San Antonio Spurs: 2019-20 NBA season preview

Storyline 2: Are the young Spurs ready for their close-up?

So much of what the San Antonio Spurs intend to do in 2019-20 will hinge on if it can get combustible seasons from its young core. In fact, even in a positive world, it’s difficult to imagine San Antonio living up to the postseason projections unless at least two or three of its young guns take major strides forward.

In a nutshell, these simply aren’t your father’s Spurs. In the past, if a young stud — say, 2010 No. 20 pick James Anderson for example — doesn’t break out, with security blankets like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, it’s no such deal.

With these Spurs, you could make the case for nearly every player having an extra notch to reach, and for next season to be deemed “successful,” it feels must-have.

To put a name to those young Spurs: the likes of Lonnie Walker IV, Derrick White, and to a lesser extent, you could add Dejounte Murray to this list, even though he’s already somewhat proven.

Throw in 2019 draftees Luka Samanic, Keldon Johnson and Quinndary Weatherspoon, and there are at least six players that, best-case scenario, you’d like to see tap into their potential a bit more.

As the saying goes, availability is the greatest ability. That’s something the likes of White and Murray won’t have to worry about too much. Murray feels like a safe guarantee to be the team’s starting point guard, while there’s been chatter that Derrick White could follow in the footsteps of Manu Ginobili, and become San Antonio’s next great bench spark.

Training camp and Saturday’s preseason game against the Orlando Magic could give us a clearer perspective on what the Spurs’ depth chart looks like for the long haul, as it relates to Walker IV, but the contract extension points to positive vibes.

As for impractical fans, also known as myself, just a month ago, who’ve fallen into the trap of reading summer quotes and summer film, and are now expecting an All-Rookie Team caliber seasons from either of the Spurs’ draftees, it might be wise to pump the breaks on that.

For context: in the NBA’s history, Carl Landry owns the record for the fewest minutes played to make an All-Rookie Team, with just 711 minutes over 42 games in 2007-08. In the Popovich era, only a dozen rookies have eclipsed that milestone — the Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, DeJuan Blair-type Spurs greats.

Not to say that’s a bad thing; we’ve seen Spurs rookies come in historically and carve out solid roles in limited minutes in the past. See Dejounte Murray’s 322-minute rookie season in 2016-17, or Boban Marjanovic in 2015-16.

In a perfect world, Samanic, Johnson and Weatherspoon step in and perform well when their names are called, and Walker IV, White and Murray ramp their productions up marginally. But, just like Tim Duncan’s Finals record proves, if the Spurs could hit on five of those six, or even four for that matter, it’d be enough for some major success.