Predicting the Spurs' perfect starting lineup without De’Aaron Fox

Unfortunately for the San Antonio Spurs, star De'Aaron Fox will miss the season opener and potentially the first few games of the season. Therefore, head coach Mitch Johnson will have to adjust the starting lineup to try and soften the blow of having his second-best player out.

Luckily for the Spurs, they are incredibly deep at guard and should have no problem finding a reasonable placement. Second overall pick, Dylan Harper, should be the favorite to replace Fox to start the regular season.

This most likely starting lineup would include Harper, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, and Victor Wembanyama. However, there are other options too.

Who should the San Antonio Spurs start in De'Aaron Fox's absence?

The safe bet is on the Spurs starting Harper with no Fox. However, if the Spurs want to ease Harper into playing in the NBA, they could have him come off the bench in favor of Julian Champagnie.

That might seem unlikely, but Champagnie started early last year while Devin Vassell was out, and Castle came off the bench.

Champagnie would give San Antonio size and shooting, providing the starting five with four shooters instead of three. That's certainly tempting given the teams' potential to struggle in that area.

However, another option could be to start Jeremy Sochan. Sochan truthers unite! But seriously, for those that believe Sochan should start—I'm not necessarily one of them, but to each their own—this would be the perfect chance.

San Antonio would be replacing one non-shooter with another. Castle, Vassell, Barnes, Sochan, and Wembanyama would be an intriguing starting five to try out to see how it meshes.

The Spurs could use Fox's absence to experiment

For all we know, Castle and/or Sochan improve as shooters, and that lineup suddenly looks like a juggernaut on both ends of the floor.

One last starting option would be Luke Kornet. The Spurs could experiment with a twin towers lineup with Castle, Vassell, Barnes, Kornet, and Wembanyama. That would certainly be an inspired lineup.

They could put a lid on the rim while also potentially doing some clever things on offense, such as a Kornet and Wembanyama pick-and-roll.

Whether they'd be able to cobble together enough offense is a question mark. Still, the size and length of that lineup might be too much for teams to score against.

All in all, Fox's absence to start the season might be the perfect chance for the team to try out different starting lineups. The most likely lineup is Harper, Castle, Vassell, Barnes, and Wembanyama. Meanwhile, Castle, Vassell, Barnes, Sochan, and Wembanyama could be a dark-horse temporary starting five.