Doubtful, he's getting old now and was already showing signs of regression before the injury. As for the OP, there are few things you can count on in life. But as long as Pop is at the helm you can count on the Spurs being a top seed in the west no matter who they have on the roster. Sort of like death, taxes, Spurs, etc.
It's insane to think the Spurs are falling off. By the way, they may have let Simmons go, but they currently have the leading scorer in Summer League through 4 games in Bryn Forbes. And you may shrug your shoulders and say "oh well its just summer league". He's averaging 29.3 ppg through 4 games in Las Vegas and in total through 7 games in summer league (including Utah) he is average 25 points. They may have found a new breakout player already off the bench. They actually have a lot of young players now on the roster. Forbes is 23, Murray is 20, their draft pick this year Derrick White is 23, Lauvergne is 25, Anderson is 23, Bertans 24. Their record speaks for themselves, some of these young guys are more than likely going to take a step forward, they have too long of a record developing talent to think a few of them won't be good this year.
They will fall off and win only 52 games next year. Even with Lamarcus not being what they wanted they still won 67 and 61 games.
Its far more likely that of all the teams in the West who made moves this summer, that several of them will take time meshing together. Their team actually has for the most part a lot of continuity. Gay they brought in, lost Simmons, maybe lost Gasol. But, they bring back their core rotation and have loads of young guys who are being developed in the Spurs system who they'll ask to take on a bigger role. They have the least question marks in terms of roster turnover than anyone after the Warriors. Rockets, Thunder, Clippers, Jazz, Wolves all did massive overhaul and at least for the Rockets, Thunder, Clippers and Wolves, they have to mesh different alphadogs and secondary scorers with one another.
Any chance they trying to get Melo for on last hurray? If NY's options are LMA or Anderson . . . . . .. which do they choose? Rocket River
Look at the Spurs salary cap table and it becomes very clear what they're doing; setting themselves up for a major free agency retooling in 2018. http://www.spotrac.com/nba/san-antonio-spurs/yearly/cap/ Expiring contracts: Tony Parker ($15,453,126). Lamarcus Aldridge ($22,347,015) will most likely opt out and look for one last payday somewhere else. Danny Green ($10,000,000) and Rudy Gay ($8,826,300) will also likely opt out and test the market. Guaranteed Salary: Kawhi Leonard ($20,099,188) Patrick Mills ($12,053,571) Derrick White ($1,667,160) Dejounte Murray ($1,544,951) Total Salary: $35,364,870 Thus, if the 2018 estimated salary cap is $103 million, Spurs would have around $65-70 million in cap space depending on small contracts and cap holds. That will be a massive amount for Buford and Popovich to work with in free agency and clear the deck for a complete retool around Kawhi Leonard in what is going to be one of the deepest free agency market in years with LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins, Carmelo Anthony, Isaiah Thomas, DeAndre Jordan, Dwyane Wade.
LeBron no way he goes there Westbrook and Cousins nope not Popovich type of players. Thomas will not leave the crazy good future the Celtics have. Anthony and Wade will not move the needle at all. Paul George and DeAndre Jordan would be players that I could maybe see more than the others and that's with the reports that George only wants the Lakers.
Maybe Jonathon Simmons is no good? They had him all year, of the guys who played significant minutes he performed by far the worst. On top of that he only shot 29% from 3 and garnered negative offensive win shares... Ok, so he had a hot streak against us in the playoffs, and made some serious cash on the back of it. But I don't expect him to produce efficient numbers or make a significant difference. Dedmon will be a loss for them, but wait and see, no doubt they bring some talent from out of nowhere like they always seem to (curse their oily hides). Hope I'm wrong, but I see them as a 55+ win team yet again...
