San Antonio Spurs: Three reasons to watch
With the 2016-17 NBA season on the horizon, Paste BN Sports highlights the top three reasons to watch all 30 teams. We also recap any significant moves made in the offseason and project how your favorite team will finish.
Watchability ranking: 16th
What’s different? Tim Duncan’s retirement marked the end of one of the most dominant eras in professional sports history. That’s not to say the Spurs won’t remain one of the NBA’s best, especially with the addition of Pau Gasol, 36, who can be a primary contributor with what he has left in the tank. The Spurs also brought in David Lee and Dewayne Dedmon and stole Dejounte Murray with the 29th pick in the draft.
Kawhi and Co.: The Spurs are now Kawhi Leonard’s team. Coach Gregg Popovich is the mastermind behind it all, and veterans Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, LaMarcus Aldridge and Gasol will be valuable assets to help usher in the new era. But Leonard is the future. A tall order, but one for which he is well-suited.
Quiet. Boring. Beautiful: While Popovich’s system has always been a thing of pure beauty, the Spurs’ style of play has never enticed much of the general public. In a league in which highlight-reel dunks and three-point-centric attacks make for must-see TV, the Spurs — who ranked 26th in pace and 25th in three-pointers made last season — are the furthest thing from sexy. But it works to perfection, year after year.
The frontcourt: Gasol won’t be expected to replace Duncan from a leadership standpoint or on the defensive end, but the savvy Spaniard can still hang with the best of them. Last season with the Chicago Bulls, he ranked fifth among centers in scoring, sixth in rebounding, first in assists and fourth in blocks — numbers that warranted the sixth All-Star selection of his career. With Gasol alongside Aldridge and Leonard, the Spurs should again boast one of the NBA’s most dynamic frontcourts.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
(Statistics from 2015-16 season)
- Tony Parker - Points: 11.9, assists: 5.3, rebounds: 2.4, steals: 0.8, field goal percentage: 49.3%
- Danny Green - Points: 7.2, rebounds: 3.8, assists: 1.8, steals: 1.0, field goal percentage: 37.6%
- Kawhi Leonard - Points: 21.2, rebounds: 6.8, assists: 2.6, steals: 1.8, field goal percentage: 50.6%
- LaMarcus Aldridge - Points: 19.0, rebounds: 8.5, assists: 1.5, blocks: 1.1, field goal percentage: 51.3%
- Pau Gasol (with Chicago) - Points: 16.5, rebounds: 11.0, assists: 4.1, blocks: 2.0, field goal percentage: 46.9%
How good can they be? While we don’t see the Spurs quietly putting together another 67-win season, expect them to again be next in line behind the Golden State Warriors at the top of the West.
Paste BN’s projection: 59-23
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