Here’s the San Antonio Express-News Blog with some insight on the Spurs rotation and what it could mean in the big picture:
The Spurs boast arguably the deepest roster in the NBA, with nine players getting regular minutes and scoring between 17.8 and 8.4 points per game. Eight have a Player Efficiency Rating above the weighted average of 15.0. The league-leading production differential of their bench is nearly double that of No. 3 Memphis.
That depth saved the Spurs this season, allowing them to stay afloat while missing five of those players for significant chunks in January and February. Healthy once more, they’ve gone 9-1 since the All-Star break to surge atop the league standings at 46-16.
But as critical as it’s been, the Spurs’ emphasis on balance over raw star power doesn’t bode well from a historic perspective. Indeed, according to the NBA’s weekly media newsletter, there hasn’t been an NBA championship with nine eight-point scorers since the Celtics back in 1966.
That’s about as obscure as it gets from a statistical threshold. And while rare, ensemble championships are far from unheard of in the NBA.
