Could San Antonio Spurs Be Even Better This Time?

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is already devising plans to keep his 2014 champions motivated after a one-sided, five-game series against the Miami Heat.

"I'm worried for one reason," Popovich told longtime San Antonio Express-News scribe Buck Harvey. "They are human beings. They are going to feel satisfied."

According to Harvey, San Antonio's practice facility was adorned with a "framed picture of the Game 6 scoreboard" last season—one that depicted a 13-point lead the Spurs held late in the third quarter. 

The message was unmistakable: This was a game the Spurs should have won.

It was a message that resonated with the team, including a 38-year-old future Hall of Famer with seemingly nothing left to prove.

Tim Duncan told reporters this after clinching an appearance in the 2014 NBA Finals: 

We're happy to be back here this year. We're happy to have another opportunity at it. We're happy that it's the Heat again. We'll be ready for them. We've got some experience, obviously, from last year against them. And we'll go back and look at some film. ... We've got that bad taste in our mouths still.

Five games later, that bad taste was replaced with victory champagne.

One can understand Popovich's concerns. His team was on a mission last season; now it's on a victory tour.

Even Manu Ginobili acknowledged this team won't be reeling like it was a season ago, saying, "We have to work on our mentality," at media day Friday.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to be optimistic. ESPN officially forecast the Spurs as Western Conference champions once again this summer, and why not? No team in the West is more proven.

While San Antonio has yet to claim back-to-back championships, the 2014 Spurs were arguably the very best of the Duncan-Popovich era. 

And although playoff hero and backup point guard Patty Mills will miss a few months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn right rotator cuff, the core of the team will be back.

"It'll be fun to have everybody back here and start up where we left off," Duncan said Friday at the team's media day. "That'll be a huge boost for us in terms of not having to get reacclimated with whose role is what...and everything else. I think that brings a comfort level for us and for Pop and for everyone."

Duncan conceded that, as champions, the team will have a target on its back, eliciting maximum effort from competition looking to establish its credentials against the league's best.

"That wears on you over a season," he said. "So I think it's just about us trying to find our rhythm, find our consistency and trying to deal with that and not being worn out by it."

Indeed, San Antonio's experienced leadership is well-prepared to deal with the challenges that await. Duncan and Co. understand the expectations that come with championships, and they aren't about to shy away from them.

Even as Popovich grows concerned about the potential complacency one might expect from "human beings," he's reassured that his particular human beings are in good, veteran hands.

"I'm not worried a bit about Tony and Manu and Timmy," Popovich told NBA.com's Jared Greenberg on Friday. "They know how hard it is to get there [to a championship]. And I think it sounds odd, but it's ironic. The more times you're there, the more you appreciate how hard it is. But they're not going to try to take a victory lap or anything like that this year. They'll come ready."

It's the kind of leadership and championship pedigree other Western Conference contenders are missing, and it could very well translate into a 2014-15 campaign that looks an awful lot like the one that came before it.

As Duncan suggested, continuity will be pivotal.

The Spurs understand their roles, and they understand how to execute them against elite competition. That kind of corporate knowledge has been a cornerstone for the organization.

Rather than perpetually embarking upon a quest to acquire new talent, general manager R.C. Buford has placed a premium on retaining the guys already familiar with the system.

Formerly a key piece to San Antonio's front office, Sam Presti has incorporated those principles as GM of the highly successful Oklahoma City Thunder.

"Continuity has become a lost currency," Presti recently explained to the San Antonio Express-News, per The Associated Press' Cliff Brunt (subscription required). "It's very hard to maintain that, given the rules. You're going to lose players, there's going to be changes. I think how you adapt to that, how you're able to absorb loss, but also add without having to lose players, is important."

Even without the aforementioned Mills, San Antonio's roster is virtually identical to last year's iteration. It now includes rookie forward Kyle Anderson, but no one was lost to the free-agency or trade markets.

The video game generation of NBA fans may be tempted to view that kind of offseason as stagnant. 

Would-be contenders like the Los Angeles Clippers tweaked their way to an improved roster. The Dallas Mavericks—who took San Antonio to an opening-round Game 7 last season—made significant strides with the acquisitions of Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler.

Can the Spurs really afford to stand pat when the rest of the league is doing just the opposite?

As San Antonio Express-News scribe Dan McCarney put it in July 2013, "If any team knows the benefits of staying the course, it's the Spurs."

It's a franchise philosophy that's proved viable, and it's a vital foundation for the kind of chemistry on which this ensemble cast thrives. Crisp ball movement and sound defensive rotations don't happen by accident, nor are they the products of innate talent alone.

These skills are learned—and learned collectively.

But they're also skills that can have transformative effects on individual growth, perhaps obviating the need to add outside talent in the name of improvement.

Entering his fourth season with the club, 2014 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard arguably stands to benefit most from the familiar faces around him.

By now, the 23-year-old has had a sustained opportunity to absorb the Spurs' methods, and he's poised to emerge as an increased focal point of the team's offense.

As Leonard begins enjoying the prime of his career, the Spurs stand ready to reap the dividends.

Backup swingman Marco Belinelli could also make a jump. This will be the 28-year-old's second season in San Antonio, and he reasons to be increasingly assimilated into a motion-based offense where timing is key.

Fourth-year point guard Cory Joseph may similarly take another step forward after starting 19 games last season. The University of Texas product will be especially valuable early in the season as Mills recovers.

And in classic Spurs fashion, it's ultimately the synergistic combination of those individual efforts that could keep this team on top. Together, these guys are far more than the sum of their parts.

If you thought their seamless harmony was a thing of beauty last season, there's no telling what they're capable of after another year of pounding the rock—and doing so together.

"For more than 15 years, they've stayed true to their core philosophies, as the best organizations do, even as they've innovated to remain competitive," ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz wrote in June 2013. "For the Spurs, stability and serenity emerged as the organization's defining qualities from the top down, so they were adopted as edicts in the team's manifesto."

It's the paradox that keeps these Spurs fresh. While they stubbornly adhere to that manifesto, they're always growing—this season with the help of two new assistant coaches: European legend Ettore Messina and former WNBA standout Becky Hammon.

"They're two new faces, and they're going to try to get themselves acclimated, and it will be interesting to see what they bring to the table," Duncan said of the new coaches Friday. "It'll be fun to add to our coaching staff, and Pop's really excited about it."

So while San Antonio's roster remains basically unchanged, the organization still infused new talent in its own way. The mix of new ideas along with tried-and-true wisdom may raise this club's already-stratospheric ceiling to altogether new levels.

It may even pave the way for that elusive repeat.

"Why haven't we repeated? Because we haven't," Popovich told reporters Friday. "If we do, it'd be great. If we don't, life will go on, and everything's cool."

Don't let Popovich's nonchalance fool you. 

He wants this. His Spurs want it.

Should an in-house growth spurt elevate them to greater heights, they just might get it, too.

Unattributed quotes collected by Bleacher Report at Spurs media day on Sept. 26.