Spurs' unique starting lineup hands the NBA a problem it has no template for

Mitch Johnson confirmed before tonight's preseason finale against the Kings that De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama will start Tuesday against the Thunder. Three point guards, one shooting guard/win, and one Alien. That's pretty unconventional in today's NBA, but after watching two halves of it, that seems to be the point, and it may be genius.

He floated this group before the October 8 preseason opener, then declined to say whether it would hold for the regular season. Four days out, Coach said it out loud. That means it's not an experiment anymore. It's the reality San Antonio plans on beating their opponents over the head with. Non-traditional is hard to plan for, and teams get a full serving of it on a nightly basis going forward.

Nothing about Wembanyama is traditional, so the Spurs are leaning in

Simple logic might say Julian Champagnie set a franchise record with 195 threes last season and started 68 of 82 games. Or Tobias got the full non-taxpayer mid-level at two years and $30.8 million and was the offseason's big free-agent addition. Go with one of them; they're actual forwards. Instead, both will come off the bench to ensure a 20-year-old starts.

Somebody is going to call that forcing the issue. However, after seeing the group progressively get better, I'm convinced that forcing it would be going in the other direction. Looking at Champ or Harris and deciding one of them should open games just because they're forwards is almost like bookkeeping. Checking boxes. Going through the motions because decisions are predetermined.

But this is basketball, and Johnson is opting for a different kind of sensible logic that's hard to argue with: put your best players on the floor at the same time. With this unit, anyone can make a play for themselves or the rest of the team, and those plays can happen anywhere on the floor.

Teams have to defend every plausible action from all five players, and one of them is a 7'4" athletic demon who also happens to be the most dangerous lob threat we've ever seen. That's a nightmare that nobody else can conjure.

Think about the man it's all built around. Victor Wembanyama is listed as a center, but he doesn't play like one, no matter how much fans, analysts, and former players scold him. He's his own player, and so far, it's working. The Alien brings the ball up, runs pick-and-roll as the ball handler, and shoots it from the perimeter whenever he wants.

If your best player already broke the chart, counting positions in the other four spots is a waste of time. The league has been talking about positionless basketball for a decade. Well, the Silver and Black are living that truth in the most extreme way we've seen to date.

Pressure is the Spurs' whole point

Coach Johnson has been preaching speed since he took the reins from the legendary Gregg Popovich. His team is young, so he wants them to play to that strength. They're swarming. Pressuring the ball, crowding the passing lanes, forcing bad shots and loose handles, then grabbing it and going the other way with force.

That's the dictating they've set out to impose.

It's not about simply outrunning teams. The Spurs want to speed you up until you're playing at an uncomfortable tempo. Easy buckets come after that. Look at what they did to Sacramento in the first half tonight. San Antonio was up 33-12 inside four minutes of the first quarter, and they outscored the Kings 71-37 in the first half.

Much of that came from stops and refusing to let anyone breathe, not set plays. Houston and OKC in the regular season will be a different test than the Kings in the preseason finale. That's more than fair to acknowledge. But the process is the process, and the process is starting to look really good.

There's no film on this. Not really. Twenty-nine coaching staffs have to spend the next few months building a plan for something they've never really had to guard, and San Antonio gets to watch them try it live. So do the rest of us, and it actually might be pretty funny to watch the struggle.

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