No guarantee we win back to back in 2013/2014, Kawhi leaving a blessing in disguise

[kht]

We can't retroactively look in hindsight (knowing we won 2014) and say we should have also won in 2013. Who says the Spurs would equally be as hungry? Who says they still practice and focus as hard? Who says the loss didn't help them manage late game situations better?

In fact, we almost lost in the first round to the Mavericks. OKC coulda easily beat us if Westbrook doesn't go Hero Mode, Kawhi doesn't make that clutch steal, Manu misses that 3, and Duncan gets his turnaround shot blocked. We dodged many bullets in 2014. If Lebron doesn't cramp up and Danny Green doesn't go off in Game 1, we're looking at a 0-2 hole going back to Miami. Bounces of the basketball that could have gone the other way.

Assuming we win Game 1 in 2017 and Kawhi doesn't get Zaza'd, that's not a guarantee series win either. Golden State would have made adjustments. The Spurs were cooked. Parker already went down, and David Lee ends up getting injured as well. Assuming we get past the Warriors, a healthy Cavs team awaits us. The 2017 Cavs would be heavy favorites I think with the injuries to the Spurs.

Point being we maxed out on Kawhi and got a ring out of him (that being our ceiling all along... one ring, no more or no less). We lucked out not giving him the max and crippling our franchise. Outside of 2019/2020, he's been injured literally every year. In the scenario that Kawhi's happy and his uncle isn't in his head, we get 1 year of healthy Kawhi on his original contract and 1 year of healthy Kawhi on his new max contract (of 5 years), leaving the Spurs out to dry for the next 4 years. Somehow him forcing his way off the team gifted us the #1 pick this year. Thank you Basketball Gods.

The icing on the cake is that Charlotte, in the opposite conference, ends up with the #2 pick (to best bolster their roster) and has a real shot at being a playoff team next year. This is the best case scenario for the NBA Draft Lottery this year. We own their protected 1st round pick for one of 2024 and 2025, meaning we want them to be a playoff team.

All this to say... it doesn't hurt anymore.

[spursparker9]

Tbh, even if the Spurs took game 1 of the 2017 WCF and the Zaza incident did not happen, it is hard to say for sure that Spurs will win the series. There are still 6 more games and obviously GSW roster was more talented.

Nephew's degenerate quad/knee will still happen eventually. I think the Spurs can count themselves lucky enough to get that 2014 championship with a healthy Nephew.

I don't blame Zaza anymore but the only frustrating part is that 2019 playoffs run which Nephew is lucky enough (game 7 bounce, KD/Klay down) to win for Toronto. Imagine if Nephew did not win that 2019 playoffs, he may already be out of the league with his load management demand. That 2019 playoffs fluke saved Nephew's reputation and justified his demand for load management.

[rjv]

nephew served his purpose in 2014 and the spurs don't win without him. unintentionally, he served his purpose by leaving, as the spurs don't get wemby with him.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Yeah I honestly think Timmy was ready to retire after winning the 5th championship and likely Finals MVP on that Game 6 night in 2013. It would have been the perfect ending to his career if he'd finished it with a monster throwback game (IIRC he had a 30/20 night in game 6) to win the championship and retiring a little early like The Admiral did. In that case, even with Kawhi's development on offense in 2014, without Duncan and a less hungry rest of the cast and less hungry Pop, the Spurs probably make the second round or so and peter out, OKC wins the West, the Heatles probably win the 2014 championship and Lebron doesn't leave Miami. The altered timeline would have featured Golden State vs the Heat for the next several years after that rather than Golden State vs the Cavs.