San Antonio Spurs: Has Gregg Popovich found another young dynamic duo?
The emergence of Keldon Johnson and Dejounte Murray could help make decisions for the San Antonio Spurs.
At roughly the halfway point of the 2020-21 NBA season – the league’s makeshift all-star break begins March 5 – the San Antonio Spurs are sitting as the fifth-best team, at 18-13, in the Western Conference.
The Spurs’ impressive first half of the season was something that was not expected. In fact, many didn’t even project the Spurs to be a playoff team this season, much less be in the running to potentially host a first-round playoff series.
Nevertheless, Gregg Popovich has done it again and has the Spurs playing at a high level. But this time it isn’t with aged veterans – as he’s done time and time in the past. This time, he’s doing it with a resurgent DeMar DeRozan and a young dynamic duo.
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While you can make the case that DeRozan has been the team’s MVP through the first half of the season, I’m not sure the Spurs would be fifth in the Western Conference standings without the play and development of Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson.
Murray is averaging 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists on 45 percent shooting from the field. Johnson is having a superb jump in his sophomore season, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds on 47 percent shooting from the field.
Collectively, the duo has been a bit part of the team’s first-half success.
As the team ponders its next move – which will likely include whether or not they should trade DeMar DeRozan or not at the deadline – one of the first questions that the team has to answer is whether or not this new young duo has the potential to be great.
Or, more specifically, is San Antonio’s new young dynamic duo ready to take over the reins from DeRozan if the team chooses to cash-in on him at the trade deadline? Or, is the team willing to take a bit of a step back in an attempt to go all-in on this team’s young core?
The San Antonio Spurs have some interesting decisions to make over the next few weeks – and I believe some of them will begin to be made during the all-star break. The good news is that there is hope once again in San Antonio.
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The team’s new dynamic young duo has brought this team some hope for the future that simply wasn’t present recently. Whether that makes San Antonio more or less likely to move its veteran pieces – specifically, DeMar DeRozan – remains to be seen.