Spurs coach Gregg Popovich arrived at training camp this season feeling a bit anxious about the challenge of bringing together a roster brimming with new faces.

“I finally figured out Bryn Forbes is not Bryn Mawr,” he said, referring to one of the handful of holdovers from the previous season. “I’m going to try to do a good job from there. But I really don’t know all the names.”

He wasn’t alone. Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge also admitted he needed a lineup card on the opening day of camp.

“I don’t know them that well,” Aldridge said of the team’s newcomers.

Almost four months after that inauspicious beginning, Popovich is in command of a tight-knit group that will enter tonight’s game against Memphis at 22-17 after winning three in a row, including back-to-back victories over Eastern Conference contenders Boston and Toronto.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Popovich said. “You just let it go. You don’t know how it’s going to jell or who is going to get along with who, or how people are going to play with each other. You’ve got to let them go and see what you’ve got. But what we have, I’m very happy with.”

Patty Mills, the team’s longest-tenured current player, also is delighted with how things have turned out.

Photo: Tom Reel / Staff Photographer

“This is a tight group, and every day we are getting closer together,” he said after the Spurs’ emotional 125-107 win over the Raptors on Thursday night. “We are understanding each other on another level with every practice, every plane ride, every bus ride, and it’s really pleasing to see how everyone has jelled.”

When the season started, there were no guarantees the parts would coalesce like they have. If anything, the odds seemed against it after the era of the Big Three officially ended with Tony Parker signing with Charlotte in free agency and Manu Ginobili joining Tim Duncan in retirement.

On top of those significant losses, the Spurs traded disgruntled star Kawhi Leonard and stalwart grinder Danny Green to Toronto and lost jack-of-all-trades Kyle Anderson in free agency to the Grizzlies.

Those departures, along with the usual season-to-season turnover, brought in a plethora of newcomers, a list headed by DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl, who were acquired in the Leonard blockbuster. Other newbies include draft picks Lonnie Walker IV and Chimezie Metu, journeymen Dante Cunningham and Quincy Pondexter, sharpshooter and 2014 Spurs championship team member Marco Belinelli and two-way players Drew Eubanks and Ben Moore.

“We not only had new guys, but also young guys and guys from all over the world, from different cultures, different lifestyles, a bunch you might not consider getting along,” Mills said.

Setting the tone from the start was DeRozan, a four-time All-Star unhappy with being forced to leave his beloved Toronto but determined to make the best of things in his new home. Fortunately for the Spurs, DeRozan’s unselfish play in training camp immediately signaled that he was all about making the team better rather than fulfilling individual goals.

In other words, a perfect fit for the Spurs, who also had to overcome the loss of point guard and budding leader Dejounte Murray to a season-ending knee injury in the preseason.

“From the first days in the gym, he was passing the ball all over the place,” Mills said of DeRozan. “That’s a great way to start and gain trust with your new teammate.”

It also helped that DeRozan is an unassuming star, another attribute that makes him a perfect fit for the Spurs.

“He is a gentle guy, humble, but a fierce competitor,” Mills said.

Said Popovich of DeRozan: “He’s been a great teammate. He’s been somebody who’s fit in really well. He understands things quickly, and he’s got a great manner about him.”

The 2017-18 season was arguably the most tumultuous in team history with Leonard distancing himself from his teammates in a dispute over the treatment of his mysterious quad injury, a saga that lasted all season and prompted Parker and Ginobili to confront him about his commitment to the team or lack thereof during a players-only meeting.

“There was a lot going on last year that was kind of hard to deal with,” Forbes said. “This year is just a lot more stable.”

After enduring so much anxiety and strain while fighting and clawing their way into the playoffs with 47 wins, the Spurs desperately needed a breath of fresh air. They got it in DeRozan.

“It was awesome to see him make that first impression in camp without even necessarily saying any words,” Mills said. “He’s just been such a pro, a real professional. It’s awesome to be his teammate.”

Likewise, DeRozan is grateful for the chemistry he has found in his new locker room.

“It’s always easy when you’ve got great guys around you that are willing to learn,” he said. “I always like being around a great group of guys, and this is another great group of guys that’s willing to sacrifice whatever they need to for the next guy. So when you have a team like that, karma is definitely going to be in your favor.”

But it’s not just DeRozan. Aldridge and Rudy Gay, who are second and third on the team behind DeRozan in scoring, are cut from the same cloth.

“That’s how we are,” said Gay, who already had formed a close friendship with DeRozan from their days playing together in Toronto in 2013 and at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. “That’s the person DeMar is. That’s the person I am, that LaMarcus is.”

The growing sense of camaraderie is reflected in their recent play. The Spurs have won 11 of their past 14 games with in-sync play on both ends of the court, a display of unity that stands in sharp contrast to their befuddled beginning.

“It’s been a fun process,” Poeltl said. “There were some downs along the way where we didn’t play great basketball, and we had to figure some things out. But I think we’re in a really good way now.”

Said Forbes: “Oh, man, we are far ahead of where we started.”

Case in point: The Spurs’ defensive rotations in routing the Raptors and holding Leonard to 21 points, seven below his average, were a far cry from the disjointed efforts they put forth in losing three games by 30-plus points from Nov. 28 through Dec. 4 en route to falling three games below .500.

“Five guys working together, making it tough on him,” Derrick White said of the unified defensive effort against Leonard and the Raptors.

And “working together” is a byproduct of everyone getting along, the players said.

“There’s a really good vibe we have going between players, coaches, (front) office,” Poeltl said. “There’s a family vibe here I really enjoy.”

Not bad for a bunch who were so unfamiliar with each other at the beginning.

“These guys have done a great job of trying to figure each other out and figure out a new system for most of them,” Popovich said. “They’ve progressed pretty well.”

torsborn@express-news.net

Twitter: @tom_orsborn