How uncommon is bringing back a #FullSquad?
Once the San Antonio Spurs re-signed Aron Baynes on the eve of training camp, we knew they’d be bringing back every member of last year’s title squad. Add in first-round pick Kyle Anderson and this is the team the Spurs will attempt to repeat with, at least for the foreseeable future. Bringing back an entire roster from the previous season is an uncommon occurrence (we’ll get to how uncommon in a moment) and there are several reasons it doesn’t often happen.
The first and most impactful reason is free agency. Teams trying to get better are likely to try to poach key contributors off championship rosters, and many times they’ll overpay to get them. Other times, guys are looking to cash in on a good title run. The most obvious Spurs example is Stephen Jackson following the 2002-2003 season. Jackson was the Spurs’ third-leading scorer — and you could argue he was the second best overall player — throughout the postseason, and he was looking for a huge pay raise, more than the Spurs wanted to give. Jackson ended up signing in Atlanta (at a price much smaller than he was looking for) and the Spurs gave Manu Ginobili increased minutes and signed Hedo Turkgolu (which also didn’t work as planned).
Other times, guys retire. David Robinson famously walked away on Father’s Day 2003 after winning his second NBA title. Michael Jordan even more famously retired after winning his third title and then again after winning his sixth ring. So we decided, using Basketball Reference’s roster database, to look back at every championship roster from the 1990-1991 Chicago Bulls on to see how many other teams, if any, returned every member of a championship squad.
The 90’s
The 1990-91 Chicago Bulls brought back their entire team the following season, and nine members from that squad remained on the team through the 1992-93 title run. The 1993-94 Houston Rockets looked very different by the end of the 1994-95 season, but their opening-night roster in 1994 saw only two members of the previous title on a different team. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, the greatest regular season team in NBA history, shook things up on the fringe, bringing back nine of their 12 guys from that title team. The following year, 10 of 12 from the title team returned. The following year the Bulls famously blew it up, returning just five players, the most high profile being Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc.
The 1999 Spurs lost two players the following year — Will Perdue retired and Gerard King went on to do whatever it is Gerard King would go on to do (Andrew Gaze played for the Spurs that season but was not on the postseason roster). They did add Terry Porter, Samaki Walker and Felton Spencer (I have multiple Felton Spencer cards from my 1990-91 HOOPS collection), and really, we’ll have no idea what that team would’ve been due to Duncan’s knee injury prior to the first round of the playoffs.
2000’s
The 2000 Lakers lost four players the following year (who remembers A.C. Green winning a ring in 2000???). The 2001-02 team returned nine players (and added Mitch Richmond!!!). The following year, nine players came back.
The 2002-03 Spurs had the biggest roster turnover that wasn’t a complete blow-up/rebuild. David Robinson famously retired, but so did Steve Kerr, Steve Smith and Danny Ferry. Speedy Claxton cashed in on some clutch postseason play. Stephen Jackson made the first of what ended up being several ridiculous contract demands throughout his career. While we’re here, the 2003-2004 San Antonio Spurs might be one of Gregg Popovich’s two or three best coaching jobs ever due to all that roster turnover.
The 2004-05 Detroit Pistons returned nine players from their title team, maintaining most of their core. However, Corliss Williamson, who played the sixth most minutes in the 2004 Finals, did leave via free agency and was replaced by Antonio McDyess. This neither helped nor hurt Darko Milicic’s progression, but that’s mostly because of the not being good at basketball part.
The 2005-06 Spurs replaced three members of the team who you wouldn’t exactly call core members (Devin Brown, Glenn Robinson, Tony Massenburg). Michael Finley, Fabricio Oberto and Nick Van Exel took their place, which feels like upgrades all around, but didn’t result in a title (thanks, Dirk Nowitzki… and Manu Ginobili).
The 2006-07 Miami Heat returned nine of 12 players from the previous year.
The 2007-08 Spurs returned 11 players from their fourth title team, choosing not to re-sign Beno Udrih. Instead they opted to bring in Ian Mahimni and Ime Udoka. You’ll remember this as the Spurs team that lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers when Ginobili was less than 100 percent. This was also the season where the Spurs added Damon Stoudamire and Kurt Thomas and really was the zenith of “the Spurs are old” meme.
The 2008-09 Boston Celtics brought back the bulk of their team as well, with only Sam Cassell and PJ Brown opting for retirement.
2010’s
The 2009-10 Los Angeles Lakers also returned the bulk of their team (11 to be exact), basically trading Trevor Ariza for Metta World Peace. They also added Adam Morrison’s weird mustache. The 2010-11 team returned all but three players.
The 2011-12 Dallas Mavericks created some controversy, not because they had huge roster turnover, but because they allowed several of their core members from that title team go. Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, Peja Stojakovic and DeShawn Stevenson all played significant minutes in the Finals and famously didn’t return to the following year’s team to give Dallas more salary-cap flexibility moving forward.
The 2012-13 Miami Heat kept nearly their entire team intact. Of the 14 guys who logged minutes in the 2012 playoffs, the Heat returned 12. This doesn’t include Juwan Howard, who technically was a member of both title squads. Ronny Turiaf and Dexter Pittman were jettisoned to make room for Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. The following season the Heat again kept most of their roster around, though they did amnesty Mike Miller, and Juwan Howard finally retired, allowing them to add Michael Beasley, Greg Oden and Roger Mason, Jr.
To summarize, championship teams rarely break up their core, but they almost never bring back their full title squad. What the Spurs are doing hasn’t been done since the first Chicago Bulls title team brought back their entire roster. What’s more uncommon is what happened to the 2003-04 Spurs, where they lost half the roster to retirement and Stephen Jackson doing Stephen Jackson things. Even more rare is what the Mavs did in 2011-12, willingly letting core members of their teams leave during free agency.
What the Spurs are trying hasn’t been done in a long time. There’s obviously nothing to allow us to intelligently predict how this will affect the team’s finish, but I think we can hypothesize that the continuity of having everyone back (minus Patty Mills, who is rehabbing his torn rotator cuff) will help the Spurs start fast. How they finish will depend on several things including health, Kawhi Leonard’s continued development and whether there’s some natural decline from the some of the older players.
