GHOSTING THE MACHINE

For decades, the San Antonio Spurs have been the best organization in the NBA because of their foresight and uninterrupted succession planning. Then Kawhi Leonard threw a wrench in their system.

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The San Antonio Spurs have been in existence since 1967 and are the most successful and consistently well operated franchise in the history of professional American sports. Full stop. It’s not open to debate. There isn’t a “counter” argument. Don’t @ me. How’s that for a thesis statement?

Hyperbole aside, you don’t have to dig much beyond the surface to find an abundance of facts that strongly support this argument.The Spurs have only missed the playoffs five times in their history, only four times since joining the NBA, and not one of those have come since Greg Popovich installed himself as head coach just 18 games into the 96/97 season.

The beauty of the Spurs organization is their unparalleled succession planning, unrelenting ability to find players that work in their system and their willingness to quickly weed out the players that don’t. This philosophy had basically continued, uninterrupted, until last season when something completely unpredictable happened. The torch that the Spurs so methodically and carefully passed to Kawhi Leonard was unceremoniously handed back to them. It was as if the the Spurs, in an instant, became fallible for the first time in their history.

“No one leaves the Spurs voluntarily”. “NBA players covet the Spurs culture and the opportunity to play for them”. “Popovich is a basketball genius”. These are the only story lines that NBA fans such as myself have ever known. And justly so. San Antonio is a hard organization to criticize because there legitimately isn’t much to complain about. From ownership down to players and all the way back up, it’s always been first class. So much so, that it’s almost become mythology. Until last season there was nothing on the horizon that could seemingly disrupt the harmony of their existence.

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The shift was subtle but palpable. In retrospect, it originated when Kawhi Leonard was injured during the 2017 playoffs but the first chinks in the armor weren’t visible until bits of negative information uncharacteristically starting becoming public later that year. Within a few months, all these little bits put together, began to paint a portrait of an organization at odds it’s most prized asset. Or, more accurately, a marquee player at odds with the team he plays for. What began to come into focus was that Kawhi was unhappy — for reasons that weren’t specifically outlined — with the Spurs and their handling of his rehabilitation.

Once the rumors had completely surfaced and became reality, the rift became more public week over week until it became clear that the chasm between the two sides had become wide and would not easily be bridged, now or perhaps at all. At this point the Spurs were forced into envisioning a roster construction that didn’t include him for the remainder of the 2017/18 season but even more jarring, the prospect of a future without him as their centerpiece.

There was David Robinson and then there was Tim Duncan. There was Ginobli and Parker and Horry and a list of contributors as long as your arm. There is Aldridge and Gasol. Since the 1997/1998 season, without skipping any beats, there has always been a core. There has always been a “next man up” and that person has always been ready, willing and capable of carrying on the tradition and preserving the dynasty. The best analogy I can think of is to compare to Spurs to an elite cycling team competing in the Tour de France. It takes close inspection to fully understand and appreciate it, but there is intense strategy and planning as each cyclist takes their turn leading the group while the others draft behind. They take turns leveraging each others strength for the greater good. One person ultimately ends up with more glory than the rest but that’s the nature of the competition and it’s understood. This is San Antonio. The Spurs are better than the sum of their parts.

Once it became clear that the relationship between Kawhi and Spurs had toxified past the point of no return, both sides were left with no choice but to move on, however muddied and unclear the path forward had become. Essentially the Spurs were being strong armed into trading the best two way player in the league and in so many ways, the future they had envisioned for themselves. They were also being forced to pivot for the first time — perhaps in their history — without the the luxury of it being a planned course correction. They knew when Robinson was going to retire. They knew in advance that Duncan was finished. They knew Manu and Tony were preparing to age out but were prepared to stay on in a way that could only be perceived as helping a transition to a new generation. They were prepared. This is the hallmark of their organization. Unselfish players contributing to a greater good.

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Ultimately the Spurs, despite having lost most of their leverage and say in the matter, got a return for Kawhi that suits them just fine. DeMar DeRozan is fiercely loyal and despite having a skill set that only replaces Kawhi offensively, is a determined leader who will, if nothing else, do everything in his power to will them to success. The Spurs can and will build around him. Out of the dust of the trade they also added Jakob Poetl who, as a 9th overall pick, is a raw talent, high basketball IQ variable who’s ceiling has yet to be determined. That, combined with the Raptors late first round pick in this summer’s draft, makes the trade more than palatable.

Leonard may have thrown a wrench in to the Spurs machine, but it didn’t break it.