Eventually, the Spurs moved (Richard) Jefferson to the Golden State Warriors, and brought back the toughest guy in the gym, Stephen Jackson. Danny Green and Gary Neal had been passed over elsewhere, discarded, and they found a place with the Spurs. Tiago Splitter emerged as the center to be groomed behind Duncan. As (Greg) Popovich said, Boris Diaw has fit “seamlessly” into the Spurs. Kawhi Leonard has been the long, athletic young forward that they desperately needed, and now he starts with Diaw and Green. (Manu) Ginobili shrugs, comes off the bench and still kills everyone.

The Spurs keep coming the way the Indiana Pacers have been built to do in the Eastern Conference: deep, versatile and able to attack in different ways. Oklahoma City has constructed its franchise the way the Spurs did: Superstars drafted, developed and surrounded with proper parts. That’s how you keep costs down, chemistry strong and talent deep on the bench.

As (R.C.) Buford said, “What happened with Pop’s approach to the season was this: We didn’t have practice time to prepare a group who hadn’t been used to playing together. But by not over-extending minutes for our top five players, that ability to develop came in game action to give us a much deeper team.

via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports