an elite facilitator and move well off the ball. He's never shown that skill in his career, it's not like it's asking for an INCREMENTAL improvement, it's asking for a DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT.

Amare Stoudamire has shown nothing in the last three years to suggest he can handle 30 minutes a night. There's nothing to suggest he would be anything more than a complete liability on defense, unable to protect the rim, having bad timing, having a poor understanding of team defense, often appears lazy and uninterested, often forces his team mates to pick up the slack because of his poor help defense. He offers no real low post offense, he's not an elite shooter to be a Stretch 4 to space the floor. The Spurs can go 9-10 deep because they don't have to try to hide a player like STAT. Asking STAT to do thing A, B, C and D and E on that list, when most of that list is stuff that he's never done or does poorly or is asking for dramatic improvement, that's IMHO a bunch of fantasy.

Giving STAT ( or any player not in the long term future for the team) is actually kind of insane. Giving STAT those minutes, if he could handle them, if he wasn't a defensive sieve ( I mean an orange traffic cone would do more for the Knicks defense than STAT, at least someone might trip on the cone, whereas STAT is a human turnstile. He makes some of those wretched NY Giants O linemen look like HOFers in comparison with the consistency where guys are blowing past him) is taking minute from Early, THJ, Larkin, Shumpert, guys who the Knicks need to see if they can develop more and establish as either core guys or raise their trade value to move them.

The Knicks "become a lot better" when they want to emulate what the Spurs did when the Spurs were at the level of the current Knicks. Asking the Knicks right now to do what the current Spurs are doing is crazy. Asking the Knicks to do what the Spurs did early on in their struggling years and trying to build a team the right way, that's practical. The Spurs can do what they do because they have glue guys like Boris Diaw and Kawhi Leonard who are versatile and who can do 8-9 things very well each and can compensate for weakenesses in other team mates.

JR is statistically a great catch and shoot player. The offense we ran dictated a lot of the times he ended up over dribbling.

Jose wasn't ball dominant last year and still produced at his usual high level aside from assists which naturally went down due to playing more off the ball.

STAT for most of his career was a catch and finish player. He'll be in a new position of now having to catch and wait for cutters before going into his move in the post, but really that's not as hard as it sounds and he'll be practicing his passing out of the post. It's unknown just how good he can be doing that but we know he can score from that position.

Most of our role players are very good catch and shoot players as well. It seems to me that the only issue is that these players haven't been playing in this kind of system but in terms of what they should be able to do in the Triangle they have the basic skills.

Defense is another issue entirely. I don't expect the Knicks to be a top defensive team. This is going to be a team that has to be a top offensive team and middle of the pack defensively. I think they can do that.

jrodmc wrote:

nixluva wrote:TripleThreat, Melo actually is very capable of moving without the ball. He does it even now with the Knicks. He did it with the Olympic team too, which is why people joke about Olympic Melo.

JR is statistically a great catch and shoot player. The offense we ran dictated a lot of the times he ended up over dribbling.

Jose wasn't ball dominant last year and still produced at his usual high level aside from assists which naturally went down due to playing more off the ball.

STAT for most of his career was a catch and finish player. He'll be in a new position of now having to catch and wait for cutters before going into his move in the post, but really that's not as hard as it sounds and he'll be practicing his passing out of the post. It's unknown just how good he can be doing that but we know he can score from that position.

Most of our role players are very good catch and shoot players as well. It seems to me that the only issue is that these players haven't been playing in this kind of system but in terms of what they should be able to do in the Triangle they have the basic skills.

Defense is another issue entirely. I don't expect the Knicks to be a top defensive team. This is going to be a team that has to be a top offensive team and middle of the pack defensively. I think they can do that.

Melo has shown improvements defensively, but a starting 5 including Jose, Jason Smith and Stat is going to put you in a pretty large hole at the beginning of every game, except against the most inept offenses.

I don't understand this one-season plan to recoup Stat's value. Although hopefully if the Triangle really leads to Stat having to wait and think a bit longer before going into his post move where he normally dribbles the ball off his foot and out of bounds, that might be an improvement. If you're starting Stat, you have to play Dalembert or (gulp) Cole. That front line plus Jose does not spell anywhere near middle of the pack defensively, except in the most homer of worlds. And I live there full time. It has all the earmarks of watching uncontested layup lines and dunk of the night highlights.

