{"id":923409,"date":"2026-10-10T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923409\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T20:06:10","slug":"how-spurs-can-make-changes-while-preserving-delicate-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923409\/","title":{"rendered":"How Spurs can make changes while preserving ‘delicate ecosystem’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs guards Stephon Castle (5), De\u2019Aaron Fox (4) and Dylan Harper (2) joke around after taking portraits together during the NBA basketball team\u2019s media day at the Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs guards Stephon Castle (5), De\u2019Aaron Fox (4) and Dylan Harper (2) pose for photos during the NBA team\u2019s media day at the Victory Capital Performance Center in San Antonio, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n

Mitch Johnson called it a \u201cdelicate ecosystem.\u201d At the time, he was talking about one particular aspect of the Spurs offense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But he might as well have been describing everything the Spurs head coach is trying to preserve this season.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason why airport agents in places like Hawaii and Japan are such sticklers about not letting certain kinds of fresh fruit and plants onto their islands. If the wrong kind of invasive species sneaks through,\u00a0whether it be a berry borer or a gall wasp<\/a>, it can create a chain reaction that devastates a coffee industry or wipes out forests.<\/p>\n

And when you\u2019re setting out to recreate the magic of an out-of-nowhere NBA Finals run in which every player filled the perfect role, in just the right way? Well, there are all sorts of invasive thoughts and subtle changes that can knock the vibes out of balance.<\/p>\n

In an NBA locker room, by the way, vibes can be as important as honeybees are to worldwide food production. When they start to disappear, you might not notice right away. But before you know it,\u00a0entire ecosystems can collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson did not mention any of this after the Spurs\u2019 preseason opener Thursday night. His \u201cdelicate\u201d answer was about spacing the floor in transition. Even so, if he looks around the league, even in early October, there already are some cautionary tales among the NBA\u2019s top contenders.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Less than four months after raising a trophy on the Frost Bank Center floor, having been the only team to out-play and out-vibe the Spurs last season, the New York Knicks are putting their camaraderie and goodwill to an early test. The biggest headlines around the reigning champs this preseason all have to do with the fallout from\u00a0the contract extensions that Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart aren\u2019t getting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in Philadelphia, where the Sixers pulled off two of the biggest moves of the offseason by trading for Jaylen Brown and signing LeBron James, there\u2019s already\u00a0been a controversy involving a retracted “unfortunate” anecdote<\/a>\u00a0from a play-by-play announcer, and a subsequent \u201cWhy me?\u201d moment from Joel Embiid.<\/p>\n

The point in bringing up both of these examples is not to say that either the Knicks or the Sixers are in any kind of trouble. They\u2019re just reminders that it doesn\u2019t take much for the story around a team to change.<\/p>\n

And when the story changes, we start to find out how delicate the ecosystem really is.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

This will bring us, in an admittedly roundabout way, to Johnson\u2019s forthcoming decision about his starting lineup. But first, we need to acknowledge a couple of things.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that the media and fans tend to overstate the importance of who starts and who comes off the bench. In an analytical, X\u2019s-and-O\u2019s sense, it just doesn\u2019t matter that much. For instance, do you know how much a typical starting lineup actually plays together during an NBA game?<\/p>\n

During the Spurs\u2019 playoff run last year, their starting five averaged 11.25 minutes per game together. That\u2019s less than a quarter, with most of the time coming in the first few minutes of the first and second halves. The rest of the game features combinations featuring at least one bench guy.<\/p>\n

But in part because the media and fans tend to pay so much attention to it, players can\u2019t help but care about it, too. It\u2019s only natural that everybody wants to start. Manu Ginobili, one of the greatest sixth men in league history, went to the bench reluctantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

So of course a guy like Dylan Harper, a playoff revelation as a rookie, feels like he merits a \u201cpromotion.\u201d And of course guys like Julian Champagnie and Devin Vassell, who played their roles so beautifully in helping lift the Spurs to the Finals, might not be eager to step aside for someone new, whether it be Harper or free agent signee Tobias Harris, even if their minutes stay the same.<\/p>\n

After all, we\u2019re talking about human beings here. And every human being has at least a little bit of pride.<\/p>\n

The good news is that pride can be managed. Ginobili did it. Keldon Johnson did it on his way to the Sixth Man of the Year award last season. And chances are, either Champagnie or Vassell \u2013 or both \u2013 will do it in the months to come. Even though De\u2019Aaron Fox wound up being scratched in Thursday\u2019s preseason opener, Johnson said before the game he planned on starting Fox, Harper and Stephon Castle together.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the three-guard lineup many wanted to see more of ever since Harper was drafted, and it has the potential to be devastating to opponents. If it goes like the Spurs hope, they not only will preserve last season\u2019s good vibes, they can make them last through next June, too.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

But knowing something about delicate ecosystems, Johnson will be careful and intentional about how he tinkers with his. Every change, no matter how subtle, has the potential to lead to others.<\/p>\n

And next spring, when the Spurs look around at what those little changes have wrought?<\/p>\n

If Johnson handles this right, the honeybees still will be around.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guards Stephon Castle (5), De\u2019Aaron Fox (4) and Dylan Harper (2) joke around after taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-923409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}