The San Antonio Spurs look quite a bit different now than they did the same time a year ago. What will the season hold in store for this retooled team?
Kawhi Leonard was always the different one on the San Antonio Spurs. Gregg Popovich spent decades building a conservative system around intelligence, ball movement, team defense and low-post-inhabiting bigs.
Kawhi Leonard was athletic, an isolater, an incredible individual defender and a wing.
Being the great coach that he was, Pop adapted his system to fit Leonard, who blossomed into one of the best players in the league. Yet now that he’s gone, even though it feels strange, it somehow also feels … correct.
However, there are now a lot of holes that need to be filled and a lot of questions that need to be answered. Regular starters like Leonard, Danny Green and Kyle Anderson are all gone. Their production will need to be replaced.
Luckily, the San Antonio Spurs have the personnel to do so, and one of the best coaches in history to help them along the way.
Let’s look not just at the changes in the roster, but also some storylines for the year, best-case and worst-case scenarios, and end with a record prediction.