San Antonio Spurs Complete 2016-17 Season Preview

A sense of finality accompanied the San Antonio Spurs’ second-round playoff exit at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was not the typical, unsettling dose of closure felt by any NBA team that goes home without a title.

It was something greater, much more permanent.

“He asked if I wanted to play,” Tim Duncan recalled of his interaction with head coach Gregg Popovich before the fourth quarter of Game 6, per the San Antonio Express-News’ Jeff McDonald. “I said I always want to play.”

The 40-year-old Duncan logged a postseason-high 34 minutes in a game that, despite a spirited fourth-quarter surge, effectively ended by halftime, perhaps forewarning what happened two months later: The man-myth affectionately known as The Big Fundamental retired in July, a full 19 years of service to his name, simultaneously without shock or warning.

It’s well-known that San Antonio never once featured a winning percentage below .610 during those 19 seasons while never missing the playoffs. However, the last season the Spurs played without Duncan (1996-97), they recorded a franchise-record 62 losses, according to Bleacher Report Insights.

And now, after spending the last half-decade extending Duncan’s window, the Spurs must prove their own shelf life can persist without him (on the court, at least). Familiar faces abound, with some new ones sprinkled in. Roles will change, and the importance of Kawhi Leonard’s ripening MVP candidacy will amplify.

Still, the Spurs will lean on the same offensive and defensive principles that earned them a franchise-best 67 wins last season. Duncan is history, an entire era gone with him, but the same decades-old championship expectations remain.

Biggest Offseason Move

Losing Duncan is more than an emotional sting for the Spurs. Though much of his value was eroded by age and the rise of small ball, he always served a strong defensive purpose.

Of every player to contest at least 400 shots at the rim last season, only 10 limited opponents to a lower field-goal percentage than Duncan. And while he finished 187th in minutes played, he ranked sixth in total points saved on the defensive end, according to NBAMath.com.

Fortunately for the Spurs, one of the five players in front of Duncan is now on their side: Pau Gasol. He has never been Duncan’s equal on defense but offers an air of stylistic familiarity—a long, shifty tower fully capable of functioning as the last line of defense in close quarters.

San Antonio has also long seemed like the ideal home for Gasol’s offensive arsenal. His pick-and-pops continue to bankrupt defenses, and he’s virtually unguardable when his range stretches outside 16 feet, with a flair for theatrical passing typified by point guards.

Transitioning from Duncan to Gasol is a lateral move at this point, but that’s OK. Gasol, 36, is the first player to ever collect 16 points, four assists and two blocks per game after his 33rd birthday—he bridges the gap between him and Duncan’s superior efficiency with higher volume.

It’s the collateral damage of his arrival that fosters concern. The Spurs jettisoned Boris Diaw to make room for Gasol’s two-year, $31.7 million deal. LaMarcus Aldridge and the Spaniard will struggle, if not outright fail, to replicate Duncan’s defensive value; they have no chance of reproducing Diaw’s multiplatform coverage.

That duty falls to Kyle Anderson and Leonard, the two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year. And even then, the Spurs, by investing in Gasol’s twilight, are re-emphasizing their offensive roots at the expense of last year’s league-leading defensive model.

Rotation Breakdown

Three of the Spurs’ 10 most used players from last season are out of the …

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