San Antonio Spurs

34-48, no playoffs

Overview: San Antonio is going to have a difficult time adding to the NBA-record career victories held by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Take it from him.

“To be a championship program, you have to have a couple of superstars on your team. We have all known that for a long time. That doesn’t exist right now,”

Popovich said.“That’s not a knock on these players, it’s just a fact. To avoid that fact seems kind of senseless to me. What we have is a bunch of guys that can all be parts of a championship team if the other pieces arrive at some point.”The Spurs have talent. They are just young and inexperienced. Forward Keldon Johnson, who celebrated his 23rd birthday Tuesday, is the team’s leader along with 26-year-old center Jakob Poeltl and 22-year-old Devin Vassell. San Antonio also has four promising 19-yearolds in rookies Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, along with Josh Primo, who is entering his second season.

Quote: “We are going out there to win,”Johnson said.“I feel like we are capable of winning. We are not backing down from anybody. I feel like whoever we are playing, that is who we are going to go after. We aren’t taking a back seat to no one, and that’s for all 82 games.”