The Spurs Just Keep on Spurs-ing
The Spurs aren't normally big-time players in the off-season. Their claim to fame in free agency is signing unheralded players who've bounced around the league and turning them into bonafide starters or role players on championship caliber teams (Oh, hello there, Danny Green and Danny Green's gigantic contract). Green was a nobody when he got to the Spurs, and now he just signed an eight-figure contract. He could've gotten even more had he gone elsewhere, but that's the beauty of the Spurs--their players buy into the team-first concept, and just about every player on the roster took less money to stay in San Antonio. The money saved from each of these contracts allowed the Spurs to land the biggest free agent fish on the market this summer, LaMarcus Aldridge (and saved us from having to read thousands of corny headlines like "LA chooses LA"). Aldridge slots right in at PF next to Duncan, and can take over as the star big man when Duncan calls it a career.
But when the Spurs decide to mix it up in free agency, they play for keeps, which is way they also lured David West away from bigger market teams offering larger contracts. West is over the hill and much closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but now that he's on the Spurs I fully expect him to become a 20/20 guy and win league MVP (I'm mostly joking, but with the Spurs and their magic you never know).
There will be more awards to come for Kawhi Leonard
The Spurs also signed Finals MVP, reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and 3-time best player with cornrows in the league winner (pretty sure Gerald Wallace is his only competition, which is the same thing as saying he has no competition) Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is going to be a star very soon (if he's not already), and he's already one of the best defenders in the league, he's also only 24 and locked up for five years. Even the way San Antonio acquired Leonard is so "Spursian". They traded a backup point guard for the rights to Leonard, after Leonard slid in the draft due to some injury concerns. So, naturally, Leonard gets to the Spurs, never has any injury problems, wins Finals MVP, wins Defensive Player of the Year, signs a max contract, looks like a soon-to-be superstar, and, most importantly, has no foreseeable challengers to his best player with cornrows title. So...things worked out okay for San Antonio.
The Spurs have known for the last couple of years that Leonard would take over as the face of the Spurs when Duncan retires, but now they've paired him with Aldridge for at least the next three years. Although Aldridge is thirty, he's predominantly a jump shooting big man so he should age very gracefully, and I don't expect much drop off from Aldridge during the life of his contract. The Spurs convinced Tim Duncan to forego retirement and comeback for at least one more season (because he's still really, really good at basketball), and they also talked Ginobili into coming back instead of retiring (because there are still bats on the loose, presumably).
Leonard is signed for five years, Green is signed for four years, Aldridge is signed for at least three, Duncan is coming back, Ginobili is coming back, Tony Parker is still the best French point guard in the league, and Gregg Popovich is at the top of his awkward interview game. Yeah, the Spurs are Spurs-ing, and it's no surprise. Just don't ask Pop about it.
