San Antonio Spurs preview: Don’t think they’re done just yet

Best case scenario: Popovich is able to integrate Aldridge into the offense seamlessly and the trio of Duncan/Parker/Ginobili continues to defy time propelling the Spurs to the top-seed in the West. They fend off the gauntlet on their way to yet another championship for Pop and the Aged Big Three. The Bulls are playing back to back games to open the season and they will visit the Brooklyn Nets at 7:30 pm ET after playing the Cavaliers.

Now, I hate to take anything away from the preseason other than the fact that Jeremy Lin’s new hairstyle was an even worse decision than Vince Vaughn being cast for season two of True Detective, but Marjanovic can move surprisingly well for a player of his size.

San Antonio Spurs 106 Oklahoma City Thunder 112: The best game of the night, as Russell Westbrook stole the show from Kevin Durant. Of course, there were the Hall of Famers George ” The Iceman” Gervin and Julius “Dr. J” Erving. “Iceman” got his points from the floor while Silas went 13-15 from the line, but the Spurs leading scorer was Billy Paultz with 27 points. But the addition of Aldridge and the inevitable ascension of Leonard are the first real signs of a shift in the Spurs’ foundation since David Robinson passed the torch to Duncan in 2003. His offensive repertoire is the reason why he was the hottest free agent in the league this past off-season.

The Spurs have remarkably remained title contenders despite the loss of Robinson and aging and slowing down of Duncan and now Parker and Ginobili.

It’s pretty amusing going back and finding highlights for these games.

Maybe that’s why an explosive young team couldn’t beat San Antonio at home in their season opener.

That’s what makes this such an interesting season in San Antonio.

However, the days of post-ups and isolation offenses were beginning to be shucked from National Basketball Association playbooks in the late 2000s as the birth of analytics began to expose the inefficiencies of such strategy. Look for them to be closer to the bottom of the Western Conference this year.

The rivalry between two of the West’s best turned into a classic. Armed with a sense of jealousy, revenge, and a new asset in Chandler Parsons, the Mavs really wanted this one. Every game is a struggle in the West and Memphis barely makes the playoffs as the last team in. Leonard will likely get more scoring support as the season goes on after veteran forward Tim Duncan had eight points and Aldridge made 4-of-12 from the field while guards Ginobili and Tony Parker combined to score 21 in the opener.

Those averages dropped last season, but only as contributions grew from such teammates as Danny Green, who took less money to stay with the Spurs, and Australian Patty Mills, who became a 3-point threat off the bench. There aren’t many coaches capable of winning both ways, and it will be interesting to see what kind of sets the Spurs run this year as a result.