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The San Antonio Spurs don't do transition years

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports / Action Images

As the final minutes ticked away on the San Antonio Spurs' 2016-17 season - and possibly the career of one Emanuel Ginobili with it - on Monday night, Atlanta Hawks writer KL Chouinard tweeted the win totals of every season San Antonio had under Manu's 15 years of co-stewardship: 60, 57, 59, 63, 58, 56, 54, 50, 61, 50, 58, 62, 55, 67, 61.

It's something that every NBA fan intuitively knows at this point, but it remains stark to see it laid out like that: The Spurs haven't won fewer than 50 games since before the first season of "American Idol." (Indeed, it goes back even further than that; the last 82-game season in which San Antonio finished below the 50-win plateau was 1996-97.)

Of course, you don't need a magnifying glass to locate the switch that flipped for the Spurs after that 20-win 1996-97 season: They drafted Tim Duncan, paired him with fellow Hall of Famer David Robinson and future head-coaching GOAT Gregg Popovich, and contended instantly and perpetually.

But that was 20 years ago, and much has transpired since: The Admiral's 2003 retirement, the Derek Anderson signing, the Ron Mercer trade, Fishy Rim, Stephen Jackson (twice!), the Dirk Nowitzki three-point play, the Tony Parker/Brent Barry incident, the Richard Jefferson trade, an upset to the 8-seed Grizzlies, the Ray Allen shot, and then - most unthinkably - The Big Fundamental hanging up his protractor.

And yet, the Spurs keep janglin', to the tune of 50-plus wins every year they roll the balls out.

So here we are with 2017-18 on the horizon for Spurs fans, and it seems like a sea change is coming for San Antonio. Parker had a pleasantly productive postseason run cruelly cut short by a ruptured quad, and there's thought that he might not bother making his way back to the Spurs for next season, if doing so is even an option.

Joining him in retirement could be Ginobili, who brushed off his worst regular season as a pro and an invisible start to the playoffs with a handful of turn-back-the-clock games against Houston and Golden State, but who certainly seemed like he had emptied all his chambers by the end - when he was awarded a superhero's sendoff from the San Antonio home crowd.

Losing those two icons of Spurs hoops, so soon after Timmy's viking funeral, certainly seems like it should mark the end of an era for the Silver and Black.

But there's no real evidence a downturn is coming. Parker's absence will hurt, but rookie point guard Dejounte Murray showed flashes of brilliance while filling in this postseason.

San Antonio without BatManu is impossible to comprehend, but Ginobili wasn't even its most important reserve this year: That might have been two-way wing Jonathon Simmons, whose rising to the occasion (particularly during Kawhi Leonard's absence) was among the most heartening aspects of the Spurs' postseason.

They'll need to re-sign Simmons - and point guard Patty Mills, who's coming off a career year and is likely the steadiest short-term option at the position - but franchise anchor Leonard and overqualified sidekick LaMarcus Aldridge are still under contract, and veteran big Pau Gasol is expected to exercise his player option. The Spurs will be missing some big names and franchise fixtures next season, but the actual on-court product should hardly be unrecognizable.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

There could also be some big acquisitions to go with the losses. It certainly has not escaped the Basketball Internet's notice that the Spurs should have a vacancy at point guard next season, following a summer in which the veritable Point God will hit the open market; indeed, no less esteemed a source than NBA guru Zach Lowe has theorized that Chris Paul to San Antonio could be a real thing.

The idea of arguably the league's headiest player finally joining Hoops MENSA at the AT&T Center is a tempting one, and - despite Paul's advancing years - could fling the Spurs' never-entirely-closed title window even further ajar.

The Spurs would have to do some serious maneuvering - and/or persuading Gasol and Parker into not reporting for duty next season - to free the necessary space to sign CP3, possibly including a cap-clearing trade of trusty wing Danny Green, or a sweetener-attached Gasol deal.

The Spurs are nearly capped out as is; if they re-ink Simmons and/or Mills and Gasol returns, they won't have anything but the mid-level exception to throw at free agents, possibly damning them to shopping in the bargain bin for a Deron Williams or Ty Lawson type, and hoping to upgrade their lagging frontcourt athleticism through June's draft, where they'll have the No. 29 pick.

But the 2015 Aldridge signing shows that when there's a will on both free agent sides, there's always a way for San Antonio, and just about everyone but Kawhi should be expendable if Paul signals his availability.

Regardless of the team's eventual makeup for next season, the Spurs' DNA remains undeniable. The uneasy end to their postseason masks the fact that not only was this season not a disappointment for the Spurs, it was a friggin' triumph - not just any team could wave arrivederci to a franchise-defining, culture-crystallizing, all-time top-10 player and still win 61 games and make the conference finals; hell, it might be just one team.

So yes, the Spurs will have some serious questions to contend with next season. But if you don't have every confidence in the world San Antonio will have them answered before they're even done being asked, I don't know what team you've been watching the last 20 years.

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