The San Antonio Spurs have won 15 of their last 16 games including eight straight and look to be one of the best teams in the NBA, if not the best team in the league. Even with their 33-6 record it seems like head coach Gregg Popovich is still trying to figure things out as he hasn't had a set rotation yet this season. On Monday night in the Spurs win over the Brooklyn Nets Kyle Anderson seemed to be ahead of Jonathon Simmons in the rotation, according to Rotoworld.
Coming into the season it seemed like Anderson was a lock to get the backup minutes behind Kawhi Leonard at small forward but that hasn't always been the case. Anderson has appeared in 36 of the teams 39 games but he is averaging just 12.3 minutes per game while Simmons is averaging 13 minutes in 25 games.
Simmons was a training camp invitee of the Spurs and earned his way onto the roster with a very impressive preseason. Even after making the roster Simmons wasn't expected to have a role with the Spurs and spent a lot of time going back and forth between the D-League and the Spurs in November. After Simmons was called back up on Nov. 20 though, he hasn't been sent back down since and he has started to get some consistent minutes.
In his 25 games this season Simmons is averaging 5.9 points per game on 54 percent shooting from the field and 43 percent shooting from three. Anderson, on the other hand, is averaging 3.5 points and 2.2 rebounds per game on 50 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent shooting from three. Anderson was the team's first round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and Popovich is a big fan of his ability but that just shows how impressive Simmons has been recently to have earned playing time over him.
Both Simmons and Anderson have been appearing in almost every game recently but usually one gets more playing time than the other. On Monday night it was Anderson but it seems like this situation will be fluid for the near future. Both players have played very well when given their opportunities this season but it seems like Popovich is playing it by feel right now which means it is hard to predict how many minutes either of them might get on any given night.
