The 10 Commandments of Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs have made it into the NBA Finals for the fifth time since he took the team over back in 1996.

For his entire career he's been successful, whether it be successfully winning NBA championships or successfully tanking in order to nab Tim Duncan back in Pop's first season coaching the team.

From there he remained the team's general manager (a position he picked up back in 1994) until 2002, when he gave the job up to R.C. Buford, who still holds that title.

Together the two of them have built one of the most prolonged stretches of success of any team in the league's history, rivaling the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers of the '60s, '70s and '80s.

The two-time NBA Coach of the Year Award winner runs his team with an ideal that every single piece is important as long as they are all buying into his system.

In essence, his system can be broken down into a set of basketball ideals, all of which seem to evolve depending on the era, but evoke the notion of teamwork every step of the way.

Through those ideals, Pop has been able to stave off Father Time and build this year's Western Conference champions.

10. You're a Part of a Whole

This is really the notion that every single team in the history of organized sports should be built around.

I'm not one to buy into the whole "we're only as strong as our weakest player" baloney, but the idea that every single player should feel as if they're contributing to a successful team should definitely be the basis of a successful group of players.

This has always been true of the San Antonio Spurs under Popovich.

Whether it be Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Aron Baynes or Tracy McGrady, every single player has a duty to perform that is of some sort of importance to the team.

It's that thought that brings together a team, and the only thing that will do that more is actually winning. Usually the two go hand in hand.

9. Given the Chance, Push the Pace

As surprising as it may seem, the Spurs were one of the fastest-paced teams in the NBA.

It's a bit of a newer idea implemented by Popovich (San Antonio was the fourth-slowest team in the NBA back in 2007), but it's easier to score when there are more offensive players on one side of the floor than defensive players.

I'll stop short of calling the Spurs a fast-paced team, but they are a relatively up-tempo team that will pick spots in which to sprint past opponents.

They don't ascribe to the run-and-gun pace like the Houston Rockets went for this season; that's a type of offense that can be extremely detrimental to the defense.

Instead, the Spurs will force turnovers, let guards leak out early and look for safe outlet passes, along with quality attempts early in the shot clock.

It's that system that allowed the Spurs to score 103 points per game, while still being incredibly effective in a half-court set.

They really got the best of both worlds this season.

8. Pass to the Open Man

One of the ideas that never found a way out of San Antonio's offense is the ball-handler looking to pass before anything else.

San Antonio has never had a point guard dominate the league in assists, whether it be Avery Johnson or Tony Parker. Every single player on the team is conditioned to pass the ball if somebody has an open look.

This is a part of Popovich's game plan that has always existed, it's just grown as his offensive system has become more complex.

Generally speaking, San Antonio would yearly finish around the middle of the pack in assists, but they would do it while taking very few shots per game.

This year was a huge accomplishment, as they led the league with more than 2,000 assists while attempting just the 19th-highest number of shots in the league.

San Antonio assisted on 2,058 shots this season, compared to just 1,152 that went without an assist.

That's teamwork in plain numbers.

7. Take the Three-Pointer...

Right around the turn of the century, Popovich began to realize just how important three-pointers were to a team's success.

There, in the middle of one of the most blind, depressingly dull seasons in decades, Popovich slightly tweaked his approach while the rest of the league relied on open mid-range jumpers rather than quality three-point attempts.

After all, three points are better than two, especially when the success rate of long shots don't vary much once you get past a certain point on the floor.

It's not just taking three-pointers that's important, however. What's most important is finding ways to get your best three-point shooters open looks.

Because of that approach, Popovich's teams have finished in the top 11 in three-point percentage every year since 2001. Three times they finished first overall.

6. ...Or Get to the Bucket

Of course, basic basketball knowledge teaches that if you don't have any kind of inside presence, the opposition's defense is going to be able to come out and pressure shooters without having to worry about the repercussions.

That's why fielding a team of effective slashers and post players is just as important as having a few three-point specialists.

This season's Spurs took the eighth-most attempts directly at the rim along with the seventh-most three-pointers.

That is pretty much the definition of offensive balance.

5. Make Free Throws

It seems like we're just running down a list of the basketball basics here, but that's all it takes to field a successful team.

Get a little bit of luck in the draft, create a positive environment in the locker room and make sure your top-ranking guys buy into the system and your team can be successful.

Obviously the most important thing to any offense is making the shots when nobody's guarding you and the clock isn't moving.

Knock down free throws and you've already got a leg up on the competition.

4. Get Back on Defense

As far as actually playing basketball goes, the one defensive principle that has survived through the years is getting players to run.

They're not out there sprinting without purpose, they're all generally out there sprinting to get back on defense and contest a shot, even if it is basically a given that the fast break of the other team is going to succeed.

It seems like something Jeff Van Gundy mentioned a thousand times in San Antonio's four-game sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Duncan, the oldest man on the court, was constantly getting back on defense or getting out ahead of Memphis' transition defense throughout the entire series.

When you see that kind of dedication to pushing for quality defense from the oldest guy on the team, the rest of the guys are going to buy in that it's important.

3. Rotate or Face the Consequences

After getting back on defense, the next step is to get into position, whether that means filling your role in a zone or tracking down your man and sticking to him like glue.

Once that happens, players have to be aware of where the ball is, where screens are being set and what kind of play is developing in front of them.

With a basic knowledge of what types of options can grow out of a pick-and-roll (which is what nearly every team's offense in the world is based around at this point), any player can be an effective defender.

Just look at Carlos Boozer. He's completely helpless when it comes to guarding a guy one-on-one, but he's useful enough to know where to stand in a Tom Thibodeau defense.

Rotating around to cover the guy who has found his way away from his defender is the first step in frustrating the opposition.

It seems like the first reason any player on the Spurs gets chewed out after a benching is because of a failed rotation on defense.

2. Physical, Yet Smart Defense

San Antonio's reputation on offense has grown so much that they seem to be looked at as a well-run offense first and a consistent defense second.

However, while running an up-tempo game, they gave up just 96.6 points per game this season and clocked in with the third-ranked defense in the NBA, right behind the Indiana Pacers and the Memphis Grizzlies.

We've gone through the basic approach of getting back and rotating when a teammate has been swallowed up in a screen, but we haven't covered how they actually play in a one-on-one situation.

San Antonio's opponents shot just 44.2 percent from the field this season, good enough for eighth-best in the league, but they gave up the fourth-fewest free throws per game.

The teams ahead of them in opponents' free throws per game ranked 13th, 14th and 23rd in opponents' field-goal percentage.

San Antonio's physicality is smart, not reckless, and they're able to defend with a sense of awareness, leading to few freebies given away in each game.

1. Know Your Role and Fill It

It's the one rule that remains most important to the best coaches NBA history.

Phil Jackson built an entire career around making sure each player he coached fit well into his scheme, and they knew that filling that role was their first job.

That's the way Popovich presides over the Spurs.

Every single game they play is like a replay of the last, at least in terms of who is doing what, how many minutes players get and the seemingly methodical perfection with which they play basketball.

When a role changes, the player in question will slip quietly into the new role, no questions asked.

It's why Manu Ginobili has been so comfortable flitting back and forth between the starting lineup and coming off the bench for his entire career.

Each player seems to realize that there are specific jobs to be done in order for a basketball team to be successful, and they all buy into Pop's message.