On March 11, 2020, the NBA world stopped. The Spurs were led by LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan. Let’s just say things are a little different five years later.
SAN ANTONIO — Five years ago, the NBA saw something unprecedented as the 2019-20 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 11, 2020, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus, and the season was subsequently put on hold. It wasn’t until July that the season continued in a “bubble” setting in Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
A season the sports world had never seen before ended with the Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Miami Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals on Oct. 11, a time normally reserved for training camp.
It was a season to remember, that’s for sure.
Here in San Antonio, the Spurs were coming off a 119-109 win against the Dallas Mavericks to improve to 27-36 the day before the season was suspended.
The 2019-2020 San Antonio Spurs team was completely different than the 2025 squad we see now. Instead of being led by Victor Wembanyama (who was 16 years old at the time) the star big man was 34-year-old LaMarcus Aldridge, who put up a stat line of 24 points, two rebounds, three steals and four blocks against the Mavs. He ended the 2019-20 season averaging 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
Now, Aldridge is enjoying his retirement. His last game came with the Brooklyn Nets in 2022.
The rest of the starting lineup included current Sacramento King DeMar DeRozan (13 points), Boston Celtic Derrick White (14 points), King Trey Lyles (14 points) and Bryn Forbes (seven points).
The bench crew included Marco Belinelli (16 points), Rudy Gay (17 points) and Patty Mills (12 points). Belinelli and Gay are also enjoying retirement, and Patty Mills is hopping in Los Angeles as a member of the Clippers.
In July 2020, the 12th-seeded Spurs were invited to the bubble where they went 5-3, ultimately not making it to the playoffs but rattling off a few wins in Orlando. It was the first season in 22 years they didn’t make the playoffs.
The only player from the 2020 roster who is still in the Alamo City is Keldon Johnson, who was 20 at the time.
Johnson recorded two points in 13 minutes in the game against the Mavs. For his unorthodox rookie season, he averaged 9.1 points and 3.4 rebounds.
Gregg Popovich is also still with the team, albeit he is away due to the stroke he suffered earlier in the season.
Johnson has made several strides as a player since this moment, going from 9.1 to 12.8 to 17.0 to 22.0 points per game each season, from year one to year four. His stats have taken a hit since Wemby joined the team (15.7 to 12.5 points per game the last two seasons) but his veteran presence off the bench has been an X-factor for the Spurs at times.
DeMar DeRozan is another name from the 2020 Spurs who is still kicking, albeit on another team.
Since that year, he’s continued to average more than 20 PPG for the Spurs, Bulls and Kings. This includes a 27.9 PPG season with Chicago in 2021-22 that gave him some MVP votes. Now he’s a veteran presence on the new-look Kings post-De’Aaron Fox, a current Spur.
The aforementioned Derrick White might be the most decorated of the 2019-20 Spurs; he’s since won a championship with the Boston Celtics and a gold medal at the Summer Olympics.
After averaging 15.4 and 14.4 points for the Spurs in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, respectively, White was traded to the Celtics in February 2022 for Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson, a 2022 first-round pick (which turned into Blake Wesley), and a 2028 first-round pick.
Since joining the Celtics, White has made an immediate impact as a defensive stopper and reliable three-point shooter, shooting over 38% every season for Boston.
In 2023-24, White averaged 15.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists while shooting almost 40% from three as the starting shooting guard for the Celtics. In the playoffs, he upped his play even more, averaging 16.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists while shooting 40% from beyond the arc to help the Celtics bring home their 18th championship.
He followed that up by representing his country in the 2024 Olympics, replacing former Spur Kawhi Leonard on Team USA.
As you might guess, he won gold.
This year, White is averaging a career-high 16.6 points on a 47-18 Celtics team looking to repeat as NBA champions.
Another prominent player from this time was Dejounte Murray, who didn’t play in the Mavericks game due to a right calf strain suffered in the game before.
Murray was boasting averages of 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.7 steals for the 2019-20 season. His last game before the shutdown, he scored 17 against the Cavs. After that, he improved to 15.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game in 2020-21.
2021-22 marked his biggest jump, however, when he improved his averages to 21.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 9.2 assists and a league leading 2.0 steals per game en route to an All-Star appearance.
Unfortunately, Murray’s timeline didn’t match the Spurs’ timeline at the time, so he was traded after the 2022 season to the Atlanta Hawks with Jock Landale for Danilo Gallinari and four first-round picks.
After two solid seasons with Atlanta, he was traded to the Pelicans in 2024, where he’s currently nursing a torn right Achilles tendon.
Other notable 2020 Spurs include Lonnie Walker IV and Jakob Poeltl.
Walker just made his return to the NBA with Philadelphia and is currently averaging 9.1 points in nine games for the depleted 76ers. In one of those games, he scored 25.
Poeltl is having a career year in his second stint with Toronto, averaging 14.2 points and grabbing 9.7 rebounds a game, both career-highs.
From then to now
So how different are the Spurs now from then? Well for starters, the 2020 Spurs didn’t have a budding 7-foot-3 superstar from France.
They also didn’t have the eighth youngest team in the NBA with arguably one of the brightest futures in the league (love them as much as you remember, Spurs fans, but LaMarcus Aldridge was 34 and DeMar DeRozan was 30).
The 2020 season was also the end of an era for San Antonio, as it was the first year they didn’t make the playoffs in 22 years. It was the first time in a long time where it was asked: Should the Spurs rebuild?
They went from 32 wins in a shortened 2019-20 season to 33, 34, 22 and 22 wins the next four seasons, confirming the rumored rebuild that Coach Popovich wasn’t used to.
Those down years, however, has resulted in the drafting of key pieces like Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle.
Right now, the Silver & Black are 26-37 (ironically, about the same record this time of year in 2020) with still a fighting shot to make the play-in.
Although finishing the season without Wemby and Coach Pop, the Spurs are now led by De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Harrison Barnes and Chris Paul.
Oh, and the longest-tenured Spur and the only current player who knew what the team was like pre-COVID: Keldon Johnson.
For a lot of people, 2020 doesn’t feel like that long ago. For others it feels like a lifetime ago.
If you’re like me, it feels like a bit of both at the same time.
But if you look at the Spurs roster, you can see just how much things have changed since the season — and the world — shut down five years ago.
