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#3 San Antonio Spurs
If there's one Vegas bet that is a no-brainer on this go-around, it is the over/under that they've set for the Spurs at 44.5 games - out of the playoff spots. Losing Kyle Anderson will hurt, and Manu Ginobili has retired, but it'd take a stunning amount of gall to say that the most consistently good franchise in the league will fail to make the playoffs.
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Without being overly dramatical about these projections, I guess it suffices to say that Gregg Popovich has posted 50-win or better seasons for 20 straight years, and the Spurs won 47 games last season despite not having Kawhi for the full year.
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LaMarcus Aldridge has regained his mojo with the Spurs, and posted the least-appreciated MVP calibre season among all candidates last season, with his elite two-way play guiding the Spurs to a seventh-place finish in the standings.
They just added an offensive hub in The Klaw's place with a trade for DeMar DeRozan and a conventional center in Jakob Poeltl who's one of the most-slept Raptor picks in the past couple of seasons.
If there are three things that are certain in life, those are death, taxes and Popovich making the playoffs with two All-Stars on his roster.
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