For years, the San Antonio Spurs were the avatars of economy and frugality. They’d somehow find a way to win - or at least compete - and do so while keeping their payroll under control. There may have been one crossover into Luxury Tax Territory a few years back, but it was small and short-lived.
Now, all that is gone. Like Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson and Bob Dylan going electric in 1965, this constitutes a certifiable shocker. The Spurs are spending. They are doing so knowing the consequences and risks. They will be big-time luxury tax payers and, according to coach Gregg Popovich, it simply had to be this way.
“I didn’t think it was going to work any other way,’’ the Spurs’ hoops boss said last week while on the road to his vacation abode in Maine. “We could have waited until next summer and seen if LeBron [James], [Dwyane] Wade, and [Chris] Bosh all decided to come join us. But I had trouble seeing that happening.
“Our time is now. Timmy [Duncan’s] time is now. He has three years left on his contract. Something tells me that you don’t have to be too smart to figure out that the next three years are probably going to be better than the three after that.’’
Toward that end, the Spurs have made some changes, and according to Popovich, “If we can stay healthy, we are back in the championship talk.’’ They added Richard Jefferson via trade, signed Antonio McDyess as a free agent (along with Theo Ratliff), and drafted burly DeJuan Blair in the second round.
The additions of Jefferson and McDyess pushed the Spurs well over the tax limit (almost $9 million, according to one account) and required some arm-twisting of longtime owner Peter Holt.
“We told him that if we were going to compete, we had to go over the [tax threshold]. He did not like that answer,’’ Popovich said. “But he also said, ‘I don’t like it, but I understand it, so go out and do what you need to do.’ ’’
Jefferson is the biggest of the new arrivals, a scorer, a wing player who still has a few hops left. Popovich got to know Jefferson during the 2004 Olympics (as did Duncan, a US teammate) and looks forward to having the ex-Net, ex-Buck on the team.
“He’s a grown-up. He doesn’t have to be developed,’’ Popovich said. “And personality-wise, he fits. He has a great sense of humor. You can coach him and he can respectfully talk back to you. Timmy enjoys him.’’
McDyess is also a grown-up. “He’s Kurt Thomas, but a better scorer,’’ Popovich said.
As for Blair, the rebounding machine from Pitt, Popovich said, “He’s going to play right off the bat for us. He can rebound. I’m not going to teach him how to shoot threes. We know what he can do.’’
But just as crucial is the return to health (and good form) of the Big Three. Duncan, according to Popovich, is in the best shape of his career and eager to win a fifth ring. Manu Ginobili, who has been hurt in each of the last two postseasons, is healthy. Popovich said “my heart sunk’’ when he heard that Tony Parker had hurt an ankle while playing for France.
“It makes me sick,’’ he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s frustrating. But it’s a minor sprain. From what we read, it could have been a whole lot worse.’’
Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili all were big players in the last three San Antonio championships (2003, 2005, 2007). Another was 38-year-old Bruce Bowen, who went to Milwaukee in the Jefferson trade. The Bucks waived him at the end of July and he is a free agent. Might he be part of another Spurs run, albeit in a subordinate role?
“I’ve given him no such indication,’’ Popovich said. “He might come back with the right team in the right situation, but it’s probably not going to be San Antonio.’’
Popovich still puts the Lakers on top in the West, but the reconfigured Spurs have him energized as he prepares for his 13th full season as the main man in San Antonio.
“I’m really excited,’’ he said. “If we had come to training camp with the same group we had at the end of last year, everyone would have gone into major depression. I would have been saying, ‘follow me,’ and turned around to find nobody there. It was time to change the music and I think we’ve done that.’’
Making a list and checking it twice
Celtics fans hoping for a good look at the Heat or Pistons have but one opportunity to see each of them this season.Dwyane Wade and the Heat make their only Garden appearance Feb. 3, while the new-look Pistons, with a new coach (John Kuester, a former Celtics assistant), the returned Ben Wallace (for now, anyway), as well as free agent pickups Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, are in Boston March 15. (The teams don’t even meet until Jan. 20, the Celtics’ 40th game of the season.)
Boston plays both of those teams twice on the road.
On the other hand, the Celtics make only one visit to Charlotte and Indianapolis while entertaining the Bobcats and Pacers twice in Boston.
While the Celtics do open the season in Cleveland, they don’t see the Cavaliers again until after the All-Star break (Feb. 25).
Hey, by that time, Leon Powe might be able to play for the Cavs. All four meetings between the Celtics and Cavaliers are scheduled for national television.
As for the West, three playoff teams from a year ago (Denver, San Antonio, and Houston) do not show up at the Garden until March 24 (the Nuggets). The Spurs are in March 28 for a Sunday night ESPN game and the Rockets don’t make an appearance until April 2.
If there is a hot race in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics may get a break in that five of their last six games are against conference opponents who did not make the playoffs last season, including the Bucks twice.
Etc.
Peter May is a former NBA and Celtics writer for the Globe. 
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