Spurs begin quest to repeat as champs

SAN ANTONIO -- Just when it looked like the defending NBA champions couldn't get much better, they added a pair of big-name veterans hungry for their first ring.

Sounds like the making of a dynasty for the San Antonio Spurs. But remember how that formula worked for the 2003-04 Lakers?

Unlike the loud squabbling over roles that developed in Los Angeles, Michael Finley and Nick Van Exel say they understand they're on the second unit of a Tim Duncan-led Spurs team that returns mostly intact from its finals victory over Detroit.

"I know what they're accustomed to," Van Exel, the backup point guard to Tony Parker, said of his new teammates. "They're accustomed to winning championships, and that's my main goal."

That was the same goal two years ago when aging standouts Karl Malone and Gary Payton, neither of whom had won a title, joined defending champion Los Angeles for what they -- and most others -- expected to end with a ring ceremony.

"I finally have the dream team I've always wanted," then-Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal said before the season began. But the dream was quickly disturbed by injuries, and eventually it dissolved into tension over playing time.

Those Lakers had enough to reach the finals, where they were dispatched by the Pistons in five games and quickly dismantled.

It's hard to envision the low-key Spurs getting caught up in that sort of destructive drama.

"My role will be off the bench and I have no problem with that," said Finley, the former Dallas swingman who passed up bigger money elsewhere to sign with San Antonio. "They've been successful without me, so I'm just going to try to contribute."

Duncan is perhaps the league's least demanding superstar, and rising talents Parker and Manu Ginobili have thrived in San Antonio's team-first environment.

And while coach Gregg Popovich sees key roles for Finley and Van Exel, he's also no ego coddler.

"I'm going to put the guys on the floor that I think are going to help us win the game that night -- who's playing best, which matchups fit, who's appropriate on the floor at that time based on who we're playing," Popovich said. "I'm not going to look at the books and say, 'Oh, but so-and-so only had this many minutes.' That's not my problem."

Former Spurs player Malik Rose doesn't see any chance of griping from the new arrivals.

"Pop wouldn't have brought those guys here if they were going to have a problem with minutes," said Rose, who spent seven years in San Antonio before being traded to New York last season. "Those guys want to win, and they came to the right place for it."

Added new Knicks coach Larry Brown, a close friend and mentor to Popovich: "The Lakers are the Lakers -- this is different."

Finley and Van Exel are a good fit in San Antonio because the defensive-minded Spurs often have trouble on the offensive end. Popovich has tried to remedy that by bringing in proven scorers such as Ron Mercer, Steve Smith and Glenn Robinson in recent years, with limited success.

"More than anything, it's about chemistry. It's about people understanding what you do and accepting their roles," Duncan said. "More talent doesn't always mean a better team."

Finley, 32, became one of the NBA's most coveted free agents when the Mavericks waived him in August under the league's new one-time amnesty clause. The 10-year veteran, who has averaged 19 points and 37 percent accuracy on 3-pointers in his career, is still owed nearly $52 million in salary from the Mavs.

He said adjusting to the Spurs' style of play has been surprisingly tough.

"I thought I'd come in and catch on overnight," he said. "Offensively and defensively, their whole way of approaching the game is far different from what I was playing in the last eight years of my career."

Van Exel, 33, who played in Portland last season, has averaged 15.1 points over his career and ranks sixth all-time in 3-pointers.

But Finley, who will play behind Ginobili and small forward Bruce Bowen, has averaged nearly 40 minutes a game in his career; Van Exel averages more than 34 minutes.

"It's going to be different for them because Manu and Bruce are still going to have the big minutes, so Michael's going to play less and Nick's going to play less," Parker said. "But I still think they're at the point of their career they just want to win, so I don't think that's going to matter."

San Antonio also signed power forward Fabricio Oberto, a 30-year-old star in the Spanish pro league and a teammate of Ginobili on Argentina's Olympic gold-medal team in Athens.

"He's a real crafty guy," said Spurs forward Robert Horry. "He doesn't just hit you with a lot of athletic ability, but he's smart and he knows how to play the game. He's the guy I've been watching the most."

Knicks coach Brown says San Antonio has piled up so much talent that its second team is good enough to make the playoffs. Many Las Vegas oddsmakers and league watchers are picking the Spurs to repeat, as are more than three-quarters of NBA general managers who took part in a recent survey.

Being a presumptive favorite is a new position for the Spurs, and one that Popovich chalks up to the team's past accomplishments.

"We're not the only talented team in the league," he said. "The top 5, 6, 7, 8 teams in the league are all going to be deep, they're all going to be talented. It's not just us. We just happened to win the championship last year."