The San Antonio Spurs have not missed the playoffs in more than 20 years, but there are many questions surrounding the team this offseason after Kawhi Leonard was traded. As far as Rudy Gay is concerned, those questions will be answered emphatically.
The Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas recently listed the Spurs’ win total for next season at 43.5. San Antonio won 47 games last year, and Gay wants to remind everyone that the Spurs hit that mark despite Leonard missing basically the entire season.
“Why were we expected to be so much better last year? Because Kawhi may have come back?” Gay said this week, according to NBA.com. “He didn’t, and we were still a playoff team, really a couple of wins away from being a third or fourth seed in the West.”
Gay, who appeared in 57 games in his first season in San Antonio last year, noted that the Spurs always seem to exceed expectations under Popovich. If they fail to win more than 43 games, that would likely mean missing the playoffs for the first time since Popovich’s first season with the team in 1996.
The addition of DeMar DeRozan should give the Spurs a boost, especially when you consider that Leonard was basically a non-factor last season. Gay praised DeRozan for having a “chip on his shoulder” like the rest of the team, and that’s almost certainly how Popovich wants it.
No one is predicting that the Spurs will contend for a championship in the Western Conference, but the 43.5 win total is probably a bit low.
