About this time one year ago, the Spurs were reveling in the afterglow of the most satisfying NBA championship run in club history and making plans to bring back almost the entire roster that earned it.

Then, they deemed that the players who turned the NBA Finals into a basketball version of “the beautiful game” deserved a chance to repeat. The immediate future looked bright and plans were in place to leverage some brilliant possibilities that would be available the following summer, when players such as Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge hit the free agent market and the club might have the cap room to go after one of them.

But a successful title defense again eluded the Spurs, and it is going to take some creative thinking on the part of the basketball operations staff to make them the power players in free agency many presumed they would be when Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili ended their stellar Spurs careers.

Duncan’s renaissance season that ended with selection to both the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams at age 39 makes his return for a 19th season in silver and black almost a lock.

It is how, and when, the Spurs and Duncan agree on a new deal that will determine how the club approaches the most important summer since 2000, when a 24-year-old Duncan became a free agent for the first time and received an offer from the Orlando Magic that was too good not to consider seriously.

With 10 players hitting free agency July 1, the Spurs have only six players under contract for next season. Those six — Kyle Anderson, Boris Diaw, Patty Mills, Tony Parker, Tiago Splitter and Reggie Williams (non-guaranteed) — have salaries totaling about $34.2 million.

But NBA rules require all teams to “hold” at least 12 players at all times, and the Spurs can only retain their free agency rights to Duncan, Ginobili, Jeff Ayres, Aron Baynes, Marco Belinelli, Matt Bonner, Danny Green, Cory Joseph and Kawhi Leonard by putting them on their player list with salary cap hold figures that presume salary increases.

The cap holds put the Spurs way over the projected $67 million salary cap.

There are several NBA player personnel executives who believe the Spurs will offer Duncan a two-year contract that begins between $6 million and $7 million, with a partial guarantee and a player option in the second season.

If Duncan doesn’t exercise the option, he gets, say, 50 percent of that season’s salary. In effect, his salary for next season would remain over $10 million, the partially guaranteed portion of the second season’s salary remaining on the Spurs team salary after the cap explodes with the NBA’s new TV money kicking in for 2016-17.

“You can call it a ‘wink-wink’ deal if you want to,” an Eastern Conference team executive said. “It’s what they did with (Antonio) McDyess, so why not for Duncan?”

Duncan’s cap hold is slightly more than $15.5 million, so such a two-year deal would drop their team salary by more than $8 million.

The Spurs could make a similar deal with Ginobili if the 37-year-old decides to continue his career. What the Spurs tell him they are willing to pay will inform that decision.

Getting far enough under the cap to offer max-value players such as Gasol or Aldridge enough to leave teams that can offer them more money and longer deals would still be a problem. There is a league-wide presumption the Spurs are willing to trade Splitter to a team with enough cap space to absorb his $8.5 million, if such a team likes Splitter enough to take on that salary.

Ironically, re-signing Kawhi Leonard, the Defensive Player of the Year who last fall presented potential problems, won’t affect the Spurs’ efforts to lure another free agent. His cap hold, $7.2 million, is less than the deal he is certain to get from the Spurs. The collective bargaining agreement’s Larry Bird rule will allow the Spurs to go as far over the cap as necessary to regain his services once all the other deals are signed.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Twitter: @Monroe_SA