MIAMI — As David West has gotten older, he has grown accustomed to filling a sort of elder statesman role for his team.

Then the 35-year-old West joined the Spurs’ second unit, boasting players that rival him in both age and savvy.

“These guys have high IQs,” West said. “There’s not really a whole lot of the instruction that I’m used to giving. It’s just not needed.”

West can certainly get used to this, playing on a bench brigade with accomplished basketball savants such as Boris Diaw and Manu Ginobili.

With the offseason addition of LaMarcus Aldridge, the Spurs own what many observers believe could be the best starting five in the NBA.

The Spurs’ second unit is regularly beating them in camp scrimmages.

“We’re still trying to figure it out chemistry-wise with the first unit,” starting guard Danny Green said. “The second unit, they’re a little more ahead of the game because they’re catching onto the system quicker.”

The work of catching the Spurs’ first unit up with the second continues with Monday’s preseason game in Miami.

Coach Gregg Popovich acknowledges the process of integrating a piece as important as Aldridge can be painstaking.

Given the state of the Western Conference — last season, the Spurs’ 55 wins were good enough for only a sixth seed — Popovich can afford only to be so patient.

“We’ll sit back and see how people play together and put different combinations on the court,” Popovich said. “But the way the season is, there are so many good teams you don’t want to get in a hole right off the bat.”

Among the tasks on Popovich’s plate entering camp was to retool a bench that finished as the second-highest scoring in the NBA last season at 41 points per game, while averaging a league-best 10.9 assists.

To absorb Aldridge’s $84 million contract, the Spurs had to lose three reserves who had accounted for almost 4,000 minutes last season — Cory Joseph, Marco Belinelli and Aron Baynes — as well as starting center Tiago Splitter.

West’s arrival, at a league-minimum salary of $1.5 million, provides a nice rebuilding block for the second unit.

The 6-foot-9 forward has averaged in double figures in each of the past 10 seasons in New Orleans and Indiana.

Though West hasn’t come off the bench in a game since 2004-05 season, the transition to the bench has been easy to navigate.

The hardest part, he says, has been to avoid taking the occasional no-look Ginobili pass in the earhole.

“There is nothing that is too complicated,” West said. “More or less, it’s going to be continuing to work, talk through some stuff, and get more familiar with guys’ tendencies.”

The Spurs are confident their star-studded first unit will come along in time.

Though adding only one new player, the starters face a tougher adjustment to the new order than the bench.

Aldridge owns a dangerous and multi-faceted post-up game, and the first unit must play at a slightly slower pace to accommodate it.

Unfettered by the burden of featuring a dominant post scorer, the second unit is free to play a looser, more improvisational game of pitch and catch.

So far, it has been the difference between paint-by-numbers and free jazz.

“Our idea is more chaos,” Ginobili said of the second-unit. “Move the ball from one side to the other, quick trigger, pushing it.”

The Spurs’ bench enjoyed a solid night in their 95-92 loss at Sacramento to open the preseason Thursday, despite Ginobili and Diaw remaining at home and with West and Patty Mills on loan to the starting group.

When the Spurs fell in an early hole after a 6-for-22 shooting start, second-year forward Kyle Anderson (15 points) and camp invitee Rasual Butler (12 points) helped bring them back.

Despite wonky lineups, Ginobili wasn’t surprised to see the Spurs’ bench carry its weight in Sacramento.

“We’ve been doing really well in practice,” Ginobili said. “The ball is moving and sharp. We’re making shots. I have a feeling it’s going to be fun to play on that second unit.”

Two weeks into his first Spurs training camp, West is apt to agree.

Asked if he had ever played with a group such as the Spurs’ pass-happy second unit, West unleashed a wall-to-wall grin that spoke volumes.

“Noooooo,” he said. “It’s going to be fun.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN