San Antonio Spurs: Nicolas Batum
The San Antonio Spurs have been without the services of one of the top three players in the game for all but nine games of the season, yet, unsurprisingly they continue to march right on a long to another 50-win season behind the brilliance of Coach Popovich and the inspired play of Lamarcus Aldridge.
With Kawhi back in the fold at some point later in the season, the Spurs will be primed to make playoff run up until a potential rematch against the Warriors. Competing with GSW is a whole other ball game, and while the brilliance of the Spurs can never be underestimated nor can the 27 point lead that they had over the Warriors in game one before Kawhi’s injury be forgotten, it is hard to see this Spurs team winning four out of seven games against Golden State.
The Spurs need a bit more perimeter scoring and a player who can play both sides of the ball in the Popovich system. Nicolas Batum would be the ideal acquisition. He is a team first player, can play both offense and defense at a high level, and would be a great compliment for both Kawhi and Aldridge to lesson some of the burden on them. Batum would likely come at the expense of some combo of Green, Gasol and or Patty Mills but he would be worth it.
If you are the Spurs, you have one advantage that no other team in the history of the sport has had – you have the greatest coach of all time in Gregg Popovich. He alone is worth one or two wins in a series against the Warriors, and with some help for Kawhi and Aldridge in the form of Batum, the Spurs could make the Western Conference Playoffs very interesting moving forward.