With expectations set, the Spurs look to establish their own interpretation of success

Gregg Popovich may have advised against betting on San Antonio to win the title, but there are a number of prisms through which to view his players' progress this season.

If you’ve paid even an ounce of attention to San Antonio’s offseason, you’re aware Gregg Popovich’s well-circulated gambling advice from Monday’s media-day proceedings was given with tongue pressed firmly in cheek — a nice bit of levity at the beginning of a long road ahead. But suggesting bettors shouldn’t put money on the Spurs to win the title next summer was just as much the preamble to a statement of what’s to come as it was a sarcastic warning.

This season (and likely for the next several seasons), success will be defined by player development, not the number in the win column. It isn’t the kind of sexy reality most fans dream about, and it’s certainly not an idea the young Spurs in the locker room are willing to entertain, but it is the reality of the situation nonetheless. And while their coach may understand winning a championship is not a realistic goal, there’s no point in dampening the mood ahead of training camp — not when Josh Primo, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson are talking playoffs, and Jeremy Sochan is showing up with Fiesta-themed hair.

“Well I trust all of you implicitly, and I’m not going to say that to them,” Pop told a bunch of bloviating tight-lipped sports writers, television anchors and radio hosts in the team’s practice facility. “And I know they’ll never hear that, because you all would never… this is basically kind of our secret.”

While we hate to risk abusing Pop’s long-proven trust in the media here, I believe we can safely take the appropriate approach of covering this team through the lens of individual player growth and the actions this team takes to prepare itself for a future that will take years to cultivate.

Throw them in the fire

San Antonio has made it common practice to heavily utilize the NBA G-League as a training ground for its incoming rookies over the years. The way the team has seen it, the more time young players can spend on the court running the Spurs’ system, the more prepared they’ll be when larger opportunities arise for them with the big club.

But during the years the G-League has grown into a viable tool for the development of young players, San Antonio has almost always deployed a deep roster with plenty of veteran leadership and not a ton of room for newcomers selected in the mid to late first round. This year could be different, however. While the Spurs still have a number of experienced players slotted in throughout roster, the true shift in focus to a full rebuild may take precedence going forward.

Popovich said as much.

“There’ll be some guys getting minutes much quicker than they might’ve expected,” he said. “It’s fun to just throw them in the fire to see who survives and who needs what — if somebody needs more confidence or if somebody needs a kick in the butt, whatever it might be.”

On paper, Sochan seems to have the best opportunity to see relatively early minutes in San Antonio this season. He is the type of player — a defensive wrecking ball and highly intelligent frontcourt presence — who can do things on the floor no other Spur can at a position that desperately needs an upgrade alongside Jakob Poeltl, so his path toward playing time in the near future is well-lit.

Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, however, may have a few more obstacles in their way at the beginning of camp. Between Primo, Vassell, Josh Richardson, Tre Jones, and potentially even former lottery pick Romeo Langford, there are already a lot of backcourt minutes set to be gobbled up in San Antonio. Cracking that rotation early in the season may prove difficult for a couple of talented but raw 19-year-olds.

But there are a couple of factors in play here. First and foremost, Pop did not mention any specific plans or any player in particular when answering the question about playing time. Hell, considering how much time he spent in the G-League last season, Primo may have been just as much the topic of the conversation as the rookies. Explaining that guys are going to see minutes more quickly than expected is relative, and in all likelihood does not mean there won’t be stints in Austin. In fact, if the team enters the season healthy, you can probably count on rookies seeing at least a decent amount of run in Cedar Park once their season begins.

Secondarily, however, it is unlikely this roster will look the same by the end of the season. Richardson and Doug McDermott, two veterans who are sure to have suitors on the trade market, may not be long for a team that’s prioritizing a youth movement. While there’s no way of knowing exactly when a transaction might take place, February’s trade deadline looms large as the latest possible date on the calendar to move on from two players whose ages place them well outside of the team’s timeline — particularly in the case of Richardson, who’s in the final year of his current contract. And if the Spurs find value in any potential negotiations in the coming months, a move could be made even earlier than next calendar year.

But regardless of how openings in the rotation are created, it appears the coaching staff is prepared to approach the upcoming season with a little less tension in the reins. It may be early in the process for much of this young roster, but every bit of preparation counts toward achieving the goals this organization has for the future.

“The point is to develop this group and give them the best possible opportunity to have long NBA careers and enjoy the hell out of it, and whoever comes after me will have an opportunity to take them to the next level,” Pop said. “So at this point, the job is to start them out the right way. That’s our goal. Everything else will take care of itself. Whatever success we might have will come from that.”

Point guard by committee

In talking with people around the team’s practice facility Monday, the general feel is that Tre Jones likely has the inside track to get early minutes as Dejounte Murray’s replacement at point guard. But that is much more conjecture than it is concrete information. At this juncture, that battle (if you want to call it that) is open.

However, Jones is the player who best fits the traditional description of “point guard,” especially within the Spurs’ system. A quick, slithery, point-of-attack player who loves to get into the paint and look for his shot or teammates on the kick-out, stylistically he does a lot of things Pop has long asked from his lead man. And beyond that, he’s the guy who’s most familiar with the responsibilities of the job.

