The NBA season is looming closer with each coming day, and with the 2019-20 schedule coming out, speculation is rampant. Every team has different expectations and different goals for the year, most of them revolving around the playoffs. The San Antonio Spurs season preview shows they are no different. The Spurs will be looking to battle it out in the Western Conference and make another playoff run.
San Antonio Spurs Season Preview
Recap of Last Season
Last season, the Spurs were a good but not great team. They made some noise in the playoffs, however, taking the second-seeded Denver Nuggets to seven games in the first round. This was their first year without Kawhi Leonard after the trade to the Toronto Raptors. They received an All-Star in return in DeMar DeRozan, and he played very well for them, averaging about 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. LaMarcus Aldridge also was an All-Star this year, averaging 21 points per game and 9 rebounds a game. They finished with a 48-34 record and the seven seed in the postseason.
Offseason Changes
The Spurs are notorious for always being great, but the problem with always being good is that you never have great draft picks. Now, they haven’t had a problem with that as they have made fantastic draft choices, and they hope that is the case for them this year. They drafted Luka Semanic from Croatia and Keldon Johnson from the University of Kentucky.
San Antonio also signed DeMarre Carroll and Trey Lyles during free agency, both of whom could contribute positively off the bench. But their biggest addition is a player who was already on the team. The Spurs are going to get Dejounte Murray back. Murray missed all of last year with a torn ACL, and getting him back is huge. Murray is the youngest player in NBA history to make an All-Defensive team and with Derrick White in the backcourt, the Spurs could be a scary team next year.
Expectations for the 2019-20 NBA Season
The Western Conference has been stacked the last few years, and this year may be the most stacked ever. There are almost 10 teams who will be competing for playoff spots and that is including the locks. For a team like the Spurs, who in the East might have been competing for a top spot, even making the playoffs could be tough. With how close the West is, the Spurs could miss out on the playoffs, but also could win homecourt in the first round. If everything goes according to plan and if they can stay healthy, the Spurs should expect to win close to 50 games again this year.
Prediction
As previously mentioned, the Western conference is uber-stacked this season, and unbelievably balanced. With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George moving to LA, there are nearly five championship contenders. Including teams like the Spurs, there are so many other playoff contenders. The Spurs have such a great franchise and so much experience, even their young guys like Murray and White have played starting minutes in the playoffs. San Antonio should be able to make the playoffs. Given how great they are at home, paired with the coaching of Gregg Popovich, Spurs fans should gear up for another postseason run.
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