When I was coaching college basketball, with about five minutes left in every close game, the coaches had a variation of the same conversation: “Are these the five players we want on the floor to finish the game?”
For some teams, the answer to the question generally stays about the same. For instance, for the Spurs in years past, the team the coaches wanted on the floor almost always consisted of four of the starters and My Man Manu. Manu often replaced the starting center, who had allowed the Great Duncan to start the game as power forward.