FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.Brothers and sisters, repent your sins. Cry unto the Lord that he will be merciful and spare you rebounds and point differential. Lo, the Spurrian nightmare has indeed returned, and the Earth will quake when they cry vengeance.
That's a fancy way of saying, "Dude, the Spurs are really good -- again. Check yourself."
Looking at how the Spurs responded from their most embarrassing playoff exit since the turn of the century is inspiring. To see a team's owner commit to paying the luxury tax in a massive economic downturn is impressive. To see a management group aggressively pursue a multi-positional upgrade through trading older established assets is what every team's fans want to see. And to see a team take a flyer on a player passed up by every other league thanks to injuries makes you happy to watch basketball be played.
It's also downright terrifying.
Richard Jefferson not only helps the Spurs' already sound defense by improving length and size, but also creates an immediate burst on offense. Antonio McDyess takes the grizzled-veteran big role previously occupied by Kurt Thomas and creates a younger, and possibly meaner, version. Theo Ratliff can clean up the glass as well as Fabricio Oberto did. And DeJuan Blair is either the biggest piece of fool's gold since the last highly-touted second round pick continuosly overlooked due to injury, or a diamond in the rough.
The same qualifiers exist for the Spurs as they do for everyone: no injuries, team chemistry, blah, blah, blah. I think we've seen enough from Gregg Popovich's work to know he'll manage the team chemistry, and trying to predict injuries is useless. And even with your average number of team injuries, the Spurs could probably withstand them. But Sweet BeJeebus, if they are healthy ...
Tony Parker coming into his prime. Tim Duncan with an actual summer to rest. George Hill with another year on him. Antonio McDyess on a team without seventeen self-destruct buttons. Richard Jefferson with a full complement around him, a team where he's the fourth option. Manu on a rehabbed wheel. There isn't a player on the Spurs that doesn't look to fit. They know how to win, they know how to play, and they know what they want. The Spurs are one of the few teams in the league that actually can say they have a goal for a championship.
Popovich knows how fleeting championship chances are. So does Duncan. And the thought of riding off into the sunset is one that must consume them. There are only two things that could stop the Spurs this season. Injury, and the Lakers. And we may end up seeing both of those challenges trumped.
Last Season By the Numbers
Record: 54-28 under Gregg Popovich. Finished 1st in the Southwest Division and 3rd in the Western Conference. Eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks (4-1) in the first round.
Offense: 108.5 points per 100 possessions, 13th in the NBA. 5th in shooting, 2nd in turnover rate, 30th in offensive rebounding, 30th in free throw rate.
Defense: 104.3 points per 100 possession, 5th in the NBA. 7th in shooting defense, 30th in opponent turnover rate, 1st in defensive rebounding, 1st in opponent free throw rate.
Top Performers: Tony Parker led the team with 22.0 points per game, followed by Tim Duncan (19.3) and Manu Ginobili (15.3). Duncan paced all rebounders with 10.7 per game, more than double Kurt Thomas (5.1), who placed second. Duncan also led the team with 1.7 blocks a night, while Ginobili tallied a team-high 1.5 steals a game. Parker's 6.9 assists were tops, with Ginobili (3.6) and Duncan (3.5) neck-and-neck for second and third place.
All statistics via Basketball-Reference.com.
Player to Watch
FanHouse's Matt Moore and Tom Ziller preview one player to watch from each team. Here's a snippet of Ziller's post on Manu Ginobili. There are two parallel concerns with Ginobili: his right ankle, which ended his 2008-09 season prematurely, and his age. (Manu turned 32 in July.) Whether the ankle is healed is a matter for medical professionals to assert. It's the age that bothers me moving forward. Because -- assuming Manu's weakened (but still excellent) 2008-09 performance can be attributed to the ankle -- it speaks anxiously as to what Ginobili's game might look like as he gets older.
See Tom Ziller's complete post on Manu Ginobili
Offseason Tracker
IN: Richard Jefferson (trade), DeJuan Blair (draft), Antonio McDyess (free agency), Keith Bogans (free agency), Marcus Haislip (free agency), Theo Ratliff (free agency)
OUT: Fabricio Oberto (trade), Bruce Bowen (trade), Kurt Thomas (trade), Drew Gooden (free agency).
