NBA insiders inadvertently predict a very tough road for the Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs relished in what was one of the best offseasons in the entire NBA. They went out and constructed a top-tier bench unit and provided their star, Victor Wembanyama, with everything he needs to take over the league. Further, the Spurs will get a full season of their newly acquired starting point guard, De'Aaron Fox. But even with this success, the Spurs are no write-in for prosperity.

With the immense upgrades, one would expect the Spurs to advance past their 13th seed finish, yet that may not be so easy. Not because of a lack of juice added to the squad, but because of how historically great the Western Conference is shaping up to be. The set of teams is absolutely loaded, and following last year, there aren't many teams expected to fall and make room for the Spurs.

Adding to this point, the staff at ESPN collaborated on an article detailing their opinions on the upcoming season. In particular, discussing which teams could fall off, mostly Eastern Conference teams made the list, meaning the West will once again be a gauntlet. The Silver and Black have their work cut out for them.

The Spurs need somebody to tank

Because the Western Conference is so deep and full of talent, it will likely take a team tanking for the Spurs to find their footing. As it currently stands, it is easy to picture nine bona fide playoff teams. This leaves one final spot for the Spurs to take. That is, if the Spurs struggle to take the leaps and bounds we expect.

The Spurs will have to battle it out with not only the locked-in playoff teams for seeding, but former lottery teams such as the Suns, Pelicans, and Trail Blazers to make the Play-In tournament. The path to the playoffs will be a difficult one.

To aid the Spurs' quest to the playoffs, it would be significantly beneficial if one of the top Western Conference teams were to falter. According to the ESPN staff, the Lakers are the primary Western squad to do so next season. When looking across the conference, it is hard to picture anyone else making a major fall.

It will all come down to injuries, like it always does. One team every year is ravaged by unexpected injuries; it is inevitable. That could be key to the Spurs sneaking up in the standings. Outside of the Lakers' decline due to lost talent, look for teams such as the Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies struggling to gel with their reworked groups.

No matter what, the Spurs have an absolute gauntlet ahead of them. At every team's floor, the Spurs are no shoo-in for the playoffs. They will need to make significant strides to make a jump or simply bank on another Western Conference team suffering a slide. There are a lot of moving pieces in this all-time level conference, and I can't wait to watch it unfold.