NBA Playoff Odds: Will the Spurs Make the Postseason?

San Antonio Spurs NBA Playoff Odds

Entering Tuesday, the San Antonio Spurs are tied with the Memphis Grizzlies for eighth in the Western Conference, but there’s not a lot to love about this team.

I mean honestly, these aren’t your father’s Spurs. You know, the Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard-led Spurs? We’re a long way from that.

Gregg Popovich is still around, but this current Spurs team is average and lacks the identity we saw from the best squads of Popovich’s run. They rank 17th in Offensive Rating (111.5) and eighth in Defensive Rating (111.2) in their non-garbage-time minutes, according to Cleaning the Glass.

The Spurs are led by DeMar DeRozan, a good individual scorer who doesn’t exactly fit today’s game — DeRozan doesn’t shoot 3-pointers at a high rate (1.4 attempts per game) or an efficient clip (25.7%).

The Spurs collectively don’t take many 3s at all, ranking last in frequency (30.3%) and 18th in percentage (36.4%). (If you’re not shooting 3s as a team, you’ll consistently find yourself facing a math problem.) The Spurs also don’t score in the paint much either. They rank 20th in shot frequency at the rim and 21st in shooting percentage at the rim.

Where this team thrives is in the mid-range, which has long been DeRozan’s strength. That’s good, since teams often allow opponents relatively open shots from this area of the floor, but if you can’t score efficiently from 3-point range or the rim, you likely won’t have a top-tier offense.

In typical Spurs fashion, they play solid enough defense to put themselves in position to beat just about anyone.

Still, it’s hard to be excited about this team.

I think the Spurs have the lowest ceiling of all the teams in the postseason race out West. With the toughest remaining strength of schedule in their final 13 games, I see why oddsmakers have their playoff odds juiced so heavily toward “No”.

Lean: No