2014-15 NBA Season Preview: San Antonio Spurs

Welcome to theScore's preview of the 2014-15 San Antonio Spurs. Visit our preseason hub for previews of all 30 NBA teams.

San Antonio Spurs

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2013-14

While some wondered if San Antonio could possibly regroup and rebound from their crushing Game 6 and 7 losses to the Miami Heat in the 2013 Finals, Gregg Popovich's Spurs went about business as they often do.

Pop managed minutes to perfection, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili continued to lead, Kawhi Leonard continued to emerge as a two-way star, Marco Belinelli proved to be the latest under-the-radar Spurs pickup to blossom, and the Spurs cruised to a league-best 62 wins, which included a perfect March (16-0) and a 19-game winning streak.

Then, after splitting the first six games of their first round series against the Dallas Mavericks, the Spurs won 13 of their next 17 playoff games while outscoring the Mavs, Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat by an average of over 13 points per game.

It was near perfect basketball.

The Spurs won their fifth championship in 16 seasons and their first since 2007, Popovich won his third Coach of the Year award, and Kawhi Leonard became the youngest Finals MVP since Tim Duncan in 1999.

Offseason Roundup

When you dominate - on both sides of the ball - the way the Spurs did last season, the status quo isn't so bad.

The Spurs made no major signings or trades this summer, nor did they lose any notable players. In fact, in typical Spurs fashion, their biggest move of the offseason was locking Popovich up to a multi-year contract extension.

They'll return virtually the same team that looked damn near unstoppable at times last Spring, albeit Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are all a year older.

Additions

*C Aron Baynes (1/$2.1M)
*PF/C Matt Bonner (1/$1.4M)
*F Boris Diaw (4/$28M)
*G Patty Mills (3/$11M)

Departures

SF Damion James (free agency)

2014 Draft

F Kyle Anderson (1st round, 30th overall)
SG Nemanja Dangubic (2nd round, 54th overall)

After sliding to the end of the first round, Anderson, a talented offensive forward with great court vision, fell all the way to the Spurs. The UCLA product is never going to win Gregg Popovich over with his defense, but he's a 6-foot-7 forward who can handle the ball, see the floor and maybe even space the opposing defense out as a potential stretch-four.

That all sounds very Spurs-like, and if the organization can work their usual player development magic, San Antonio may just have another late first round steal on their hands.

Dangubic, a Serbian draft-and-stash guard, was acquired in a trade with the 76ers that saw the Spurs swap the 58th and 60th picks for the 54th.

Starting 5

• PG Tony Parker
• SG Danny Green
• SF Kawhi Leonard
• PF Tim Duncan
• C Tiago Splitter

Breakout Player: Kawhi Leonard

Anderson may be a breakout candidate himself as a rookie that no one's really talking about among a loaded first year class, and while Kawhi Leonard has already established himself as a budding star, there's another level Leonard can reach.

The 23-year-old is already an All-Defensive talent with a promising offensive game that has grown in each of his three seasons, but Leonard's scoring average of 12.8 points per game last year left many wanting more. The truth was that Leonard actually scored the ball with incredible efficiency, posting an above-average marks in true shooting percentage (60.2 percent) and a player efficiency rating (19.4).

The thing is, Leonard's usage rate of 18.3 percent was still very modest, and was really the only thing keeping his scoring down. If he gets the bigger role in the Spurs offense he deserves, his efficiency will likely suffer some, but his scoring will finally begin to match his effectiveness, and the offensive expectations many had for him last season.

Season Expectations

Barring a major injury - and even that might not derail Popovich's regimented game plan - the Spurs should be expected to do what they always do, and that's contend for another championship.

With Pop, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili still around, Leonard breaking out, one of the best benches in the Association, and now Anderson being thrown into the mix, the Spurs remain the deepest team in the league.

Another 60-win season and another title are certainly possible, but with the Thunder and Clippers breathing down their necks and a ridiculously stacked Western Conference behind them, even just making another West final after back-to-back conference titles would be impressive.

1 to Follow on Social Media

The most Spurs-ian thing about researching the Spurs before the start of a new season is realizing that no Spur is very interesting on social media.

This is the San Antonio Spurs, people. They're too busy working on the homework assignment Popovich gave them (probably breaking down every loss from the 1997-98 season) to put any time into managing fun social media accounts, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

So just follow the team's official Twitter feed. Maybe they'll post a photo of Matt Bonner eating a sandwich or something.