The San Antonio Spurs have geared themselves up for their annual playoff run, but another 50-win season shouldn’t be the only goal they set for themselves.

No matter what happens to the San Antonio Spurs at any time, you can count on Gregg Popovich scheming his way into the playoffs. Insert a tired “death and taxes” cliche here.

However, even though the team’s record and playoff performance should obviously be the primary goals this season, they shouldn’t be the only goals. There are other smaller goals that need to be achieved before the Spurs can even start thinking about booking plane tickets to Oracle Arena or the Toyota Center.

Some of the goals regard the San Antonio Spurs’ roster, some relate to the way the Spurs should play this season, and some are about winning games, of course. All of them influence the others though: the personnel partially dictates the play style, and the personnel and play style partially dictate the success.

As such, it’s important to look at each of the following five goals for the Spurs not as individualized benchmarks to meet or specific plans to accomplish, but rather as one part of a greater plan.