Teams that win big in the NBA don’t make widespread changes every summer, because in a game that relies heavily on interdependent on-court relationships between players, familiarity can be a major advantage. Look no further than last season’s regular season standings, when the three clubs that statistically made the fewest roster moves (San Antonio, Atlanta, Memphis) each won 50-plus games, including the Hawks stunning virtually everyone by going 60-22.
Based on Basketball-Reference.com’s metric, New Orleans ranked tied for 13th in the league last season in what the site calls “roster continuity,” a measure of how many minutes each team filled with players who’d been on the previous season’s roster.