As a fan of any sports team, all you really want is to have hope that your team has a realistic chance to compete and win. For fans of the better teams, one would hope that your team has a realistic chance to compete for a le.
Fortunately for us Spurs fans, we've had that type of hope and belief for about 20 years. We've been very fortunate that this franchise has sustained a tradition of winning over the careers of two very great, franchise-level players.
Now with Manu injured and out, Tim currently injured and Tony running out of gas, along with a very shallow bench, there is little hope for this season.
As for the future, there is no lottery pick coming up or some international savior on the horizon. Without seeing any evidence of promising, young players in the pipeline or at the end of the bench, hope for the immediate future is difficult to envision. It's hard to look at a promising young team, like the Blazers, and not remember what it was like when the Spurs were hitting their stride. Personally, it's also hard for me not to be a bit envious off their well-stocked roster of talent.
That said, I wouldn't say hope is lost, past this season anyway. However, rebuilding on the fly and restocking the bench talent will test the front office in a way that it's never been tested before. It'll be interesting to see how they respond to this challenge.