On July 30, Beijing time, Spurs star DeRozan was interviewed by the media and talked about his feelings after he changed to play as a power forward. "I saw how the game changed. Basketball has become no differentiated, so it doesn't matter where you play." DeRozan said.
Three warm-up matches, Spurs all use the same starting lineup, which belongs to the "one big and four small" configuration. With the season reimbursement of Aldridge , Popovich had to change the team's starting lineup. The new starting five tigers have been confirmed: the backcourt is Murray and White , the frontcourt is Walker and DeRozan, and the center is Pelter.
Before the suspension, the Spurs had used 13 starting lineups, and the most used ones were Murray + Forbes + Lyles + DeRozan + Aldridge. This set of starts used 39 games, while the other 12 sets of starts did not use more than 3 games. This set of starters in the warm-up match has never been used in the official competition this season. The new starter of
will face a huge challenge, and for DeRozan, playing the fourth position is not a brand new experience. Data shows that DeRozan has played shooting guards 54% of his career, small forwards 43% of his time, and power forwards 3% of his time. This season, he has only played two positions, playing small forwards 77% of the time and power forwards 23% of the time.
Before the suspension this season, DeRozan averaged 22, 2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, shooting percentage of 52.6%, hitting percentage and assists per game hit a career high, and his condition was pretty good. As DeRozan said, the position of modern basketball has been blurred, and the change to play as a power forward has not caused much trouble to DeRozan.
Spurs achieved a record of 1 win and 2 losses in the warm-up match, and their prospects this season are not great. So far this season, the Spurs have a record of 27 wins and 36 losses, and it is extremely difficult to advance to playoffs . When talking about the last playoff ticket for the Western Conference, it was generally believed that it was mainly between the Grizzlies , Trail Blazers and the Pelicans. The other three teams, including the Spurs, were basically in the form of running with the escorts. Can this Spurs, which lacks Ade, create miracles under the leadership of Popovich?
