The San Antonio Spurs might not be outright title favorites, but there’s a sizable contingent of league followers that expects them to win yet another championship next June. That’s what happens when you add basketball’s marquee free agent to a 55-win team that sometimes looked like the league’s best last season.
But Gregg Popovich fully understands the importance of chemistry and continuity. The Spurs have relied on those intangibles more than any other team in the league since Tim Duncan came aboard nearly 20 years ago, combining them with talent and preparation to forge one of the longest running dynasties ever. Did San Antonio sacrifice a portion of that ethos to sign LaMarcus Aldridge? Popovich seems to think so, and is taking a different approach to coaching this season as a result.
Here’s the 66-year-old courtesy of the San Antonio Express-News’ Buck Harvey, just days after he returned from the team’s famous annual coaching retreat.
“We have a lot of questions,” he said, “and what people won’t think about is personality and fiber and what we had camaraderie-wise. We lost some of that.”
[…]
“In the beginning,” Popovich said, “we’re just going to be teachers. We’re going to tell everyone how we usually like to do things. And then we’re going to watch them play.”
Roster turnover is easily overlooked when it comes to assessing a team’s prospects during the preseason. The Spurs lost Tiago Splitter, Cory Joseph, Marco Belinelli, and Aron Baynes during the summer, each of whom played pivotal roles during San Antonio’s run to the 2013 Finals and 2014 Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The players brought in to replace them – most notably Aldridge, David West, Ray McCallum, and Jimmer Fredette – represent a collective gain in overall talent level. But will they develop the synergy with San Antonio’s long-time core that the departed players worked so hard to establish? And just as importantly, how will Popovich and company tweak their two-way systems to accommodate these new pieces?
Much has been made of Aldridge’s potential role with the Spurs – whether he’ll remain a ball-stopping volume scorer or become his new team’s primary option within its beautiful motion offense. Rest assured that Popovich knows exactly how he envisions the four-time All-Star fitting in with San Antonio, too. The Spurs, though, routinely use the 82-game grind as a test lab to find ways to reach their peak, and 2015-16 will take that approach to new levels of experimentation by necessity. Incorporating a piece like Aldridge, while dealing with so much peripheral personnel change, is new ground for San Antonio.
As Popovich notes, he’s going to teach, watch his team play, and emerge with season-long blueprint for success from there. This season will be a “process” for the Spurs in every sense of the word. And given their arguably unmatched blend of talent, experience, and intellect, we certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it pays off with the ultimate result of a championship next summer.
[Via San Antonio Express-News]
