The San Antonio Spurs have had a relatively quiet offseason, making a few moves here and there but not doing anything to really reshape the roster.
They re-signed Rudy Gay, signed Marcus Morris and acquired DeMarre Carroll in a trade that sent Davis Bertans to the Washington Wizards.
While Carroll was obviously added for defense, the Spurs' decision to bring back Gay and sign Morris mark a rather dramatic shift in philosophy, one that we could have never imagined San Antonio employing five years ago.
With Gay, Morris, DeMar DeRozan, and even LaMarcus Aldridge, the Spurs have become an iso-centric team, something that has always been the exact antithesis to what San Antonio represents.
The Spurs have always been known as a squad that shares the ball better than anyone else. The motion offense they employed during their dominant championship run in 2014 was primarily the Warriors before the Warriors. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker were three of the most unselfish stars this game has ever seen.
And now, that credo has gone completely down the drain, or, in more appropriate terms given the franchise in question, has floated down the San Antonio River and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, the Spurs find themselves on the treadmill, a team that should be good enough to contend for a playoff spot but won't be strong enough to actually make any noise if it does make the postseason.
Sure, San Antonio has some young talent in the form of guys like Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, Bryn Forbes, Lonnie Walker and Jakob Poeltl, but the Spurs also seem content to fill out the roster with middling veterans who would fit well on a contender but not on a team that is probably a 7 or 8 seed, at best.
The Spurs have gone from being the toast of the NBA to becoming a club that doesn't seem to know if it's coming or going, which really makes you wonder whether or not Gregg Popovich and Co. even have a sense of direction.
Let's face it: Popovich had the fortune of having Duncan for the first 19 years of his coaching career, and Ginobili and Parker also helped hold down the fort for the majority of that time, as well.
Now, all three legends are gone, and Popovich is left trying to pick up the pieces and doesn't seem to know what to do with them.
We have become so accustomed to San Antonio contending year in and year out that it comes as a complete shock when the Spurs aren't winning 50 games and aren't even a factor in the playoffs.
But that is what it has come to.
The Kawhi Leonard trade has been an unmitigated disaster for the Spurs, so much so that we heard back in May that DeRozan, the centerpiece San Antonio got back in that deal, could be on the trade block.
To be fair, Leonard did put the Spurs in a tough spot, as everyone knew he wanted out and everyone also knew he planned on signing in Los Angeles this summer, so it limited what San Antonio could have gotten in return.
But the Spurs really couldn't have done better than DeRozan? I find that hard to believe.
Not only that, but let's remember that Popovich and Co. botched the whole situation with Leonard to begin with to the point that Kawhi no longer even wanted to communicate with the Spurs.
Everything that is currently going on in San Antonio is evidence that Duncan—not Popovich—is the primary reason why the Spurs had so much success over a two-decade period, as the tent poles have seemed to collapse ever since Duncan retired in 2016.
The Spurs are not the Spurs anymore, and the sooner we all come to grips with that fact, the sooner we will realize that they are nothing more than first-rounder fodder, at best, in a Western Conference that has improved this offseason dramatically.
Most of all, I'm not even sure the Spurs themselves know who they are anymore.
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