NBA standings prove San Antonio always had a chance to make postseason noise

There are 12 games left in San Antonio's season, and with so little time left, we can start evaluating what we've watched in the grand scheme. Spurs fans have a good idea of what was on the table at the start of the season, and the way the year played out was unexpected for several reasons.

It's difficult to know exactly how well this team may have done if everything went smoothly from the beginning, but looking at the Western Conference standings, one thing is clear: the Silver and Black would have been in the playoffs this season. Right now, they're only three games back from the final play-in spot. That tells you everything you need to know about the league this season.

It's almost as if some deity of hoops determined that the Spurs were ahead of schedule and needed to be slowed. Things were strange from a fan's point of view from the very beginning. Let's use our imaginations for a second and imagine the things we expected to happen took place.

San Antonio's season went off the rails early

Before the season started, the Spurs announced that Devin Vassell wouldn't be ready for the start of the season. They hoped his foot would heal without surgery, but it wasn't healing correctly, making a procedure necessary. The delayed decision cost Vassell recovery time and didn't allow him to work on his game as much in the offseason. The result has been an up-and-down season for Dev.

Now, imagine if he would have gotten his surgery immediately when they shut him down with a few weeks to go last season. If Vassell had some of his offseason to get ready for the year and started the season healthy, San Antonio would have had a very dangerous weapon from the beginning. He just showed us what he's capable of, but it's taken him a while to regain form.

Victor Wembanyama started the season poorly on the offensive end. It was expected after Coach Pop warned that he expected the Alien to be rusty. He had a long summer after playing in the Olympics, so they gave him plenty of time to rest. That led to inconsistent performances from the Silver and Black's best player early on. Then, the DVT (blood clot) issue arose, cutting his season short.

If two of San Antonio's best players are ready to go from the jump, how many more games could they have won?

Coach Pop has a scary health scare, and Mitch Johnson is forced to step into the head coaching role without prior experience. Gregg Popovich is the greatest coach of all time. He's worth a few wins, especially with a roster that's shown talent and potential throughout the year.

Let's not forget Jeremy Sochan missed significant time in the first half of the season, and De'Aaron Fox played with a bad finger on his shooting hand.

Looking at the cascade of misfortune that overtook San Antonio's season, it's easy to envision that they would have made the postseason had even half of those things not taken place. Alas, this season will be mired in the hypothetical after relentless calamity salted away any chance the Spurs had.