Nobody talks about San Antonio probably going for yet another 50+ win season

The team is potentially better than last year:
- Leonard is looking much better, and more active on offense
- Diaw learned this summer than he doesn't have to pass on every possession
- Bellinelli is an upgrade over Neal (although so far he isn't that great)
- The offense seems overall much less "Parker-centric"

Things that still suck:
- Splitter is still a subpar starting center
- Bench bigs are still bad. Aryes and Baynes are looking awful so far.
- Ginobili is still not shooting well
- ... and of course, the biggest thing is that they have to be healthy. They were lucky to stay that healthy last year, they'll need to get lucky again.

I think Bellinelli is a significant upgrade over Neal. He's not as explosive offensively as Neal was but has a more diverse game. More importantly though, he is a pretty scrappy defensive player while Neal was a sieve.

Also think you underrate Splitter like many people do because he is not an all-american chest thumper. He is fantastic defensively and isn't nearly as bad offensively as people make him out to be. He shot 57% from the field last season and has great touch around the rim. He's just not athletic and doesn't finish strong which leads to a few face palm inducing moments a game.

All in all I think the spurs are again likely to come out of the west. Ginobili looks a bit better again now that he's had the summer to recover from injuries and Parker looks surprisingly dominant despite his summer ball. Kawhi looks to be taking steps to take on a bigger role offensively. It will take a while to integrate this change into the team play but I'm confident it will pay dividends eventually. The role players mostly look solid except for Ayers and Baynes who need to improve. Really, the only question that needs to be answered to some degree is how good is Tim Duncan this season. He's looked spry enough when he's played but his jumpers have all been short thus far and his offense has struggled some. He's played so little thus far that its hard to say. Defensively though he has looked strong and I think that is probably the best benchmark to see if Duncan has declined any this season. Barring injury I think the spurs have another legitimate shot at the title.