A really in depth look at the Spurs 07-08 performance and their 08-09 preview.

He pretty much sums up 07-08 like we all noticed, they got off to a hot start, were somewhat propelled by the "Rodeo Trip" but not as much in the past, and in both the regular and post season they squandered second half leads and were generally inefficient with the ball.  However, his use of statistics shows the Spurs are still a top defensive team.

Onto the preview:

He cites our biggest strength as Interior scoring and our biggest weakness.....drumroll.....

Biggest Weakness: Age

 

Taken individually, it doesn't seem so horrible that Ginobili and Udoka are 31, or that Mason is 29, for instance. It's when you start piling up the cumulative impact of all their ages that it really sinks in. Bowen is 37, Finley and Thomas are 35, Fabricio Oberto and Jacque Vaughnare 33 and Duncan is 32. Yeesh.

 

In particular, the age of the wing players has to be a concern. San Antonio's top four wing players are 31 and older, and while they've taken exceptional care of their bodies, history tells us that the only direction they can surprise us in is down.

Up front, they at least have size and smarts to fall back on, but the age of the top three is a worry too. Ian Mahinmi, a 2005 first-rounder, is the one flicker of youth in that group; he comes off a strong D-League season and will try to win a role as the fourth big man. Unfortunately, San Antonio's frontcourt succession plans got a little messed up when 2007 first-rounder Tiago Splitter decided to stay in Europe; he would have provided an inexpensive, quality young center, but couldn't take the pay cut dictated by the league's rookie salary scale.

He predicts a 47-35 season, 3rd in the division, 5th in the conference.....ouch.

But he echoes what we've all been saying, no scoring outside of the big three and age increasingly playing a factor, particularly on the wings, which makes the Draft and subsequent Free Agency all the more perplexing.  Im fine if they didnt find anything particularly appealing in the market and want to save up to make a run at Bosh, Gordon, Wade etc.  But to waste a first round draft pick on a third string PG is really a head scratcher.