bovada.lv<\/a>)
\n2013 NBA Championship: 18\/1
\n2013 Western Conference: 17\/2<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThere\u2019s no denying that the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 championship window is closing. Tim Duncan is 36 years old, Manu Ginobili is coming off an injury-riddled year and the team hasn\u2019t made a major move in as long as most casual fans can likely remember. Things have remained largely the same around San Antonio, but when you\u2019ve encountered the kind of success they have, why change?<\/p>\n
Head coach Gregg Popovich was the winner of the 2011-12 Coach of the Year award, and for good reason, as he led his team to the No. 1 seed out West. His schemes are solid, his success is undeniable and he\u2019s about as no-nonsense as it comes in today\u2019s NBA. Nobody in the game knows how to get the best out of his role players, and that\u2019s exactly what he did last season.<\/p>\n
Players such as Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal and Matt Bonner would be completely lost on many NBA rosters, but Popovich\u2019s incredible game planning\u2014and willingness to play young prospects\u2014has translated into success for many inexperienced players over the years. The Spurs only had one draft pick this offseason\u2014Marcus Denmon (No. 59 overall)\u2014so the youngster on the roster are all a year older and should have no troubles integrating back into the same system.<\/p>\n
One of the more important pieces to the puzzle in San Antonio is Kawhi Leonard. The 21-year-old forward had a solid rookie season, and there\u2019s no indication anywhere in his game or on this roster that he\u2019ll take a step back. He is a perfect example of a young player jelling right away in Popovich\u2019s system, and he should continue to see his role increased this season.<\/p>\n
The Spurs often times get a bad rap as being a boring basketball team because of their age and their once touted defensive style of play. However, the team averaged the second-most points per game in the entire NBA last season. This squad, which is eerily similar to this year\u2019s group, ran the seventh-fastest pace in the league\u2014while averaging the third-fewest turnovers\u2014and as long as the veterans haven\u2019t lost a significant step, they\u2019ll be back at it again in 2013. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Starting off the year with a bang, the Spurs have 10 of their first 13 games against perennial playoff contenders, and even the lesser-quality teams made big splashes in the draft this offseason. Getting off on the right foot is crucial for this team because, as we\u2019ve seen in the past, Popovich isn\u2019t afraid to sit his star players for rest throughout the year. If the team struggles early, they don\u2019t have the luxury of resting late and holding pat for one of the top seeds in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
As long as the Spurs\u2019 core group can remain healthy, there\u2019s no reason to believe this isn\u2019t a top 3 team out West. Their depth is about as good as it comes in the NBA\u2014they had 11 players average at least 7.9 points per game last season\u2014and they remain one of the better coached teams in the league; but like most teams in today\u2019s game, it starts and ends with the star players. Duncan still has value even at his age, Parker is coming off his best NBA season and Ginobili can give you energy night in and night out when healthy.<\/p>\n
Spurs Predictions<\/h3>\n
Whether or not this team is a championship squad really comes down to how healthy they remain and how well they keep up with the teams that have improved. The Los Angeles Lakers will be much better in 2013, the Denver Nuggets have added a new component in Andre Iguodala and the Oklahoma City Thunder\u2014who defeated the Spurs in the 2012 Western Conference Finals\u2014are continually maturing. Expect San Antonio to be a top-3 seed out West again this year, but once the grueling playoffs arrives, don\u2019t be surprised if they\u2019re beat out by a team that\u2019s shown more improvement since last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Antonio Spurs Season Preview \u2013 NBA Predictions No team in the NBA likes to fly under the radar as much as the San Antonio Spurs, and that\u2019s exactly what they did throughout the 2012 offseason. The Spurs quietly re-signed Tim Duncan, Tony Parker avoided too much publicity following an eye injury (that took place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":32282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[39626,56782,744,745,749,2381,3925,9668,4027,56826,4025,4029,19194],"class_list":["post-56386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-39626","tag-2012-nba-gambling","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-futures","tag-nba-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-predictions","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-san-antonio-spurs-season-preview","tag-spurs","tag-spurs-odds","tag-spurs-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56386"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56792,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56386\/revisions\/56792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}