Training camp is nearly upon us. Now is the time for Mitch Johnson and the rest of the San Antonio Spurs coaching staff to see how roster plans will come to life. That means experimenting with lineups in practice and the preseason before the season starts on October 20th.
This season should be a lot of fun from a lineup-combination perspective. San Antonio has a lot of diverse talent, giving them versatility and depth they can lean on. The team will eventually settle into the rotation and lineup that will lead to the most success in a postseason run, but to start the season, there should be some tinkering here and there that will lead to some interesting 5-man groups.
Guessing what those lineups will be is easier for San Antonio than for many other teams. The Spurs have more roster continuity than most of the league. We should expect to see a lot of the same units as last year, but with Tobias Harris and Tarris Reed Jr. sprinkled in. It’s just enough of a change to look forward to the lineups that will define San Antonio’s 2026-27 season.
Starters and finishers?
De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Tobias Harris, Victor Wembanyama
I have banged the drum all offseason that Julian Champagnie should keep his starting spot heading into the regular season, despite the signing of Harris. However, the writing seems to be on the wall for Harris to take the four-man spot for San Antonio this season.
It makes sense; Harris is a veteran with a skill set the Spurs desperately needed last year. He’s a true forward with a big body who can defend decently well, hit threes (shot 36.8% from deep last year), and create his own shot when the offense stalls. He’s not quite the sharpshooter that Champagnie is, but makes up for it with those other skills
The rest of the group is exactly what you’d expect. This group (with Champagnie) had a +17.3 net rating last season and was San Antonio’s most effective lineup. A healthy and motivated De’Aaron Fox and a year-three leap from Stephon Castle could take this group to an even greater level.
We’ll see if this is indeed the closing group. If Champagnie is hot, it will be hard to keep him off the floor. If Dylan Harper takes another leap in year two, he will almost certainly need to be on the floor when the game is on the line.
Wemby-less group
Dylan Harper, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson, Carter Bryant, Luke Kornet
Go figure: San Antonio was at its worst last season when Victor Wembanyama was on the bench. That was especially noticeable in the playoffs, where teams picked on Luke Kornet when Wembanyama went to the bench. That is now an established strategy this team will have to deal with. They can make Kornet’s life easier by improving the rest of the defense around him.
Harper and Bryant are two of the Spurs’ best perimeter defenders, and Champagnie has shown the ability to play in passing lanes and hold his own on defense. This bench lineup is much better defensively, which should help them maintain leads when the starters exit.
This group should have some offensive juice, too. Harper is one of the best sixth men in the NBA, Keldon Johnson is the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Champagnie was a starter during the finals, and Bryant could make a leap.
Three-guard lineup
De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Tobias Harris, Victor Wembanyama
This is the group the Spurs have to make work. Fox, Harper, and Castle are too good to not find a way to play them all together. Those three only played 25 minutes together in the regular season, with a net rating of -26.9. Not great. San Antonio just never found a way to make the offense click with the three of them together.
Finding a way to make this work had to have been one of the coaching staff’s top priorities this offseason. This unit probably needs two major things to work: continued improvement in shooting from Castle and Harper, and more time on the court together. Harper shot 47.9% from three after the All-Star break last season, while Castle hit 41.7% of his threes in the same time frame. If that improvement carries over into the regular season, this lineup could sing. More than anything, this group just needs time to play together and figure out how to coexist.
Harris is a great add for this group, too. He helps them maintain size on the interior while not sacrificing shooting and playmaking. With Wembanyama on the floor, the team can maintain defensive dominance while maximizing playmaking and perimeter speed. On paper, it’s a lineup that makes a lot of sense; it just needs time to become one of the team’s go-to groups.
Read the full article here