The Importance Of The Spurs' Bench

By: Yannis Koutroupis / HoopsWorld.com

The 2011-2012 schedule was released earlier this week and, of course, most of the talk was about whether or not we're actually going to see any of those games played. The players have been locked out for just about a month now and there has been no progress made on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. In fact, the owners and players haven't even met since the lockout began. The next set of meetings are going to happen in August at the earliest.

That delay has speculation running rampant that games will be lost, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for the San Antonio Spurs. Their schedule is fairly difficult early on with 13 back-to-backs before the All-Star break. They have 18 in total. They also have their annual rodeo road trip in February, which is nine games long. It'll keep them on the road from the 6th through the 23rd with games at Utah, Portland and Denver looking like the toughest.

With how trying the early portion of the season is going to be and the fact that they're still heavily reliant on the aging Duncan and Ginobili, the Spurs could stand a little extend vacation through the regular season.

Last year the Spurs were the league's premier team for most of the season. They started off on a real tear and rode that momentum for quite a while. By the start of the playoffs, though, they lost all of it as All-Stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan suffered injuries that limited their effectiveness in the postseason. They ended up being upset in the first round by the Memphis Grizzlies, marking just the second upset of a 1st place team by an 8th place team since the change from five game series to seven games.

In obvious need of some changes, the Spurs have so far been robbed of the chance to do so due to the lockout. All indications point to them going into next year, whenever it starts, looking much like they do right now.

That would make getting through another 82-game season a real daunting task. If no games are lost and that's what they have to do, their bench would have to step up significantly.

The Spurs' bench has seen some changes during the offseason. Combo guard George Hill, who was arguably the leader of that second unit and someone who head coach Gregg Popovich was comfortable using as a starter as well, was traded to the Indiana Pacers. In return the Spurs received rookie small forward Kawhi Leonard, a smooth player who slipped further than expected on draft night. He's one of the 2011 rookie classes' best defenders. He has very good potential overall.

The Spurs liked Leonard a lot to be willing to give up Hill for him. He's going to have to be a contributor year one because it's clear after two years that Jefferson just isn't a good fit. He played just 10 minutes in the Spurs' last game of the year and was shopped hard during the draft. His minutes are there for the taking if Leonard can find a way to fit in the system better. Behind Leonard will be Da'Sean Bulter, a promising forward coming off of a torn ACL.

Big men Tiago Splitter and DeJuan Blair will likely battle it out for the starting post position alongside Duncan. Both were effective for stretches last year, but rarely during the same time. Splitter found his game late, while Blair was forced into a spectator role for most of the playoffs. That can't happen next year because they'll both be playing even more with veteran forward Antonio McDyess retiring. If neither one of them emerges as the starter, the sharpshooting Matt Bonner could find himself back in that role.

It'd be a big addition to the Spurs if second-year guard James Anderson could get it going. The explosive scorer from Oklahoma State was injured for a lot of his rookie season, but has the ability to help this team. The Spurs ended up getting what they were expecting from Anderson from Gary Neal. Neal was one of the league's biggest surprises and a constant producer of instant offense off the bench.

If rookie guard Cory Joseph can bring anything to the table like Hill was able to in terms of setting up the offense and making plays, he'll be another Spurs' steal. Few people projected him to be a first round pick, but the Spurs saw something they really liked in order to stretch for him like they did. With Hill gone he's going to have an opportunity to crack the rotation.

As a whole the Spurs' bench is young with plenty of talent. They look the players on it as intricate parts of their future. However, they're going to need to be effective in the present as well, especially if the season starts on time.

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