Maybe it is a one year downturn, after a series of incredible years. Maybe it is a bump in the road, and they start their next assault on an otherworldly 50+ win season streak. Maybe Kawhi Leonard comes back healthy, motivated and most of all, happy, and none of this matters a year from now when they are challenging the Warriors and Rockets, instead of seeing if they can hang on to be first round catnip for those teams. But maybe none of that is true, and what we are seeing is real.
The Spurs won't win 50 games for a 19th(!) straight season. By the way, if not for the 1998-99 lockout shortening the season to just 50 games, it probably would be 21 straight. More startlingly though, there is a legitimate chance they miss the playoffs, coming into Monday, March 5th, just 1.5 games ahead of 9th place. More than the ending of the 50-win streak, and the potential to miss the playoffs, the bigger issues are larger, the Spurs, for the first time, seem a bit rudderless.
Years from now, if we need to draw a 'last moment of the Spurs dynasty' moment, it will be when Zaza Pachulia stepped under Kawhi Leonard on a 3-pointer in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. To that point, the Spurs were hammering the Warriors. They lost that game, the next three without Kawhi, and have had Leonard in action for just nine games since. They've also finally seen Tony Parker get old, LaMarcus Aldridge get injured, other players struggle, and Kawhi Leonard being mentally flighty after years of being the next Tim Duncan. These are not normal occurrences in San Antonio.
In a vacuum, the Spurs even being 36-27 with Leonard for just nine games, and numerous other injuries throughout the season is fairly remarkable. This is the lightest the roster has been, even with Leonard, in a number of years. This is probably in isolation one of Pop's best coaching jobs, but after so many years of plug-and-play to 56-67 wins, it seems so out of the blue to fail backwards towards the 45-48 win range. And more than that, it seems like Pop's lost control for of a narrative for the first time.
The Leonard situation is just bizarre in every way; here seemingly is a guy totally content in his situation, beloved by his team, his teammates and his fans, but somewhere in that perfect situation, imperfect cracks appeared and then broke wide open. How else to explain a player with the drive to become Finals MVP at 23 reportedly refusing to play after being medically cleared. How else to explain Popovich essentially outing him in a public presser? For years, the Spurs were a perfect franchise, who seamlessly went from one stoic, humble superstar in David Robinson, to an even better one in Duncan, and the line seemed to continue with Kawhi. It hasn't.
The Spurs will try to repair the relationship, and there still remains an outside chance Kawhi makes it back in time to save the season, but there seems to be an end point to that relationship. Whether it be his issues with management, or even the recent report that he's unhappy he isn't getting the type of shoe deal commensurrate with an All Pro and Top-5 player when healthy. Kawhi seems to want more than what the San Antonio life can offer him, which is not a bad desire, but one a bit out of the blue.
The Spurs dynasty was not long for the world. Parker was already benched earlier this year. Ginobili seemingly is about done. Pau Gasol aged before our eyes. The best player is an always moody LaMarcus Aldridge. Most of all Pop is 69, though his 'wokeness' and genius seems ageless, he is aged, he is grayed, he may not want to deal with a post-Kawhi world where he's piecing things together for the first time ever.
Again, just like we did with New England in 2014, or even earlier this season when they started 2-2, it is probably foolhardy to write off the Spurs. The idea of Pop and Kawhi breaking bread, everyone on the team singing Kumbaya, and them making the playoffs, even scaring a top seed Warriors or Rockets team, before a 59-23 season in 2018-19 is completely within the realm of possibility. But maybe the reverse is possible to, and if so, we may be witnessing the end of the greatest run of consistent brilliance in NBA history.
The Spurs won't win 50 games for a 19th(!) straight season. By the way, if not for the 1998-99 lockout shortening the season to just 50 games, it probably would be 21 straight. More startlingly though, there is a legitimate chance they miss the playoffs, coming into Monday, March 5th, just 1.5 games ahead of 9th place. More than the ending of the 50-win streak, and the potential to miss the playoffs, the bigger issues are larger, the Spurs, for the first time, seem a bit rudderless.
Years from now, if we need to draw a 'last moment of the Spurs dynasty' moment, it will be when Zaza Pachulia stepped under Kawhi Leonard on a 3-pointer in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. To that point, the Spurs were hammering the Warriors. They lost that game, the next three without Kawhi, and have had Leonard in action for just nine games since. They've also finally seen Tony Parker get old, LaMarcus Aldridge get injured, other players struggle, and Kawhi Leonard being mentally flighty after years of being the next Tim Duncan. These are not normal occurrences in San Antonio.
In a vacuum, the Spurs even being 36-27 with Leonard for just nine games, and numerous other injuries throughout the season is fairly remarkable. This is the lightest the roster has been, even with Leonard, in a number of years. This is probably in isolation one of Pop's best coaching jobs, but after so many years of plug-and-play to 56-67 wins, it seems so out of the blue to fail backwards towards the 45-48 win range. And more than that, it seems like Pop's lost control for of a narrative for the first time.
The Leonard situation is just bizarre in every way; here seemingly is a guy totally content in his situation, beloved by his team, his teammates and his fans, but somewhere in that perfect situation, imperfect cracks appeared and then broke wide open. How else to explain a player with the drive to become Finals MVP at 23 reportedly refusing to play after being medically cleared. How else to explain Popovich essentially outing him in a public presser? For years, the Spurs were a perfect franchise, who seamlessly went from one stoic, humble superstar in David Robinson, to an even better one in Duncan, and the line seemed to continue with Kawhi. It hasn't.
The Spurs will try to repair the relationship, and there still remains an outside chance Kawhi makes it back in time to save the season, but there seems to be an end point to that relationship. Whether it be his issues with management, or even the recent report that he's unhappy he isn't getting the type of shoe deal commensurrate with an All Pro and Top-5 player when healthy. Kawhi seems to want more than what the San Antonio life can offer him, which is not a bad desire, but one a bit out of the blue.
The Spurs dynasty was not long for the world. Parker was already benched earlier this year. Ginobili seemingly is about done. Pau Gasol aged before our eyes. The best player is an always moody LaMarcus Aldridge. Most of all Pop is 69, though his 'wokeness' and genius seems ageless, he is aged, he is grayed, he may not want to deal with a post-Kawhi world where he's piecing things together for the first time ever.
Again, just like we did with New England in 2014, or even earlier this season when they started 2-2, it is probably foolhardy to write off the Spurs. The idea of Pop and Kawhi breaking bread, everyone on the team singing Kumbaya, and them making the playoffs, even scaring a top seed Warriors or Rockets team, before a 59-23 season in 2018-19 is completely within the realm of possibility. But maybe the reverse is possible to, and if so, we may be witnessing the end of the greatest run of consistent brilliance in NBA history.
