Quiet Reformations in San Antonio, Detroit

Lots of teams transformed this summer. Boston gave up on its green thumb and imported fully grown trees. Minnesota gave up on its own oak, opting for seedlings. Houston rewrote its rotation and its philosophy before the playoffs were over. New York added an All-Star, Memphis went global, Seattle and Portland got lucky. Orlando and Charlotte made big interchangeable decisions. Others -- Cleveland, Miami, Chicago, Washington, Sacramento, Utah, Dallas -- did a whole lot of nothing. Joe Smith will help the Bulls, sure, and Smush Parker is something. But these things aren't part of any grand scheme; they're fill-in-the-blank movements.

San Antonio and Detroit, though -- both teams have seriously retooled on the down low. Both can claim to be among the older teams in the league. Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace are no spring ducks; Tim Duncan is likewise aging. In today's NBA, it's a challenge to live forever. (Just ask Geoff Petrie, Pat Riley and Mitch Kupchak.) Towns die from too much living; you almost have to hit the bottom to spring back up. 'Rebuilding on the fly' is denial.
But leave it to R.C. Buford and Joe Dumars. The Spurs added Tiago Splitter to the program and Ian Mahinmi to the roster. They achieved fiscal solvency by unloading salary in the muted Houston deal. They somehow got a one-time lottery kid (Arizona's Marcus Williams) in the second round, and pulled a Shane Battier clone (in Ime Udoka) to back up Bruce Bowen. Never mind these are the champions. I wouldn't call them set through 2015... but the Spurs are on their way.

Detroit got younger without doing anything, really. Chris Webber doesn't seem all that likely to return. Dumars re-signed two of the team's elder statesmen (Billups and Antonio McDyess), traded away a young gun.. and promoted Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson. Then he drafted a ready-right-now Rodney Stuckey and a potentially useful Arron Afflalo, and signed a solid rotation player in Jarvis Hayes. Middle of last season, people'd say Detroit's window was closing. That 2010 roster doesn't look so terrible now, does it?

Building a team is a long-term prospect -- don't let Riley's 2006 Heat fool you. Big splashes can work, and hell -- one of this year's roster explosions probably will due to sheer mathematics. But Buford and Dumars are showing the league every single summer how to build a winning program... and no one's biting. More power to them.