Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
What to do for an encore?
The glow of June is still with us, and yet here we are ready to start a new NBA Season. Can’t we just have a few more weeks to be undisputed NBA Champs? To have the enduring memories of the Spurs’ near-perfect basketball be the last meaningful moments? Alas, a new season awaits whether we are ready or not, and all scoreboards have been reset to zero.
The question, though, is not if we’re ready; the question is if our Spurs are ready.
The Spurs offer the least mystery of any NBA team. They got the band back together, only adding one piece, rookie Kyle Anderson.
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Hell, there was more turnover on Pop’s bench, adding European legend Ettore Messina and WNBA star Becky Hammon to the coaching staff. (We should all swell with pride at our front office’s forward thinking and innovation in always hiring the best minds and best people for the job.)
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I’m curious and excited for all three of these new faces, but none will have a dramatic impact as to what happens on the court.
In the absence of mystery, in the absence of excitement, we just have the same old team. The NBA Title was the culmination of a 4-year journey; is there an epilogue? Can we add another year to this narrative and another benchmark to the already swollen list of accomplishments for this team: back to back titles? Is there enough magic left in this team?
Preseason prognostication is an exercise in futility. The Spurs are defending NBA Champions and are expected to contend for another in an even tougher Western Conference. Beyond that, trying to understand anything else is desperately grasping at straws. The landscape of the NBA will shift dramatically a half-dozen times between now and mid-April. The best approach to the start of the season is to ask questions and to try to understand what the important early stories will be for this team, to start to see the narrative that might foreshadow where the story could possibly end.
Here are my questions starting this season:
Where will this team find fire and inspiration? Last season culminated in an almost improbable fairy tale ending, the good guys getting redemption against the bad guys a year later. More importantly, the Big 3 and Pop finally got that one last ring, 7 years after the last one. It would be easy for the team and players to be satiated, happy in what they accomplished. The year after is always the hardest, as this team has experienced at least 3 times quite acutely. The West is loaded with teams who have the talent and desire to get to the Finals; what will separate the Spurs? Will they be willing to dig even deeper for a chance at #6?
What bench players will step up and have breakout seasons? We can call this Patty Mills-ing if we want. So much of last year’s success was predicated on being uncommonly strong and balanced 9-10 players deep into the rotation. We have all of the same players, but Duncan and Manu are a year older and might decline even a little more. With Mills out for a while, Manu rounding into shape, and Tiago and Kawhi possibly missing time early, there is plenty of opportunity for the bench and role players.
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Cory Joseph, in particular, has a chance to make a real impact and his own Patty Mills season. He’s shown so many flashes in the past, but has never been able to sustain a level that made Pop comfortable to play him heavy minutes. This season, he will have to. By all accounts, Joseph has greatly improved his jump shot, which, along with his already solid D, could earn him Pop’s trust.
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Plenty of other players have great opportunities, too. Baynes and Ayres have another year in the system and have shown lots of potential. With Splitter in and out of the lineup and Diaw easing into the season, there will be lots of minutes at both big positions. I know Ayres is an easy fan scapegoat, but I think he’s an ideal Spurs’ bench player. He busts his ass and clearly works hard. If everything finally clicks for him this season, he could make a huge leap up.
Kyle Anderson, even as a rookie, will also have a real chance to earn a spot in the rotation. Like Diaw, he is kind of positionally agnostic, but with his size, he is really the best option to play SF behind Kawhi. I already love watching him play and think he has the right disposition and court vision to be a natural in this Spurs’ system. There will be growing pains, for sure. But he couldn’t be in a better situation to ease into his NBA career. (And yes, you can probably expect plenty of gushing over him this season.)
Lest we forget, there is still plenty of growth potential for old favorites like Green and Belinelli and Splitter.
What the heck is up with Kawhi’s eye? Seriously, though, he’s been quarantined away from the team for almost 3 weeks with a viral eye infection. First, I hope everything will turn out OK. Beyond that, I hope this doesn’t set him back on what promised to be a huge breakout season for him. I think I speak for Spurs Nation when I say I can’t wait to see what this kid grows into as an NBA player.
Manu? Oh, Manu. He has had a pretty rough preseason. He is shooting abysmally, and just seems really off on his rhythm and timing. As we know, Manu’s game is a split second and a half-inch between manic genius and complete disaster at all times. So far he is trending towards disaster. He is coming off of a summer injury and working himself back into shape. He always deserves the benefit of our doubt. But we should watch him early.
I’m also curious to see if there is any lingering effect from the slight rift between Manu and management over his inability to play in the FIBA World Cup this summer.
Forget about whether fans should care about the preseason… should the Spurs care? It’s a popular idea that the preseason is meaningless, particularly for teams like the Spurs who know who they are, what they are, how they want to play, and who they want to play. Mostly, it’s a time for conditioning, rhythm, and even a little experimentation. But, the Spurs have looked very rusty and generally pretty bad this preseason. I’m not too worried about it yet. However, the West offers no room to ease into a season, no respite from the storm. If there’s a switch to turn it on, the Spurs better find it by Tuesday night.
As we ease ourselves into this season, we should never lose sight of a few unassailable truths:
We’re blessed to root for this team;
We are the NBA champions;
Nothing can ever change that, nobody can ever take that away from us.
David J. Phillip/AP Photo
This season should be an exercise in joy, admiration, and basking in the glow of yet another campaign with this team. It seems almost impossible, but our time with this cast of characters is finite, and we should savor every moment. The title was nice; but spending 9 months a year with this team is even sweeter. After all, it is the journey and not the destination that truly matters.
The season kicks off in San Antonio on Tuesday night against the Mavs as the Spurs get their championship rings from Commissioner Silver.
Go Spurs Go.