I'll give you a different way of looking at the rotation in terms of what you could expect. The Knicks played the last 22 games with STAT starting in a lineup of Felton, JR, Melo, STAT and Tyson. They went 16-6 in those games with STAT starting. STAT was highly efficient in those games going 57% and 63% in March and April in 28 mpg. That is pretty much what we should be looking for from him. The way you focused on STAT's negatives makes me think you don't respect just how good he actually is when healthy. Despite his flaws he was the starting C on some big win teams. We just need 28-30 strong minutes from STAT.

No matter if we have Jason or Dalembert in there I think this team can defend well enough. It's going to be an Offensive team for the most part. They should be better than last year in terms of offensive efficiency. That will allow this team to win games despite not being the defensive juggernaut most would love the team to be. They were able to go 16-6 with STAT starting so it is possible.

What killed this team last year was the poor start and overall lower efficiency on both ends of the court. You can see as the year progressed that the team began to start performing more like their talent would suggest. Better health and coaching should help this team to perform at a higher level this year. The loss of Tyson shouldn't necessarily mean a drop in defensive production but I can see the team being improved offensively.

2013-14 TEAM STATISTICS
SPLIT
                G       FG      FG%     3P%     FT%     OREB    DREB    REB     AST     STL     TO      PF      PTS
In October	2	33.5	42.7%	32.4%	80.6%	9.5	28.5	38	18.5	12	18.5	20	85.5
In November	13	35.9	41.8%	31.6%	75.2%	11.5	29.2	40.8	19.4	7.2	11.7	23.8	93.5
In December	15	36.3	44.1%	38.8%	76.7%	9.8	27.9	37.7	21.3	9.4	12.4	21.9	97
In January	16	37.9	46.4%	39.4%	74.8%	11.4	32.3	43.6	20.6	6.3	13.3	21.8	101.4
In February	13	37.9	44.7%	36.8%	72.9%	11.2	30.3	41.5	20	7.2	14.5	21.9	100
In March	16	37.4	46.5%	38.1%	77.1%	10.1	29.8	39.8	20.1	6.9	12.1	21.3	101.2
In April	7	35.7	46.6%	40%	81.5%	9.3	27.9	37.1	17.4	9.7	13.4	23.3	100.3

TripleThreat wrote:
Giving STAT ( or any player not in the long term future for the team) is actually kind of insane. Giving STAT those minutes, if he could handle them, if he wasn't a defensive sieve ( I mean an orange traffic cone would do more for the Knicks defense than STAT, at least someone might trip on the cone, whereas STAT is a human turnstile. He makes some of those wretched NY Giants O linemen look like HOFers in comparison with the consistency where guys are blowing past him) is taking minute from Early, THJ, Larkin, Shumpert, guys who the Knicks need to see if they can develop more and establish as either core guys or raise their trade value to move them.

I agree with this. Forget Stat and ESPECIALLY the awful, awful Bargs and the rest of the numbskulls who have no future on the team. We aint winning a chip so lets see what we have in the young'uns and develop them, record be damned. Best case scenario we come out with some keepers with lots more NBA experience instead of benchwarmers and worst case scenario we have another bad season albeit one with a draft pick, a whole lotta cap space, and some nice cheap young players at the end of the tunnel in 2015.

H1AND1 wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:
Giving STAT ( or any player not in the long term future for the team) is actually kind of insane. Giving STAT those minutes, if he could handle them, if he wasn't a defensive sieve ( I mean an orange traffic cone would do more for the Knicks defense than STAT, at least someone might trip on the cone, whereas STAT is a human turnstile. He makes some of those wretched NY Giants O linemen look like HOFers in comparison with the consistency where guys are blowing past him) is taking minute from Early, THJ, Larkin, Shumpert, guys who the Knicks need to see if they can develop more and establish as either core guys or raise their trade value to move them.

I agree with this. Forget Stat and ESPECIALLY the awful, awful Bargs and the rest of the numbskulls who have no future on the team. We aint winning a chip so lets see what we have in the young'uns and develop them, record be damned. Best case scenario we come out with some keepers with lots more NBA experience instead of benchwarmers and worst case scenario we have another bad season albeit one with a draft pick, a whole lotta cap space, and some nice cheap young players at the end of the tunnel in 2015.

As I just posted above the Knicks closed the season with STAT starting and the team going 16-6. Phil will want to establish a winning culture not just for our own players but future free agents looking at NY. The team isn't going to just ignore the vets cuz they may not be part of the future and it wont benefit the kids to not play to win as much as possible this year. This should be a playoff team and the vets will have major roles to play. Now that we have better leadership and a real system we can see we can see what we have and what needs to be changed more clearly. A deep rotation will allow the kids a chance to show what they can do.