Over the first 41 games of the season, the foursome of Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Danny Green and Dewayne Dedmon played a total of 60 minutes together. That shouldn’t really be a surprise considering the last component, Dedmon, was (rightly) sitting behind Pau Gasol and David Lee in the depth chart and getting most of his run with the second unit.
Still, it became clear early on that Dedmon’s defensive upside merited more play with the starters, to see precisely what the Spurs had in the 27-year-old journeyman who was making plays like this and this a common occurrence.