Sunday, the San Antonio Spurs announced six players will not travel to Phoenix for the Spurs’ first preseason game of the 2016-17 season. LaMarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Manu Ginobili, Danny Green, Tony Parker and Patty Mills were the six players that will be staying behind in San Antonio the team announced.
The only projected starter who is expected to make the trip is the 2016 MVP runner-up Kawhi Leonard. The Spurs currently have 19 players on their training camp roster, and five of those players are battling for the team’s lone vacant 15th roster spot. In leaving six core players behind for the game against the Suns Monday, the coaching staff may be able to give more playing time to the camp invite’s and new players to the team, in order to evaluate their performances.
The chart below displays the Spurs’ projected depth chart for Monday’s preseason game at Phoenix, though no official word on starting lineups or other players sitting out have been made known yet. (Italics = camp invites)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Dejounte Murray (2) | Jonathon Simmons (3) | Kawhi Leonard (4) | David Lee (5) | Dewayne Dedmon |
| Nicolas Laprovittola | Bryn Forbes | Kyle Anderson (4) | Livio Jean-Charles | Joel Anthony (4) |
| Ryan Arcidiacono | Davis Bertans (4) | |||
| Patricio Garino | ||||
