The Spurs' Dynasty Now Depends Upon LaMarcus Aldridge

This article is part of VICE Sports' 2016 NBA Playoffs coverage.

Everything is different for the Spurs. When San Antonio adds a key player to their roster, the move does not incur the debates triggered by most other teams' acquisitions. No one argues over whether the addition was a smart move—if it wasn't, the Spurs wouldn't have made it. Everything traces back to Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan, and past success emerges as the primary reference point to future potential. And so on, and so forth. That's the Spurs way, or anyway it's the way we talk about the Spurs

Tony Parker was the 28th pick in the draft. Manu Ginobili was a second rounder. Trading for the 15th pick in 2011 in order to draft current soul-eating defender and ultra-efficient scorer Kawhi Leonard made the Spurs nervous, because they had to give up another of their terrifically solid players in George Hill, whom they had drafted 26th overall in 2008, because, obviously, they're smart. There is a circular rationale to all this—the Spurs will have about a 40 percent chance to win a title any given year, and because of the way the team is constructed and how it plays, incoming players don't necessarily move the needle on those odds as much as they might elsewhere. They are not so much added as assimilated.

It's tough to argue with the results this approach has produced, but it's not infinitely applicable, not even for the Spurs. LaMarcus Aldridge, the team's biggest free agent acquisition in recent memory, is more important to the team's fortunes than anyone has really been comfortable admitting. Luring him to San Antonio was a franchise-saving move, or at least one designed to smooth the coming dynastic transition. If Aldridge had signed with the Lakers he would have become a much more famous person. If he had signed with Dallas, he would have been the guy who helps Dirk ride triumphantly into the sunset. If he had signed in Phoenix, he would be their most important addition since Steve Nash. Only by signing in San Antonio was there any promise of anonymity—it was just another smart move, only degrees more significant than convincing David West to take millions less to come off the bench. That was how it seemed at the time, anyway.

It looks a bit different now, with the Spurs facing elimination in the Western Conference semis. With that dynastic transition currently in progress, the Spurs need Aldridge as much as any team needs its superstars. In their losses against Oklahoma City, they haven't gotten what they need.

San Antonio had the best defense in the NBA this season, and Aldridge was only a component of that. That mythical, protean, Pop-designed system is the hero, there. But that consistency has run into a conflict against Oklahoma City. The best defensive units can only serve one specific function at the end of the day: making their opponents take difficult shots. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are superstar NBA players specifically because they make a lot of difficult shots.

That's half the problem. The other is that the Spurs' disciplined defense has always been accompanied by enough great offense to, you know, score more points than the other team. The burden of that scoring has shifted pretty dramatically this season, and much of it has landed on Aldridge.

Parker and Ginobili have become role players, and as such, the randomness of their occasional flashes of brilliance aren't actually that random. They are the result of being able to play next to superstars like Leonard and Aldridge; that's how being a role player works. Their effectiveness is contingent on someone else being able to shoulder a much larger burden. The system matters in San Antonio, but it's always been dependent on a couple players being able to do something that is nearly unstoppable. Parker, Ginobili, and Duncan combined for 17 points in the Spurs' Game 5 loss. Not unrelated, Aldridge went 6-for-21. If his game is not working, nothing else is going to work as it's supposed to, either.

Aldridge is at the final stage of his prime, and his game will likely age nicely. At the moment he's still eminently capable of being the most dominant player on the court, regardless of the opponent. It will not surprise you to learn that the Spurs are much better when he plays that way. In games one and two of the conference semi-finals Aldridge combined for 79 points while making 33 of 44 shots. In games three, four, and five he combined for 64 points and went 22 of 60.

Some of that is the result of defensive adjustments on OKC's part. Some of it is shot selection, and some of it is simply a good player missing shots he's capable of making. Either way, the Spurs' struggles during Aldridge's mini-slump have put the lie to their broader narrative, and revealed just how important their second superstar is. Beautiful machine though they are, the Spurs need someone to make shots if they're going to win these games, and it's Aldridge's job to make that happen.

And it is going to have to be Aldridge, at least around the basket. Since the playoffs have started, Duncan has scored 40 points, and has looked closer to cooked than ever before. If the Spurs are going to score in the post it will happen through Aldridge. If the Spurs can overcome a 3-2 deficit to get by the Thunder, Duncan will be even more of a liability against the Warriors and Draymond Green's tradition-smashing versatility. Aldridge might be the only post player—not just on the Spurs, but anywhere—that Green can't do anything with on defense. Aldridge is just too tall and offensively capable, and his midrange shot is too close to automatic once he gets in rhythm. He is also strong enough to get easy shots around the rim against a shorter player like Green.

The party line is that the Spurs will belong to Aldridge and Leonard once Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili are gone. The reality is that they already do. The Spurs are still as good as any team trying to win a championship, and that's largely because LaMarcus Aldridge is one of the best players left in the playoffs. If the Spurs are going to survive, they'll need him to play like it.