ESPN: Spurs Have Brightest Future

Recently ESPN announced that they believe the Spurs will repeat as NBA champions. And now they also believe that the Spurs have the brightest future in the league. In their updated “Future Power Rankings” Spurs comes on top followed closely by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider's projection of the on-court success expected for each team in the next three seasons. They rate each team in five categories to determine the rankings. The categories are players, management, market, draft and money.

For the first time in Future Power Rankings' five-year history that the Spurs have ranked No. 1. Not surprised at all, they are the defending champions and with everyone returning they have a really good chance to win again. But we are talking about for the next three seasons. The big three is not getting any younger. Both Parker and Ginobili did not play in the current Fiba World cup because of injury. Duncan is 39 years old, probably only has a year or two left. Ginobili is 37 years old. Parker at 32 years old is entering the end of his best years. So why is the Spurs No. 1?

Kevin Pelton explains Why ESPN’s panel moved the Spurs from four to one in these power rankings:

"[Kawhi] Leonard is likely to sign a long-term extension this fall, the Spurs having already locked up point guard Tony Parker through 2017-18 this summer. San Antonio also will have to re-sign starting guard Danny Green, which will cut into the team’s cap flexibility the next two summers.

Still, if there’s any management we trust to manage the future, it’s the Spurs, who earned a perfect score. [Gregg] Popovich is clearly the league’s best coach — he might be as difficult to replace as Duncan when he decides to retire — and GM R.C. Buford earned overdue honors as the league’s Executive of the Year in 2013-14."

It's hard to argue with his statement. But it does all remain to be seen. And I hope he's right. But for now we have to wait for the next three years to answer this question. "Are the Spurs going to be championship favorites for the next three years?"

Back on Top: Spurs Win Captures Fifth Title

Spurs 2014 NBA Champion

After seven years the San Antonio Spurs are once again the NBA Champions, they beat Miami 4 – 1 in their best of seven 2014 NBA Finals series. The Heat had a great first half, they lead as much as 16 points because of James brilliance, But the Spurs unleashed an offensive juggernaut in the third quarter that add up to their lead and never look back. The Spurs are simply too much for the Heat, not even Lebron James can do something about it.  Kawhi Leonard bags the Finals MVP, well deserved.  The series turned out to be one of the most lopsided Finals in NBA history. The Spurs just dominated the Heat, and I love every second of it.

After the painful lost in last year’s finals against the Heat, Many thought that the Spurs are done. It’s tough to recover from that kind of loss, plus their big 3 is aging to put up another run, and we all know how tough the west is.  But again the Spurs prove them all wrong, they used that loss as motivation to get back to the finals to redeem themselves. They responded by posting the best record in the regular season before storming through the playoffs. After winning the west finals, they are very vocal about wanting to have a rematch with Miami. And they turned that rematch into no match at all. Winning their fifth ring looks so easy against the two time defending champions. The Spurs just dominated the postseason outscoring their opponents by 214 points, won 12th times with 15 or more points, most ever in the post season.