For the first time in decades, the San Antonio Spurs are entering the regular season as a team that is considered by many pundits to finish outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference following the loss of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

While some in the media do not believe in this group as much as Spurs rosters of recent memory, there is no lack of confidence in the players that make up this team and Rudy Gay made that quite clear during a recent interview in his hometown of Baltimore.

In Gay's eyes, each and every one of his teammates will be entering their 82-game regular season schedule with a chip on their shoulder with DeMar DeRozan, the prized piece of the Leonard trade that came back to San Antonio, being the most talked about of the bunch.

“That’s the thing about this whole team – everybody has a chip on his shoulder,” Gay said, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “His is just more publicized. But, look, I’m healthy (and have something to prove), LaMarcus (Aldridge) always finds someway to have a chip on his shoulder. Jakob wants to prove he can be a great player. DJ (Dejounte Murray) has a chip on his shoulder because he wants to be known as one of the best at his position.”

With Leonard and Green having been shipped out of town as part of the trade that brought back DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl, the opportunity for Gay and a number of other players to become a bigger piece of the puzzle for Gregg Popovich and company on both ends of the floor is certainly there and they all appear to be ready for the challenge now that there is more of an opportunity for each and every one of them to be a primary contributor for this team.

This past season, Gay made 57 appearances for the Silver and Black and proved to be rather effective when his number was called by Popovich as he owned averages of 11.5 points to go along with 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in just over 21 minutes per game.

Assuming Gay is able to become even more of a factor for San Antonio this coming season now that he believes he is in much better shape from a physical standpoint after being a full year removed from his injury, he should have a great opportunity to become a steady third option for the Spurs behind LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan.