Friday after the San Antonio Spurs’ final preseason win against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Spurs waived Daulton Hommes, to bring their roster down to the required minimum of 17 players.
Here’s a brief overview of the returning players to the roster and the new additions, as well as projected roles for each player early in the season.
Returning Players
Dejounte Murray – Murray is expected to be the team’s starting point guard where he returns to the lineup after missing all of last season with an ACL injury.
Bryn Forbes – Forbes is expected to be the team’s starting shooting guard.
DeMar DeRozan – DeRozan will be starting at the small forward position.
LaMarcus Aldridge – Aldridge will start, but the early question is where? During the preseason, the Spurs started him in some games at the 4 next to Jakob Poeltl and other games at the 5 next to Trey Lyles.
Patty Mills – Mills is expected to be the backup point guard off the bench.
Derrick White – White is expected to the backup shooting guard off the bench, where he had been replacing Murray in the preseason.
Marco Belinelli – Belinelli is expected to be DeRozan’s backup at the small forward position. Though Belinelli will likely be ahead of Lonnie Walker IV in the rotation, that’s the position to watch to see if Walker IV can move ahead of Belinelli as the season progresses.
Rudy Gay – Gay is expected to be the backup power forward off the bench.
Jakob Poeltl – Poeltl will either start at the 5 next to Aldridge, or, he’ll be the team’s backup center if they start small.
Lonnie Walker IV – After five preseason games, Walker IV is expected to be behind Belinelli in the rotation as the backup small forward. As mentioned above, that’s a position battle to watch as the season goes along.
Chimezie Metu – In his second season now, Metu didn’t find himself in the rotation. He may end up spending time in Austin again.
Drew Eubanks – On a two-way deal, Eubanks will likely spend most of his time in Austin unless the Spurs are playing a team with traditional bigman lineups. Eubanks is the only other center on the roster besides Poeltl who is a traditional center.
New Additions
DeMarre Carroll – It’ll be interesting to see if Carroll gets in the rotation early in the season. In some games when Gay was out, he played the backup power forward. When Gay was present, he spent time at the backup small forward position.
Trey Lyles – After sitting out the first couple of preseason games, Lyles found himself starting at the 4 in the final two games. If the Spurs start small, he might start alongside Aldridge. If the Spurs start traditional, it’ll be interesting to see where or even if he gets minutes in the rotation.
Keldon Johnson – Johnson will likely follow the trend of previous Spurs draftees and spend most of his time out of the rotation and most likely in Austin.
Luka Samanic – Like Johnson, Samanic isn’t expected to be in the rotation and he too could spend more time in Austin.
Quinndary Weatherspoon – On a two-way deal, Weatherspoon will likely spend most of his time in Austin since the Spurs already have a heavy guard rotation ahead of him.
