Top Five OKC Thunder 2017 Christmas Day matchups

San Antonio Spurs

I will probably look stupid in a few months for asking this, but is this the year the Spurs start to decline? San Antonio was arguably one of the biggest losers in the off-season. They failed to get Chris Paul. They let Jonathan Simmons and Dewayne Dedmon walk. The only notable new addition was Rudy Gay, who is coming off an achilies injury. Gay is now on the back-end of his career, and even if he can somewhat recover from his injury, he has not exactly been known to be a positive influence on teams. Tony Parker may miss the first couple of months of the season with his quad injury, and the team spent 48 million dollars just to retain an aging Paul Gasol.

All that being said, the Spurs will most likely compete for the West and the NBA’s second best record. Kawhi Leonard is a superstar, and without an elite wingman, should be one of, if not the front runner for MVP this season. Danny Green is still a great three-and-d player. Plus, with Gregg Popovich, the Spurs will find a way to pull out 55 wins from nowhere. The ceiling of this team depends on its younger players like Kyle Anderson, Dejounte Murray, and Derrick White.

No matter what the Spurs roster looks like, they are always a great test to see how great of a team you have. They are well-disciplined and play excellent defense. These two teams played in a competitive Christmas game two years ago. It would be great to see them go head-to-head again, especially if it’s Manu Ginobili’s final season.