San Antonio Spurs And The Price of Loyalty

Staying loyal may cost the San Antonio Spurs a sixth ring.

Loyalty.

It’s a foreign concept in today’s NBA.

Coaches who have proven their mettle may come back from lunch to a pink slip (hey there, Kevin McHale). Players who have given significant chunks of their careers–or even their entire career–to a team may suddenly find themselves on the trade block (hi, Anderson Varejao).

In an era where chasing and acquiring The Next Best Thing (or the Second Coming of Michael Jordan) for the next championship ring is the game du jour, the San Antonio Spurs have made a name for themselves by staying loyal to those who have done right by them.

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Indeed, one doesn’t have to look far to see how the organization takes care of its people. Former Spur Sean Elliott provides local TV color commentary for the team. David Robinson is a minority owner in the team.

James Borrego and Jacque Vaughn were both former assistant coaches with the Spurs; after being fired from their head coaching positions with the Orlando Magic, were brought back into the Silver and Black fold; Borrego as an assistant coach again, and Vaughn as a scout.

Bruce Bowen, whose No. 12 was retired, graciously allowed it out of retirement for new Spur LaMarcus Aldridge, who wanted to wear that number.

Loyalty is admirable, and it’s one of the reasons why the Spurs are high on some free agents’ shopping lists.

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But sometimes it will cost you in unforeseen ways.

The Spurs have been known for being the bigger, slower, older juggernaut that tends to keep players around for at least 10 years; builds through the NBA Draft and crafty trades; and develops players in its D-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs.

This has worked for them (five championships in the past 17 years and a roster full of both league and Finals MVPs, future Hall of Famers and Defensive Players of the Year, plus a three-time  Coach of the Year and a two-time Executive of the Year), but ’tis a new day in the NBA and what once worked may no longer do so.

Such is the price of loyalty.

Tony Parker has been the Spurs starting point guard since his rookie year in 2001. The wily Frenchman mesmerized crowds as he juked to the basket and was the focal point of the Spurs’ plays. The past couple of years have seen his game and physicality decline; injuries hampered him this season and part of the season before.

While he recovered from each physical setback, Parker has not looked like the player that worked his way into head coach Gregg Popovich’s heart  Sure, he’s shown flashes of the player that helped the Spurs win four rings, but those flashes tend to show up (or not) at interesting and inopportune moments. Yet the Spurs have not really found an adequate backup for Parker; Patty Mills is serviceable, but nowhere near the playmaker that Parker was and sometimes is.

Manu Ginobili is also aging and, while still making moves, is still on a downhill slope.

Team captain and cornerstone Tim Duncan has anchored the Spurs’ defense since he arrived from Wake Forest University as the  No. 1 pick in the 1997 NBA Draft. At first he was partnered with Robinson as one of the “Twin Towers,” then took over when Robinson retired in 2003.

He has consistently left money on the table over the past few years to help the team recruit and keep talent (you praise his glory, Aldridge!) and turned down a lucrative offer to to go to the Orlando Magic to stay and help the Spurs. He has taken a very diminished role this season so that new franchise face Kawhi Leonard and Aldridge can shine and can be be found on the bench more often than not in the postseason.

After 19 seasons in the league while still putting his name in the record books, Duncan is no longer the explosive player he was. Duncan’s overall performances this season–especially in the playoffs–have cast him in a not-so-favorable light, even as the whispers of his possible retirement this summer grow louder (again).

Yet the Spurs dealt for another power forward in Aldridge and a developmental center in rookie Boban Marjanovic, while choosing more game-ready veterans at the shooting guard and small forward positions in David West, Andre Miller and Kevin Martin, instead of a reliable and ready rim protector to back up Duncan.

The Spurs’ aging roster is still mostly effective, but not enough to keep up with the league’s smaller, faster, more athletic trends in the long-term. In this vein, the Spurs are an anachronism. One of the theories of why dinosaurs became extinct was that they did not adapt to a changing environment. The Spurs, for all of their accolades, may end up on the same path if significant changes aren’t made next season.

The Spurs Way worked when it was just the Spurs Way. With the growth of the Popovich coaching/executive tree, teams are now emulating and figuring out how to stop the Spurs, since their overall style hasn’t changed. To wit:

• Sam Presti is the general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder and a former assistant GM with the Spurs. The Thunder beat the Spurs in the 2012 Western Conference semifinals and currently hold a 3-2 lead in this year’s Western Conference semifinals, with the next game on May 12 in Oklahoma City.

• Steve Kerr is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. He played two stints with the Spurs (and won two championships), and also served as an assistant coach. The Warriors beat the Spurs three times during the regular season and have repeatedly said that they model their style and culture after the Spurs.

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