Where the San Antonio Spurs Appeared on National Basketball Association GM Survey

 Markieff Morris scored 17 points (3-of-3 from three-point range), outplaying this summer’s free agent target for the Suns, LaMarcus Aldridge.

Now, the Spurs surely are not focused on what the general managers think. Tony Parker is healthy, following a season plagued by hamstring troubles. The Spurs head coach has repeatedly adapted the team’s style to exploit the rules of the league from the slow and plodding defense of the early 2000s to the passing-based offensive dominance of recent seasons. 19 of the 21 victories were by double digits and none of the losses were by more than seven points.

However, a loss to the Pelicans on the final night of the season was costly in the tight Western Conference, dropping the Spurs from the No. 2 seed to the No. 6 position and a first-round date with the Los Angeles Clippers sans home-court advantage.

However, it was a variety of factors that ended up dooming the Spurs: chief among them were the injury-affected performances of Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter.

The play was used previous year, so it can’t really be considered a new wrinkle to adjust to LaMarcus Aldridge or the development of Kawhi Leonard, but it certainly seems to fit the strengths of those two. Playing opposite CP3, that sort of production won’t fly.

Aldridge had 9 points on 4-of-14 shooting. For a guy known to get the ball for a post-up move and rarely give it up during his time in Portland, Aldridge has been a willing and the rather quick passer with the always-moving Spurs.

One of the fears of going back to a more post-oriented offense was that the Spurs were going to walk the ball up, wait for Aldridge to settle into his spot, and then make a predictable entry pass. Fortunately, we haven’t seen much of that. The Spurs also face the Blazers in San Antonio November 16 and March 17. A Spurs-Grizzlies playoff series would be one of the lowest scorings, but would come down to depth because of how worn down the teams would be physical.

But everything quickly started to fall in place.

A few days later, they succeeded, bringing in the All-Star power forward on a four-year, $81 million deal.

Leonard led the Spurs with 14 points, followed by Tim Duncan and David West with 10 apiece as they struggled against Phoenix’s high-pressure defense. “I enjoyed playing with him”.

So far in the preseason, the Rockets have been mediocre with a 3-4 record.

“Diaw is only 6’8” and played approximately two percent of his minutes at the 5 last season. Leonard, who was the 2014-15 Defensive Player of the Year, also earned the nod as the GM’s best perimeter and overall defender.

The second major weakness is somewhat related, but there’s an athleticism/defense problem in the reserve unit.

West performing well on both ends is vital to the operations of San Antonio’s second unit. Granted, there are times when he takes ill-advised shots and can encounter shooting slumps, but the four-time National Basketball Association champion at least deserves a vote if Mike Conley (Memphis) is getting attention, too.

Aldridge revealed that one of the reasons he left the Trail Blazers for San Antonio was being close to where his family is.