The Spurs are fueling the NBA's most entertaining debate

The Spurs are a really good team this year? How good? Well, lately several popular media members are debating whether they're the best in the league or not right now. They're not asking how long it will take them to reach that level; they're asking about present day. Oklahoma City is still ahead in the standings, and they're the defending NBA champion.

Usually, those guys get the benefit of the doubt. It seems San Antonio has changed that this year. ESPN's Kendrick Perkins flat out picked them to win the championship. Nick Wright placed the Silver and Black on the same exact level as the Thunder in his weekly NBA Tiers segment on FS1's First Things First sports talk show. Bill Simmons says they're either the 90 or 91 Bulls.

The truth is that this is a simple question with a complicated answer, but that won't stop Spurs fans from relishing being included in these debates, considering the basement the team has lived in over the past five years.

The NBA regular season and postseason can have different best teams

Players, coaches, and veteran media members alike will tell fans the same thing about the playoffs: it's a different ball game. That's why the postseason isn't taken into consideration when voting on the end-of-season awards. It's not the same thing.

If they were, the number one seed would win the championship every season, but that's not the case. There are sometimes, and have often been, teams that dominated during the regular season, only to get knocked out of the big tournament before they even reached the NBA Finals. However, I don't believe that should eliminate them from being considered the best team during that campaign.

We need to put more respect on the value of the regular season, and this is one of the ways we do that. If you have the best record out of 30 teams after six months of games, respect for that accomplishment should be given willingly and graciously.

As much as I believe that San Antonio can beat Oklahoma City in a seven-game series, if they don't finish with a better record than the Thunder by April 12, OKC will be the better team. Circumstances like injuries can impact outcomes, but everyone deals with those. It's not an excuse that holds much weight.

But once the playoffs begin, every team starts with zero wins with the hope of reaching 16. The stakes are higher, the game plans are more intense, and guys try harder. It's just the way it is. I know the distinction isn't often discussed, but it's a reality—especially when you're dealing with young, inexperienced teams vs. veteran ball clubs.

No matter where you ultimately place the Spurs in your personal power rankings, they have to be somewhere at the top for the regular season. Being in that conversation is spectacular enough. Once the postseason begins, we can see where they land among the elites in the league. If they go deep in the playoffs and restake their claim as an upper-echelon monster, even better.