NBA Restart: How reworked rosters will shape the Western Conference

13th: San Antonio Spurs (↓1)

Oh, how the mighty fall.

Currently holding the NBA’s longest streak of consecutive playoff appearances, the San Antonio Spurs are outside the top eight in the West and risk putting an end to their 22-year run. As the season draws to a close, the Spurs are currently sitting in 12th place and losing ground as injury troubles continue to plague the team.

LaMarcus Aldridge did not travel to Orlando after injuring his shoulder, keeping him out for the remainder of the season. The 35-year-old averaged 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game before being shut down. Assistant coach Tim Duncan also stayed back with Aldridge in order to help the big man rehab his injury get back to form.

Spurs forward Trey Liles will also miss out on the restart, also rehabbing a shoulder injury from earlier in the year. With the lack of depth in the front-court, look for Jakob Poeltl to receive heavy minutes in the rotation.

San Antonio also signed Tyler Zeller, a 30-year-old center to help carry some of the load.

This season marks a changing of the guard for the Spurs, a team that has built a collection of promising young players all while remaining competitive for all of these years. With Aldridge going down and Demar DeRozan’s future up in the air, San Antonio will soon hand over the keys to the youngsters to being to shape this team.

DeRozan will be a key piece in restart without Aldridge, a vital veteran presence to help get this young team through the eight remaining seeding games. It will be fun to see what they can do, but the Spurs are virtually out of this race.