Spurs Go Full Chaos Mode With Three-Guard Starting Lineup
Fans on social media are already questioning if De'Aaron Fox should be a super sixth man instead of forcing a small starting five.
The have officially decided that traditional basketball positions are a myth. According to Underdog NBA, Gregg Popovich is rolling out a starting five of De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama for Tuesday's season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
This is the kind of lineup you build in a video game when you accidentally auto-sort your roster by speed and just decide to roll with it. is starting three true guards, sliding a shooting guard into the frontcourt, and asking a 7-foot-4 alien to clean up the mess.
We actually saw a preview of this chaotic experiment during the preseason. Against the , the trio of Fox, Harper, and Castle combined for 31 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists by halftime. It looked fast, it looked fun, and it completely ignored the fact that the other team is eventually going to realize they can just shoot over them.
Sliding Vassell into a forward spot next to Wembanyama is objectively hilarious. It is the defensive equivalent of putting a single umbrella over a patio table and hoping nobody gets wet in a hurricane. Wembanyama is an incredible rim protector, but asking him to cover the paint behind three guards is going to test the limits of human wingspan.
Bettors looking at player props for Tuesday need to factor in how many touches are going to be shared between three ball-dominant guards. Fans are already flooding social media to suggest Fox and his massive extension should just embrace a super sixth-man role to balance the rotation.
We will find out immediately if this three-guard fever dream can survive real NBA minutes. The Thunder are rolling into town on Tuesday night, and they are not going to be polite about testing 's sudden allergy to size.