NBA San Antonio Spurs

San Antonio Spurs Are Not Panicking And Neither Should Fans

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By @DSchultz89

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Every single season, you’ll hear the media and fans say that the San Antonio Spurs are “too old” to compete for a championship. Each year, this proves to be false.

Now, after three straight losses, including two crippling triple-overtime losses at home to two very good teams in the Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers, some are already starting to worry if the Spurs are over the hill and too beat up to defend their title.

In this day and age, we live in an overexaggerated and hyperbole-driven headline world where something or someone is either “the best” or “the worst.” We see this everyday on ‘First Take’ where Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless approach every topic like what they are about to say is the most important statement that has ever been said in the history of humanity.

A team cannot lose multiple games in a row before being labeled as “in trouble,” just like a team that has won consecutive games might be seen as “the best team in the league.” It is simply absurd that both analysts and fans jump to such drastic terms to define a team after a small sample size of games or performances.

This can be said for the Spurs, where history has shown time and time again that they do not begin to peak as a team until after the All-Star heading into the playoffs.

They often get off to a slow start to begin the season because head coach Gregg Popovich uses the regular season as a “training camp” of sorts to tinker with his lineups and see which players play the best with one another. Popovich also has no problem resting his players, especially on back-to-back games where an 82-regular game season (not including playoffs) can take a toll on a player’s body.

This strategy, which he is sometimes criticized for, paid huge dividends when the team won the title last year because their guys were fresh and playing their best basketball at the right time.

Because of all of this, the Spurs are not panicking after their recent stretch of bad games, and neither should analysts or fans of the league. After all, the reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard has missed games due to injuries to his right hand, as well as his battle with conjunctivitis, often not being able to see clearly through his right eye. Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills, who were all huge for the team last season, have also missed time due to a variety of reasons.

The Spurs are not healthy right now, and they are not playing their best basketball at this point in time. But saying they are “too old” and anointing the Grizzlies or Golden State Warriors as the new king of the West is definitely premature when one considers that every team in the NBA still has over 50 games to play in the season. The Spurs are currently 17-10, which is a more than respectable record given their injuries and inconsistent play so far.

We are in December, not May or June, and instead of setting the alarm in the third month of the season, we should remember instances like this where great teams like the Spurs struggle, then have the maturity to look back on this stretch of games in the summer time and realize once again that it is not how you start the season, it is how you finish it.

Don’t be surprised if the Spurs are right there at the end of it defending their championship in the NBA Finals this year, demonstrating once again that long-term health is more important than short-term success.

Dan Schultz is an NBA sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @dschultz89. “Like” him on Facebook and add him on Google.

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