In the wake of the San Antonio Spurs dominating the Miami Heat in June's NBA Finals to win their fifth championship of the Tim Duncan-Gregg Popovich era, a popular mantra around the league has been the need to play like San Antonio. Even Tom Brady said in training camp he wanted the NFL's New England Patriots to play like the Spurs.
Although there are many possible implications of that statement, the primary one generally relates to San Antonio's offense. In particular, other teams and coaches envy the way the Spurs share the basketball and find the open man. A month into the season, teams aren't necessarily playing like the Spurs on offense. Actually, they're scoring better.
Quietly, San Antonio has struggled offensively so far. Heading into Friday night's Southwest showdown with the division-leading Memphis Grizzlies, the Spurs rank 17th in the NBA in offensive rating at 108.2 points per 100 possessions, a hair better than the league average of 107.8. Believe it or not, the grit-and-grind Grizzlies actually have the far better offense, ranking 10th with a 110.2 offensive rating.
San Antonio hasn't changed its stripes. The Spurs are still assisting on 64.6 percent of their baskets, good for third in the league and up slightly from last season's 62.1 percent mark. (Leaguewide, the average remains precisely the same as 2013-14: 58.3 percent.) They're still third in passes per game (334.1, via SportVU tracking data on NBA.com/Stats). It's just that fewer of the shots created by those passes are going in.
The dirty secret of San Antonio's offense is its reliance on high-percentage shot-making. The Spurs are average or worse in each of the other four factors of offense, choosing to sacrifice offensive boards in favor of getting back, generating free throws at only an average rate and turning the ball over about an average amount. So San Antonio has to be an elite shooting team to succeed offensively, and a slip from second to 10th in effective field goal percentage (which accounts for the extra value of 3-point baskets, counting them as 1.5 field goals) is enough to push the team's offense below average.
Here's the good news. First, the Spurs have been able to rely on their traditionally tough defense (third in fewest points allowed per 100 possessions, one spot ahead of defensive stalwart Memphis) to get off to a 13-5 start, including an eight-game winning streak that was snapped in overtime Wednesday in Brooklyn. Second, San Antonio's shooting slump appears to be more a matter of personnel than of system.
Most efficient Spurs scorers
Although the Spurs famously brought back everyone who saw action during their playoff run, this isn't the same rotation because of injuries. Backup point guard Patty Mills is out through midseason after offseason shoulder surgery, starting center Tiago Splitter has been limited to 10 minutes all season because of a calf injury and reserve guard Marco Belinelli missed eight games with a strained groin. All three players were among San Antonio's most efficient scorers last season in terms of true shooting percentage, which measures points scored per shot or trip to the free throw line.
Another culprit has been rookie Kyle Anderson, the lone newcomer on the Spurs' roster, who has shot 2-of-24 (8.3 percent) in limited action, by far the worst shooting percentage of any player with at least 20 shot attempts. (Nobody else is below 25 percent from the field.)
As a team, San Antonio has seen its true shooting percentage decline from .571 to .547. About a third of that drop is attributable to injuries, while another third is solely due to Anderson's inaccuracy. The rest seems tied to Kawhi Leonard's slump. The Finals MVP has traded attempts at the rim for midrange jumpers, causing his 2-point percentage to plummet from 57.9 percent to 50.0 percent. He's also struggling as a jump shooter, making just 38.0 percent of his shots beyond 15 feet per Basketball-Reference.com, down from 41.9 percent a season ago.
None of those changes seems permanent. So soon, the team playing most like the Spurs may in fact be the Spurs.
News and notes
• Speaking of Texas offenses, the Dallas Mavericks continue to score at a historic pace. If they keep it up, they'll displace ... the Dallas Mavericks. The 2003-04 Mavericks have the best offensive rating relative to NBA average, as they scored 9.6 percent more frequently on a per-possession basis than league average. The list of best offenses since the NBA-ABA merger features exclusively Dallas and Friday night's opponent, the Phoenix Suns.
NBA's best offenses
It's early, but this season's Mavericks at least stand a good chance of being the best post-merger offense without Steve Nash, who played for all six of those Dallas/Phoenix teams.
• Most of the coverage of the New Orleans Pelicans signing forward Dante Cunningham on Thursday has focused on Cunningham's effort to clear his name after domestic assault charges against him were dropped over the summer. In basketball terms, the move suggests the Pelicans will continue filling their gaping hole at small forward by playing bigger. The 6-foot-8 Cunningham has primarily been a power forward during his NBA career, but he can defend some wings and is a good midrange jump shooter. New Orleans head coach Monty Williams could play Cunningham and Ryan Anderson together at forward, keeping the ineffective John Salmons on the bench.
The Pelicans still have an open roster spot after waiving both Darius Miller and Patric Young this week, and Marc Stein tweeted Thursday that spot is likely to go former Mavericks point guard Gal Mekel.
• The Philadelphia 76ers avoided tying the worst start in NBA history by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, but they still could make dubious history. After the win, 1,000 simulations of the remainder of the season show the 76ers winning an average of 10.6 games. They match the 1972-73 Sixers' 9-73 finish in 13 percent of simulations and win fewer than nine games to set a new league record for futility over an 82-game schedule in 24 percent of simulations.
Follow Kevin Pelton on Twitter @kpelton.