“Dejounte was my guy the last couple of years. He was someone I was able to learn a lot from, and I’m thankful for everything he was able to offer me,” Jones said. “Obviously the year he had last year was unbelievable … we’re just gonna try to do what we can do here to fill that gap and continue to grow.”

It’s unreasonable to expect any individual Spur to replace Murray’s production outright, but the hope is that internal growth leads to a more balanced burden of responsibility among the (very) young veterans.

“I’m going to try and take on that role as being a leader for this group, especially at point guard,” Jones continued. “I’m going to continue trying to do everything I’ve been doing — set up our team, set up guys in the spots they need to be in and let the rest take care of itself.”

But San Antonio has been touting the position-less approach for several years now, and it appears it’s going to truly be put to the test this season. After all, Jones may be the one backcourt player on the team who doesn’t project to regularly see time off the ball or defending multiple positions.

“I mean who do you consider a point guard? I feel like we’re so much into position-less basketball,” Johnson said. “Tre Jones is amazing, and I feel like so many guys have grown so much this summer. I think you’ll see so many people bring the ball up — I’ve been working on my handles, and I’ll just fill in whatever role I need to fill in for my team to be successful.”

But the player whose potential has piqued the most curiosity from a ball-handling standpoint over the last year is Primo. He spent the majority of his time in Austin as a high-usage lead guard, which has understandably led many to believe that’s a role San Antonio eventually sees him playing at the NBA level. But there’s no need for pigeonholing with this roster.

“I still feel like a position-less player, I’ve honestly always been a position-less player, especially when it comes to defense. I love being able to guard multiple positions and being able to play multiple positions on offense,” Primo said. “But whatever coach Pop needs me to do I will do. I’m ready for that — to be able to handle the ball more, be a leader in terms of being a floor general, and that’ll be a good challenge for me.”

Whatever the Spurs look like on a play-to-play basis from a personnel perspective remains to be seen, but one thing you can count on is the system in place allowing ample opportunity for players to initiate offense. That fast-paced, rebound-and-go, pick-and-roll, attack-and-kick format is not going to require players to specialize in any one thing. There will obviously be times (particularly late in games) when the team will need individuals to execute and create, but in the general flow of the 48 minutes players will be sharing a lot of the on-ball responsibilities with Murray now in Atlanta.

“I think ‘one’ through ‘four’ … we can all bring it up,” Vassell said. “That’s going to be one of our advantages — you can’t just focus on one guy, you have to focus on all of us bringing the ball up the court and getting into something.”

Muscle-watch season

The annual tradition of analyzing the physical appearance of people would be a strange practice in the majority of professional environments. But in the world of sports, players’ heights and weight will be actual topics of conversation for millions of people — especially on a team that features eight players born in the year 2000 or later on its training-camp roster who are still developing.

While much attention has been paid to the growth of Primo and Vassell this summer — both of whom have bulked up noticeably since last season — the story early in camp is the trimmed-down Johnson.

“This summer I lost 21 pounds from last season, so I’m definitely a lot slimmer, faster, stronger,” he said. “Just preparing myself for a big season.”

Johnson was not exactly overweight, but his “Big Body” nickname was certainly earned. For all intents and purposes, the size served him well as the team asked him to defend frontcourt players the majority of the time he was on the court last season. But with the influx of more size at the forward position in San Antonio, Johnson is going to be able to match up with players who are closer to his height and length going forward, which also means dealing with quicker perimeter players.

Losing 21 pounds is substantial, especially for someone who was already a very good athlete at 220 pounds. Now, with a little less weight on the knees, one would expect to see a bit more quickness on both sides of the ball. Johnson is not a particularly tall or long player relative to the jumbo wings that inhabit the league’s wide-open perimeter, so adding more explosiveness to his game should help dramatically, so long as strength is not compromised in the process.

Speaking of strength, Primo and Vassell have gone the opposite route of their teammate — electing to spend significant time during the summer adding weight to their slender frames.

“It’s been so helpful, especially on defense,” Primo said. “Being able to take contact, absorb contact and be able to stay in position — that’s been huge for me this offseason being able to play with some of the guys out there.”

Both Primo and Vassell spoke about their commitments to the defensive side of the ball during their media-day appearances, but a common theme for both players early in their careers has been an inability to match up with the more physical players around the league. Size has given them problems in general despite their displays of defensive talent at the intangible level. But if outward appearances can serve as a measurement of progress, the pair has clearly been addressing that issue.

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There was a lot of open-ended talk Monday about the Spurs’ upcoming season, with “we’ll see” being a common refrain in most conversations. The coming months are going to be fluid and ever-changing, especially as players settle into their new roles and rookies adjust to the professional game. So there will be plenty of developing storylines going forward, even as losses potentially pile up early and often.

But none of that matters right now. Nobody enjoys losing, but even the bad nights should reveal answers to many of the questions the team and fanbase share about the direction this team wants to take moving forward.