The importance of NBA bench production is easy to overlook but hard to overstate.
The best reserve units complement their team's starters, either by maintaining a certain standard of play when the big guns get a breather, sparking something on their own or blending their abilities to those of the starters in lineups featuring players from both.
The San Antonio Spurs helped put second-teamers under the spotlight during their run to the 2014 NBA championship. There are a number of reasons San Antonio took the title, not the least of which were the league-high 44.3 points a night provided by the reserves, per HoopsStats.com.
Not all starting fives need that kind of help, and not every coach would allow his reserves enough floor time to put up those kind of numbers. But every team needs a certain amount of depth, particularly with the omnipresent threat of the injury bug.
Remember, depth can come in different forms. It might be an abundance of competent contributors or it could be a couple front-line reserves. Quality always trumps quantity, but the best bench mobs have a little of both.
With a look at statistics, systematic f ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Zach Buckley
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