Questions surround team during reboot

Among the biggest: Will Popovich era end near Disney World in next three weeks?

When the Spurs take the floor Friday to face the Sacramento Kings, it will have been 143 days since they last played in an NBA game that counted.

The ball will still be round. The hoop will still be nylon. The court will still be 94 by 50 feet. Gregg Popovich will still be apt to utter a swear word every now and then.

Almost everything else about the game the Spurs used to play will be different.

Friday’s game — the first of eight so-called “seeding games” by which the Spurs attempt to earn a playoff spot — will be played in a sterile arena in Orlando, Fla., in front of zero fans.

Here are five things to watch as the Spurs attempt to earn an NBA-record 23rd consecutive postseason berth from the fishbowl bubble of Walt Disney World:

1. Where are all the tall people?

The Spurs departed for Orlando aware they would be without seven-time All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge for the duration of the season reboot. The team’s leading rebounder and shot blocker and second-leading rebounder underwent shoulder surgery in April.

Less than a week into practices at Disney, the Spurs lost their other frontcourt starter — Trey Lyles — to an appendectomy.

They will be forced to navigate a treacherous playoff path severely hampered in the paint. Much will fall on the shoulders of 24-year-old Jakob Poeltl, who is essentially the Spurs’ last rim defender standing.

Apart from that, Popovich will have to piece together a frontcourt rotation from parts that includes converted small forward Rudy Gay, G Leaguer Drew Eubanks, newly signed journeyman Tyler Zeller and others.

It’s difficult to imagine Zion Williamson shaking in his Nikes at the prospect.

2. Can the youngsters make a leap?

Popovich has been forthright in saying the club’s main goal during the Orlando restart is to develop younger players.

Look for players such as Dejounte Murray, Derrick White and Lonnie Walker IV to soak up more than their share of minutes.

It will be interesting to see if playing time filters down to the Spurs’ three-man rookie class, which spent the majority of the season marinating in Austin before the pandemic struck. Keldon Johnson seems a safe bet to see playing time on the wing, while Luka Samanic is apt to find his way to minutes given the depleted nature of the

Spurs’ frontcourt.

There might not be enough pie left for the third member of the Spurs’ 2019 rookie class, second-rounder Quinndary Weatherspoon, unless Popovich plans to go deep down the developmental rabbit hole during this reboot.

At any rate, it might be fair to assume the Spurs’ rotations might often resemble something out of a normal July Summer League game.

3. How does DeMar DeRozan feel about all this?

Heading into Orlando, DeRozan remains the Spurs’ best offensive player. The 30-yearold guard is the midst of a fine season, averaging a team-best 22 points to go with 5.6 points and 5.6 rebounds. He has been efficient, despite a 2-point heavy game, in shooting a career-best 52.6 percent.

DeRozan could be heading into a free agent offseason, with a player option for 2020-21 worth $27.7 million.

If the Spurs’ stated goal in Orlando is to ride the young players, however, it remains to be seen how DeRozan fits into that plan.

He is part of the Spurs’ present at a moment when the team is most concerned with the future.

So far, DeRozan has said all the right things about the prospect of playing mentor to the Spurs’ Disneyland youth movement.

That’s good.

DeRozan’s play on the court will be critical to any hope the Spurs have of making a playoff run. His buy-in as a leader will go a long way toward the team’s more important aim of grooming young players for bigger roles.

4. Is this really how the Gregg Popovich era is going to end?

The venerable Spurs coach, who first took over on the team’s bench early in the 199697 campaign, is by choice employed on a year-to-year basis.

Only the 71-year-old Popovich knows how likely it is that the final game of his Hall of Famebound career will come on an unfamiliar court adjacent to a gaudy theme park property with no fans to witness it.

There is a part of Popovich that probably would not mind walking away without fanfare.

It’s possible Popovich coaches his swan song at some point in the next three weeks.

It’s also possible Popovich returns next season under what hopefully will be more normal circumstances, and rides the 2020-21 NBA campaign into the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which have been rescheduled.

There is always a chance Popovich coaches his last NBA game next month, right next door to Mickey Mouse. That possibility alone might be worth Spurs fans tuning in.

5. How is the testing going?

This might be the most important storyline to watch league-wide inside the bubble.

Players and staff are set to be tested for the COVID-19 virus regularly while in Orlando. So far, the league’s bubble has held.

In the latest round of testing results released last week, none of the 346 players swabbed returned a positive test. That is good news.

A positive test to a key player (think LeBron James) or a number of players on the same team would wreak havoc on the competitive balance of the NBA restart.

Too many positive tests could shut down the reboot entirely.

The continued raft of negative tests since the league entered the bubble in mid-July gives hope this crazy idea to finish the season might work.

Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer Gregg Popovich could retire in the next few weeks, or he could return for one more season and cap it with the Tokyo Games.