On Kyle Anderson’s Early Season Role
Good news for Kyle Anderson: he’s going to be wearing a Spurs jersey to start the regular season. Anderson has gotten some pretty good minutes during the preseason, in part because the Spurs need to find out what he can do in front of live fire, but also because Kawhi Leonard has been out due to an eye infection. After a summer of wondering whether he’s a small forward or power forward, whether he’s too slow to play in the league, we’ve gotten our first glimpses of what the rookie from UCLA can provide the Spurs in his rookie campaign.
First things first, Anderson is a small forward right now. He’s too slight to be a power forward, even if that might be his long term destiny. After getting the DNP-CD in Berlin, Anderson has started each of the Spurs next four preseason games and played only the second half of Wednesday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks. According to CBS Sports, Anderson is averaging 11 points per game, shooting 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from three. He’s also pulling down 4.8 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game. So we’ve seen the all-around game Anderson showed in college and his contributions on offense have been a plus. He also seems to understand what he’s supposed to be doing in the Spurs’ offense — he finds the corner and he understands making that extra pass.
Another reason to argue he belongs in San Antonio and not Austin to start the season is that he’s a playmaker. We’ve seen him put the ball on deck and get into the paint, we’ve seen suck an extra defender in and find the open shooter. If he’s playing with the reserves, his playmaking ability will take a burden off Manu Ginobili and allow Marco Belinelli to play the spot up shooting role he thrived in last season.
We’ve also seen Anderson’s deficiencies. The individual defense is a struggle and if he’s in open space there had better be some awesome help behind him. The more he plays against NBA-level athletes, the easier it’ll be for him to figure out how to use his length to compensate for the less than stellar foot speed and lateral movement. Tough to see him as a plus wing defender ever, but the combination of intelligence and length can get him to average. But right now, it’s an issue. If he does get sent to Austin, I think it’ll be so he can get some experience playing in an NBA-style defense.
This is more a hypothetical exercise than a practical one. Anderson is not going to get a ton of run at the start of the season and barring injury, probably not a ton of run all season. But I do believe he’s worthy of spending more time in San Antonio than Austin. He’s looked confident this preseason and more comfortable in the Spurs system than any of us could’ve expected. Essentially I’m saying let Anderson suit up and keep Austin Daye in a suit. He’s earned it, it won’t hurt the team’s rotation, and who knows, the injection of something new might actually make that buzzsaw of an offense even better.
