The Reason and The Proof

The reason the San Antonio Spurs are the best franchise in basketball is because time after time they consistently make the best moves.  Now let me get to the proof.

Sure they got lucky and won the lottery to get Tim Duncan.  But they have built their team almost entirely through the draft.  After selecting Duncan 1st overall in the ’97 draft, two years later they acquired Manu with the 57th overall pick in ’99 (Perhaps the greatest draft pick of all time?).  And then again landing Tony Parker at 28th over all ’01.  

Tim Duncan is the elder statesmen having won an additional championship before Tony and Manu got on the scene but this trio is the reason the Spurs have been able to thrive for so long, and maybe Pop had a little bit to do with it. Proving that building throug the draft as an effective strategy for team composition. 

Amazingly the Spurs have done this almost entirely through the back of the draft with late round picks.  Besides the Core Three, the Spurs have made fantastic selection after fantastic selection over the years including: John Salmons (26th Ovr, 2002), Luis Scola (55th Ovr, 2002), Leandro Barbosa (28th Ovr, 2003) Beno Udrih (28th Ovr, 2004), Ian Mahinmi (28th Ovr, 2005), Tiago Splitter (28th Ovr, 2007) George Hill (26th Ovr, 2008), Goran Dragic (45th Ovr, 2008) DaJuan Blair (37th Ovr, 2009), Nando De Colo (53rd Ovr, 2009), and Corey Joseph (29th Ovr, 2011).

Look that over again, and revel in how succesful the Spurs have been from finding both top notch and quality talent late in the draft.  You have 2 three time NBA Champions, One with a Finals MVP (Tony Parker), and One with a Gold Medal (Manu Ginobli).  You have the Most Improved Player in the league this year (Dragic), who looks like a monster now that he gets big minutes in PHX.  And a former 6th man of the year (Barbosa) , who won the award back in ’07 with PHX (SAS selected Barbosa but he never played for them.  He was traded for a draft pick that I eventually became David Lee if I remember correctly. There are several crafty veterans (Scola and Mahinmi are both contributers for IND.  Udrih was a sparkplug for MEM in their OKC series.  As was Blair for DAL against SAS.  Salmons and De Colo are still both in the league on the TOR roster.  And of course Tiago Splitter and Corey Joseph are still on the SAS roster.

Did you notic that I failed to mention George Hill in the above paragraph?  There is a reason.  I believe the George Hill draft pick rightfully deserves a special mention.  While, the Spurs don’t technically get the "credit" for drafting Kwahi Leonard (that distinction goes to IND), in all actuality they should.  The Spurs knew Indiana was interested in bringing in hometown PG George HIll and the Spurs decided if they liked someone at the Pacers selection slot 15th overall, they would move Hill (who had been impressive since SAS drafted him in 2008).  The essentially parlayed their selection of Hill at 26th overall in 2008 into the 15 pick in 2011 draft and acquired Kwahi Leonard.  The 2014 Finals MVP.  

I don’t think San Antonio wins the Finals this year without Leonard.  So you can directly pinpoint the shrewdness of the San Antonio brass when you realize what went into acquiring their newest star.  As you can see it has been through the draft with some trades mixed in as well.  And the occasional quality free agent signing.  But there is one last proponent that you can’t overlook.

The Spurs consistently pick players up from the scrapheap and turn them into quality contributers.  Danny Green, Boris Diaw, and Patty Mills were all but washed up before signing with the Spurs and finding their niche in the Spurs system.  

I will leave you with a list of some of the "contributers" who have came in and help win rings with SAS somewhere along the lines.  Mario Elie, Steve Kerr (won 2), Bruce Bowen (won 3), Stephen Jackson, Malik Rose (won 2), Robert Horry (won 2), Brent Barry (won 2), Michael Finley, and I guess you could add Marco Belinelli to this list.

When it comes to putting a basketball team together it’s a lot like a puzzle.  How the player’s fit together determines the team chemistry and when everything comes together like it has in San Antonio it’s a thing of beauty.