Splashy Offseason Will Test Spurs' Ability to Do What They Do Best...Win Quietly

Making splashy front-page headlines is not the way of the ninja.

So after all the under-the-radar work and one-step-ahead fighting stratagems successfully implemented by the San Antonio Spurs' uniquely anonymous superstars, planting a gigantic "Go Spurs Go" black flag as incontestable champions of NBA free agency is some new look for the team.

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It's not the Spurs' way to strut their stuff and preen long enough for opponents to draw targets on their backs. But signing LaMarcus Aldridge is a default attention-grabber, and the clear victories to secure Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, David West, as reported by NBA.com's David Aldridge, and Manu Ginobili, as he announced on Twitter, alongside the now-former Blazers big man make it impossible to forget between now and October the draw of the Alamo this summer.

This is a new side of the Spurs, venturing out to hire a new gun. This is not Michael Finley, a wealthy man freed via the amnesty provision and deciding to jump on the Spurs' bandwagon in 2005. This is a real big fish landing in San Antonio, with the front office manipulating the salary cap to fill its cart and West sacrificing more millions than anyone since Karl Malone outright gave his money to Gary Payton so they could both play with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in Lakerland.

With the added spice of some of those "Superteam" signs, the challenge that lies in front of the Spurs is to be sly in their superiority again.

At a time when the entire NBA has come to understand the added value in quick passing for three-point shooting, Gregg Popovich can go contrarian again with a stable of expert mid-range jump-shooters in Tony Parker, Aldridge, West and Leonard (one of the rare guys left in the league who can truly kill from mid-range in isolation).

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And with so many eyes on Aldridge, here will come Leonard, blowing through the back door in his preferred unheralded manner, his hype having died down roughly a year removed from winning NBA Finals MVP.

And if opponents grow to worry more about Leonard, Aldridge and Parker, here will come Tim Duncan to improve just when you didn't think it was fair to expect it again. The truth is that Duncan, 39, has remained productive despite his individual offense's erosion in recent seasons—his own mid-range game dying off and his inside finishes faltering—so there is room for a bounce-back.   

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The Spurs' genius has always been to beat you in ways both expected and unexpected, the bullfighting approach to basketball. That has to remain the case even with this influx of talent and an understandable belief that Aldridge is an automatic difference-maker.

Opponents are going to be more keyed up to play the Spurs than usual—even more than 2013-14, when they were the champs.

Free agency is the shopping season, and when you go and buy a lot of stuff, people reflexively see you as entitled. That is not San Antonio's usual place in this world, but everyone from the royal Lakers to the frail Blazers can rightly be jealous that the Spurs scored the most lavish item on the market.

The reality is that Aldridge was the No. 1 free agent willing to relocate, but he isn't a legit No. 1 player on a championship team.

Ginobili's humbling 35 percent shooting in losing to the Clippers in the first round was actually better than Aldridge's 33 percent in losing to the Grizzlies in the first round.

The year prior, before Damian Lillard's series-stealing buzzer-beater in Game 6 against Houston (on a play call with Aldridge as the first option but unable to shed Dwight Howard), Aldridge missed two critical free throws late in Game 4 and admitted to changing his mechanics on the second because he was so rattled from missing the first.

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Aldridge has never won a playoff series besides that one Lillard swiped in his very first postseason. Yes, Aldridge displayed grit playing through his thumb injury last season, but his preference not to play center shows his preference not to get tough. The medical analytics on him also aren't that encouraging as he turns 30 this July, with extremely heavy minutes the past seven years.

But Popovich's skillful touch in managing playing time is one of many reasons why it made sense for Aldridge to become a Spur. Another is Leonard's quiet, deferential personality, which could make him the ideal partner for Aldridge. Things got a bit squirmy in Portland over just how much more love Lillard attracted there.

For all the obvious attention the Spurs are getting now that they have Aldridge, the key question remains just how good Leonard, 24, will be.

Leonard's late-season surge gave rise to hope that the Spurs might finally pull off a championship repeat—except Leonard let down as the Spurs' series against the Clippers went toward the wire. He disappeared in the final three games.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press/Associated Press

That can't ever happen again, no matter who his teammates are.

Popovich has given Leonard that speech before and might have to again.

But the better those teammates are, the easier it is for Leonard to remain covert in his attack. And that's the Spurs way, after all.

They are the stealth bombers of basketball.

You can predict their success, but never exactly how they'll succeed.

Kevin Ding covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.