Zach Lowe can no longer hide his big Spurs mistake after their shocking start

Most NBA heads agree that The Ringer's Zach Lowe is one of the best NBA analysts in the game. However, he just recently admitted he got something wrong when it came to the San Antonio Spurs.

Lowe admitted that the Spurs are “becoming a team that’s ahead of schedule,” meaning that he didn't expect for them to be this good this soon.

Admittedly, many Spurs fans probably didn't expect them to start the season 14-6 with De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Jeremy Sochan, and Victor Wembanyama having all missed at least five games.

That's insane. It also shows just how deep this team is, with them able to plug and play and still get the W. Take for instance their gutsy win on the road against the Orlando Magic. They were forced to play 12 players on the second night of a back-to-back and saw a 10-point lead evaporate midway through the fourth quarter.

Fortunately, Fox scored 10 points in crunch time, and Luke Kornet sent Franz Wagner's game-tying shot packing to seal the win. A season ago, the Spurs would have absolutely blown that game, but now they are 10-3 in games where they are leading or trailing by five points in the last five minutes of the game. That ranks among the best in the NBA and is propelling their stellar start.

Zach Lowe and other skeptics were wrong about the Spurs

The Spurs are clearly the surprise team of the NBA this season. Last season it was the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, but this season, that honor belongs to San Antonio.

Even as they have battled injuries, they still boast the fifth-best record in the NBA. Imagine what this team could look like if they are able to get all of their rotation players back and have a month under their belts to gel. That could result in this team being even better.

Fox started the season slow after missing the team's first eight games but has come on strong in the absence of Wembanyama. When Wembanyama returns, hopefully they can develop a terrific two-man game that could be virtually impossible to stop come playoff time.

Speaking of the playoffs, if the Spurs are able to keep their foot on the gas, they could end up with a top-four seed, ensuring that they would have home-court advantage in the first round for the first time since the 2016-17 season. That might not mean a trip to the NBA Finals like that season.

Even so, it would give them a decent chance of making it to the West semis, which would be a massive leap forward after having the eighth-worst record in the NBA last season. Were it to happen, Lowe wouldn't be alone in underestimating the Spurs.