Trading away your only All-Star for three first round picks and a player you immediately waive is not something you do with a view towards winning a lot of games in the upcoming season. Doing so after managing to squeak out just thirty-odd wins for the third year in a row before losing in the first game of the play-in tournament for the second year in a row is a pretty obvious attempt to trip yourself up, fall down, and get shot off the back of the treadmill of mediocrity. The San Antonio Spurs’ timing could not have been better.