Aging Spurs Have Eye on Fifth Title
SportingNews.com
Oct 12, 2010
Leading up to the start of the season, Sporting News previews an NBA team each day, counting backward from Sean Deveney's preseason power poll.
The window is sliding down. The door is closing. The light is growing dimmer.
The Spurs have heard all of the analogies and warnings and yet, every year, they keep coming back with another 50-win team and the strong conviction that they can make a run at one more championship.
Would you believe San Antonio is ready to do it again?
While coach Gregg Popovich was often frustrated with his team's inability to develop a rhythm last season, he was quick to caution against calling it a disaster.
"Everybody wants to win the championship," Popovich says. "But it's basically a ridiculous notion to think that it's going to happen every year."
The Spurs don't deny that they are closer to the end than the beginning of their cycle, as the combination of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker adds experience but also a lot of NBA miles. However, the addition of a highly regarded young big man from Brazil has put the spring back in the steps of those older legs.
So perhaps it was fitting Tiago Splitter had to interrupt his honeymoon to sign his contract with San Antonio. After all, his three-year courtship with the Spurs had seen everything except a bended knee and flowers at the altar.
"Finally, my dream has come true," Splitter says.
The 6-11 Splitter is battling injury this preseason, but with him in the fold, the Spurs might be back on track for that next championship banner. Not that they've ever been far out of the picture. That's the beauty of what Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have done for more than a decade in the Alamo City -- always tinkering, forever tweaking, doing whatever is necessary to keep their team in the mix.
How many times since that third banner had been raised to the rafters of the AT&T Center in 2005 did the experts declare the Spurs too old, too worn-out, too something?
Despite the naysayers, the Spurs still won a fourth title in 2007.
San Antonio was able to produce 50 wins, sneak into the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference playoffs and upset Dallas in the opening round. It was a different story in the second round, though, when they were swept by Phoenix.
The plan had been to slide Splitter into the lineup to provide an infusion of youth, rebounding and defensive prowess. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker would be able to take that power boost and enable San Antonio to keep its drive for five alive.
A year ago, the Spurs signed swingman Richard Jefferson to a deal that put them more than $8 million over the luxury-tax threshold. But rather than being the finisher on San Antonio's fast breaks, Jefferson was often out of sync last season.
Bringing him back at $15.2 million for the final year of his contract hardly seemed palatable. However, having Jefferson opt out and then re-signing him to a new four-year deal worth $38.9 million made things more tolerable for the Spurs financially. It also gave Jefferson more money over the long haul and a clean sheet for both parties.
"I think he'll have a better year next year," Popovich says. "He'll be a lot more ready to understand whatever we might do."
So it seems that talk of the Spurs' demise, as usual, has been exaggerated.
"We haven't won a championship in three years and who knows?" Popovich says. "Maybe we'll win one next year. Maybe we'll win one 27 years from now. Maybe we'll never win another one. None of us know, but we'll work toward that."
The Spurs always manage to give themselves another chance.
-- Fran Blinebury, Sporting News Yearbooks
Deveney's take
It's difficult to count out the Spurs, as long as they are working with the trio of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. But age is becoming an issue, even as the team tries to find roles for youngsters like George Hill, DeJuan Blair and rookie Tiago Splitter. They'll need support from those three, as well as a more consistent season from Richard Jefferson, to secure a good seed in the West playoffs.
View from the other bench
"You watched them all season long and they kept wondering if they were ever going to put it together again. Then they started to click over the last six weeks and suddenly nobody wanted a piece of them as a seven seed in the playoffs. (Tim) Duncan is no longer the dominant force over an 82-game season, but he can still be an elite level player. (The same goes) with (Manu) Ginobili and (Tony) Parker.
"If (Tiago) Splitter can deliver anything close to the promise that's been talked about with him, then they have a solid rebounder and strong presence at the rim that can get them back to their defensive roots. If (Richard) Jefferson can stop pressing and find himself a comfortable role as a scorer on the wing, he could bounce back from last season's disaster and it would be like they've added two key new players. It would be foolish to write them off after what was, for them, a down season. I think they're back in the top half of the playoff bracket."
Inside the numbers
16.3. The average number of games missed by Tony Parker due to injury in the past three seasons.
125. Career postseason double-doubles for Tim Duncan, the second most among active players in the league behind Shaquille O'Neal's 142.
6.4. DeJuan Blair's rebounds per game last year, the most for a rookie who averaged less than 20 minutes -- Blair averaged 18.2 -- since Roy Tarpley grabbed 7.1 boards in 18.7 minutes a game with Dallas in 1986-87.
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