THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS still had flickering postseason hopes as they prepared for their regular-season finale in Dallas last April. Not that it had been a priority.
San Antonio had made a series of moves over the previous months that signaled a shift into a rebuilding period. The Spurs didn't attempt to keep their leading scorer DeMar DeRozan in free agency, instead working with his agent to orchestrate a sign-and-trade deal with the Chicago Bulls. San Antonio moved valued veterans Thaddeus Young and Derrick White at the trade deadline to Eastern Conference contenders.