New year, new rules, same old Spurs landing in at no. 4 on our list. Last year, the San Antonio Spurs were two games away of reaching the NBA Finals before they got comfortable and Oklahoma City ran them out of the gyms for 4 consecutive games.
Star guard, Manu Ginobli is expected to be out for the first games of the season due to back spasms that became more hindering of his performance during the pre-season, as Gregg Popovich will look to 2012 Spurs rookie sensation Kawhi Leonard to step up and fill his void for the time being. Kawhi is being prepped by the Pop to be the next star of the team and he’s accepting his role extremely well being under big pressure.
With Tony Parker healthy after playing in the Olympic Games over the summer, Tim Duncan, who had been suffering from ankle and knee injuries the past two seasons, will finally be healthy this year after getting back into shape last season trimming down several pounds to increase his mobility.
You’re probably asking, why are the Spurs here and not the Clippers. Simple, the San Antonio Spurs are by far, the classiest organization in all of sports, which is why for decades they never have problems internally or publicly with egos and focus only on winning. They have a system and one of the all time best coaches in basketball, winning 3 of the last 10 titles.
So, no matter who Pop throws out there on the court, it’s the same system every player runs no matter who’s out on the court including Stephen Jackson who’s always on his best behavior playing for San Antonio. The Spurs have a shot at in my opinion at making it to the NBA Finals but it’s going to be hard to get past the team that’s next on the list.