1996–97 San Antonio Spurs season

1996–97 San Antonio Spurs season
Head coach	Bob Hill Gregg Popovich
Arena	Alamodome
Results
Record	20–62 (.244)
Place	Division: 6th (Midwest) Conference: 13th (Western)
Playoff finish	DNQ
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com

The 1996-97 NBA season was the Spurs' 21st season in the NBA, the 24th in San Antonio, and the 30th season as a franchise. Without scoring leader David Robinson, who battled with injures and only played in six games, the Spurs struggled and finished sixth in the Midwest Division with an awful 20-62 record. After playing in Greece last season, former All-Star Dominique Wilkins returned to the NBA and signed with the Spurs. He appeared in 63 games and led them with 18.2 points per game, but it would not be nearly enough.

Draft picks

Main article: 1996 NBA Draft

The Spurs did not have any draft picks in 1996.

Roster

San Antonio Spurs roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY–MM–DD) From PG 1 Alexander, Cory 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Virginia C 33 Anderson, Greg 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 230 lb (104 kg) Houston SG 15 Del Negro, Vinny 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 185 lb (84 kg) North Carolina State SF 32 Elliott, Sean 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 205 lb (93 kg) Arizona PF 14 Feick, Jamie 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 255 lb (116 kg) Michigan State PF 7 Herrera, Carl 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Houston PG 6 Johnson, Avery 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Southern SG 11 Maxwell, Vernon 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Florida C 41 Perdue, Will 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 240 lb (109 kg) Vanderbilt SF 45 Person, Chuck  6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Auburn C 50 Robinson, David  7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 235 lb (107 kg) Navy SF 21 Wilkins, Dominique 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Georgia SF 3 Williams, Monty 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Notre Dame	Head coach Gregg Popovich Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster

Roster Notes

• Forward Chuck Person missed the entire season due to an injury.

Regular season

The Spurs were trying to continue the success of the last two seasons which had records of 59-23 and 62-20 respectively. However they would finish a dismal 20-62, Scoring leader David Robinson was injured and was only able to play six games. Also injured was forward and three point specialist Chuck Person, who missed the entire season. Head coach Bob Hill was fired midway through the season after starting 3-15, being replaced by Gregg Popovich, who would finish 17-47. He would later be appointed head coach after the season's end. This would be the only losing season for Gregg Popovich and the first losing season for the Spurs since the 1988-89 NBA season. However the lone silver lining in this season would be winning the number one pick for the 1997 NBA Draft.

Season standings

#	Western Conference
	Team	W	L	PCT	GB
1	c-Utah Jazz	64	18	.780	–
2	y-Seattle SuperSonics	57	25	.695	7
3	x-Houston Rockets	57	25	.695	7
4	x-Los Angeles Lakers	56	26	.683	8
5	x-Portland Trail Blazers	49	33	.598	15
6	x-Minnesota Timberwolves	40	42	.488	24
7	x-Phoenix Suns	40	42	.488	24
8	x-Los Angeles Clippers	36	46	.439	28
9	Sacramento Kings	34	48	.415	30
10	Golden State Warriors	30	52	.366	34
11	Dallas Mavericks	24	58	.293	40
12	Denver Nuggets	21	61	.256	43
13	San Antonio Spurs	20	62	.244	44
14	Vancouver Grizzlies	14	68	.171	50

z - clinched division title

y - clinched division title

x - clinched playoff spot

Player statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Cory Alexander	80	6	18.2	.396	.373	.736	1.5	3.2	1.0	0.2	7.2
Greg Anderson	82	48	20.2	0.496	0	0.667	5.5	0.4	0.8	0.8	3.9
Joe Courtney	5	0	9.6	0.313		0.6	1.4	0	0	0	2.6
Vinny Del Negro	72	53	31.2	0.467	0.314	0.868	2.9	3.2	0.8	0.1	12.3
Sean Elliott	39	39	35.7	0.422	0.333	0.755	4.9	3.2	0.6	0.6	14.9
Jamie Feick	38	0	16.2	0.353	0.308	0.523	5.6	0.7	0.4	0.3	3.8
Devin Gray	3	0	8	0.333		0	1.7	0	0.3	0	3.3
Darrin Hancock	1	0	8	0.5		1	0	1	0	0	4
Carl Herrera	75	58	24.5	0.433	0.333	0.686	4.5	0.7	0.8	0.7	8
Stephen Howard	7	0	9.9	0.583		0.857	1.3	0.1	1.1	0.3	3.7
Avery Johnson	76	76	32.5	0.477	0.231	0.69	1.9	6.8	1.3	0.2	10.5
Tim Kempton	10	0	5.9	0.2		1	0.8	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.4
Vernon Maxwell	72	31	28.7	0.375	0.309	0.744	2.2	2.1	1.2	0.3	12.9
Gaylon Nickerson	3	0	12	0.333	0	1	1.3	0.3	0	0.3	4.3
Will Perdue	65	34	29.5	0.568		0.579	9.8	0.6	0.5	1.6	8.7
David Robinson	6	6	24.5	0.5		0.654	8.5	1.3	1	1	17.7
Jason Sasser	6	0	10.3	0.421	0.5		1.2	0.2	0.3	0	2.8
Charles Smith	19	7	17.3	0.405	0	0.769	3.4	0.7	0.7	1.2	4.6
Dominique Wilkins	63	26	30.9	0.417	0.293	0.803	6.4	1.9	0.6	0.5	18.2
Monty Williams	65	26	20.7	0.509	0	0.645	3.2	1.4	0.8	0.8	9

See also

• 1996-97 NBA season