Why is Manu Ginobili not a starter?
The obvious reason that he doesn’t currently start is, like someone already said, to provide a spark off the bench. However, Manu is capable of starting, as is obvious by the fact that he’s made All-star teams in the past, and became one of the few players ever to make an All-NBA team(3rd) while not starting. So in theory, he could create a spark at the beginning of the game if he started. The real reason he doesn’t start is because San Antonio has a relatively old roster. Older players in the NBA (33+) have more problems coming off the bench than younger players because their bodies take longer to warm up. When they go through warm ups and then have to sit on the bench at the beginning of the game, it negates a lot of the shooting and motion warmups that they just finished. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has remedied this by bringing Ginobili, and occasionally Fabricio Oberto, off the bench, and instead starting older players like Michael Finley, Kurt Thomas, and in the past, Brent Barry.
