Trade DeRozan? Could happen
Brutal start might force Spurs to think rebuild. Nothing But Net,
It’s almost too crazy to comprehend what’s happening to the San Antonio Spurs, because it’s been almost a quarter of a century since anyone’s seen anything like it.
A138-132 loss to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday not only dropped the Spurs to 5-10 on the season, but it was also San Antonio’s seventh consecutive defeat.
How rare is that? The Spurs haven’t lost even five games in a row in 22 seasons, and if they drop their next contest in Philadelphia, it will be their longest losing streak since November 1996, weeks before Gregg Popovich removed Bob Hill as the team’s head coach and moved into the job himself. Digest that, would you? In 22 seasons as head coach, Popovich has never once had to endure the kind of losing streak the Spurs are on right now. And it may be early in the season, but San Antonio’s unprecedented streak of 23 straight playoff appearances is absolutely in peril, regardless of what the players and coaches say.
“I don’t look at it that way,” old friend DeMar DeRozan told reporters after the loss in Washington. “It’s a long season. We are worried about now. It’s not like we are 50 or 60 games in. It’s still early. Just as we are on this bad streak, we can start a positive streak as well.”
The big question is whether DeRozan will be around for any miracle finish and run to the playoffs in San Antonio. In the last guaranteed year of his contract, he could very well be moved at the trade deadline, or before, if the Spurs decide to punt on this season and start building for the future.
They seem to have settled on Dejounte Murray as their point guard of the future, even though he’s limited now as he recovers from knee surgery, and the Spurs may want to move veterans such as DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge in an effort to get younger and more athletic.
DeRozan, of course, knows a thing or two about rebuilds and losing and starting over, having lived through a 22-win season in Toronto before the Raptors started their ascension up the Eastern Conference ranks. But now, as a veteran with a big-money deal — nearly $28 million (U.S.) this season — he’s not likely to be part of any rebuild in San Antonio.
“It’s extremely frustrating, especially being on this losing streak,” he said. “It sucks to lose. On the streak that we are on, every single game that we have lost has felt worse than the last one.”
But whatever happens the rest of the way, the historical nature of San Antonio’s slow start is amazing. At 5-10, they are further below the .500 mark than they have been at any time in the past 22 years.
Think about that for a minute: In almost the same length of time as the Raptors have existed, the Spurs had only once been three games under .500 before this week. No slow starts to any season, no November or December slumps or losing streaks that they have had to rebound from, just an absolute model of consistent winning.
Fans in San Antonio, definitely spoiled by the extended run of success the franchise has enjoyed, are not taking kindly to the current losing streak, although it’s something every other fan base in the NBA has had to endure at some point over the past 22 years. They are calling for trades and benchings and change of some sort, because this is not anything any of them are used to.
“The important thing is that we’re holding strong to our core values and we’re going to find a way,” Spurs guard Patty Mills said. “We’ve just got to stay positive. We’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to find a way and we’ll get through it.”