Anyone have this also? Thanks in advance!
9. San Antonio Spurs | Future Power Rating: 692
PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
298 (15th) 186 (2nd) 124 (10th) 53 (13th) 31 (23rd)
All good things must come to an end. With Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson all on the downsides of their careers, Tony Parker is the only veteran on the team who remains in his prime. Although the Spurs continue to be savvy in finding good players, including DeJuan Blair, Tiago Splitter and rookie Kawhi Leonard, all appear to have brighter futures as role players, not stars.
Our main belief in the Spurs comes from their stellar management. We've ranked them No. 1 in every Future Power Rankings we've done until this one (the Thunder edged them out).
The challenge will be using their smarts with limited resources. The Spurs will have some cap flexibility in the future (especially if they amnesty Jefferson), but their lack of market power may limit whom they can bring on board. And they're currently still good enough to stay out of the lottery, which hurts their chances of landing another young star.
(Previous rank: 5)
Thanks
That's about what I expected, but c'mon, Splitter and Leonard as merely role players? Splitter is looking like one of the top tier bigs in the NBA even with his limited playing time, and if Leonard continues to improve as drastically as he is, he can be a star as well.
and where do they rank now?
Lazy ESPN. I see they haven't changed one word since last years ranking. RJ, REALLY?
4. San Antonio Spurs | Future Power Rating: 774
PLAYERS
378 (9th)
MANAGEMENT
170 (1st)
MONEY
125 (8th)
MARKET
55 (13th)
DRAFT
44 (19th)
We recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Spurs being considered too old to remain contenders. Instead, San Antonio is heading in the opposite direction in the Future Power Rankings; this is the highest the Spurs have ever ranked in the FPR, dating back to November 2009. San Antonio certainly has benefited from this year's Finals run, but the Spurs' future would be promising no matter what.
Quietly, San Antonio has managed its salary structure to potentially have more than $20 million in cap space this summer. In practice, much of that will go to re-signing free agents Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter, but Splitter's cap hold ($7.5 million) is reasonable enough that the Spurs could still clear about $10 million if Ginobili quickly agrees to a smaller new contract.
The flexibility is impressive given San Antonio has four starters under contract from this year's Western Conference champions. While the Spurs will see their depth take a hit with reserves DeJuan Blair, Gary Neal and possibly Boris Diaw (player option) hitting free agency, GM R.C. Buford and head coach Gregg Popovich have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to find cheap newcomers they can plug into San Antonio's system.
The biggest looming question is how long Duncan can continue to anchor the Spurs. He has two years left (including a player option) on the contract he signed last summer and is coming off a season as good on a per-minute basis as any since the 2007 championship. As long as Duncan competes at a high level, so too will San Antonio.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story...s-1-130530/1-5
Laugh out ing loud. OKC management destroyed that team.
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