Road to normal begins tonight in Memphis
With no NBA playoffs to occupy his late summer and fall, Spurs guard Lonnie Walker IV did his best to put the added downtime to good use.
He hopped on the app “Duolingo” to brush up on Spanish in an attempt to communicate with his Chilean girlfriend.
A voracious reader, Walker planned on making it through the novel “The Alchemist” by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho for the second time. That pursuit got sidetracked when coach Gregg Popovich gave him a stack of books to read, including the latest memoir of former President Barack Obama.
Fitting from a 22-year-old, Walker also has been binge-playing the newest “Call of Duty: War Zone” video game with teammates Luka Samanic, Keldon Johnson, Drew Eubanks and Trey Lyles.
“We are killing it,” Walker said. “I think our communication is beginning to get so great on ‘War Zone,’ that it is starting to translate to the court.”
Popovich and the rest of the Spurs can only hope for as much.
As the Spurs tip off the 2019-20 season tonight in Memphis, it officially means play time is over.
“It’s time to lock in, time to zone in, time to get ready for the real deal,” forward Rudy Gay said.
The Spurs enter the new campaign at something of a crossroads. They are a club caught between eras.
Gone are the days of chalking up 50 wins and a playoff invitation as if they were a silver-andblack birthright. The Spurs went 32-39 last season, posting their first losing record and first postseason-less finish since 1996-97.
The payoff for that down season was the No. 11 pick in last month’s draft, which the Spurs parlayed into Florida State swingman Devin Vassell.
The 20-year-old joins a youthful foundation upon which the Spurs hope to build their next
playoff team.
“We’ve got a bunch of great young guys who are determined to develop and get better,” said guard Patty Mills, who’s entering his 10th season with the team and is the Spurs’ longest-tenured player. “You can really tell by the body language of everybody that we’ve got a lot of making up to do.”
That’s not to say there aren’t a few graybeards still around, at least for now. The Spurs also will rely on 30-somethings like Mills, Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan.
All four are playing on expiring contracts. Each could find their names in trade talks between now and March.
As it stands, those veterans remain committed to helping the Spurs’ youth movement succeed.
“I’m going to do everything it takes for us not to be in that situation we were in last year,” said DeRozan, who was the Spurs’ leading scorer (22.1 points ger game) and assist man (5.6 per game).
The Spurs departed for Memphis on Tuesday afternoon intent on returning to a familiar routine — or at least what passes for one in the time of COVID-19.
The NBA’s bubble has been abandoned, with teams crisscrossing the country again for road games.
There are testing protocols and safety guidelines in place, but commissioner Adam Silver is bracing for positive cases as the league’s 72-game schedule commences.
“Based on watching other leagues operating outside a bubble, unfortunately it seems somewhat inevitable,” Silver said in a conference call with reporters this week, stressing that isolated cases would not mandate another NBA shutdown. “We’re prepared for all contingencies.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who at age 71 falls into a higherrisk category when it comes to COVID complications, said he trusts the NBA powers-that-be to keep players and staff as safe as possible.
“Of course I’m concerned — anybody would be,” Popovich said. “I just believe in Adam and the group he has around him, knowing full well it’s a heck of a collection of smart people.”
As much as possible, Spurs players hope the return to practice and travel and games will restore a sense of normalcy to their lives that has been missing
since the league suspended operations in March.
“For the most part, we know that when we wake up at 8, we are doing this, this and that,” Walker said. “At 11:30, we are starting this. Afterwards, we all have a schedule. It puts us all back in a routine.”
That’s not to say the Orlando bubble was devoid of routine.
It was just a different one for most players.
“I kind of got in the habit of going back to the hotel and eating a sack of food,” Gay said.
If nothing else, postgame meals outside the bubble will not look like something a third grad
er might take on a field trip to the Alamo.
At age 34 and heading into his 15th NBA season, Gay has his own plan for getting his routine back to normal.
“Just focus on basketball,” Gay said. “In between those lines is normal. Outside of that, there’s no fans or anything like that — that’s the unknown.
“We have to focus on what goes on between those lines and focus on each other. Our salaries are pretty good, but it’s way outside our pay grade what goes on outside of basketball.”
For the Spurs last season, what went on outside the lines last
season was fairly abnormal as well.
They missed the playoffs for the first time since before five players on this year’s opening day roster were alive.
The path toward righting that wrong begins tonight in Memphis. “Call of Duty” can wait.
“I don’t care if somebody counts us out, counts us in,” DeRozan said. “When I walk in that arena with those guys, I know what we are going to be capable of.”