Don't be surprised if it happens.

The common denominator in the rise and fall and (expected) rise is center David Robinson. He rescued the franchise at the end of the '80s, watched it crumble last season while he sat out 76 games with back and foot injuries and now plans to take San Antonio back to the Western Conference finals, which it visited as recently as 1995.

There are several reasons why that's a distinct possibility. In addition to having Robinson back, the Spurs welcome 6'10" Tim Duncan, the top pick in the 1997 draft. Together, Robinson and Duncan give San Antonio a Twin Towers alignment that surpasses Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon-Ralph Sampson tandem of the mid-'80s.

Duncan has all the skills to make a smooth transition to power forward. Though he was a classic low-post, shot-blocking, glass-eating center in college, he proved he could play facing the basket, put the ball on the floor and score in a variety of ways. In the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league in Salt Lake City, he showed what his admirers at Wake Forest already knew: He's a team player who looks for the open man.

"Tim handles the ball better than I do," says Robinson. "He passes better than I do. He shoots better than I do." The trade of Dennis Rodman in October 1995 had left a huge void in San Antonio at power forward. That void is now filled.

As good as Duncan will be, he'll have a hard time equaling Robinson, whose athleticism in the pivot may be unmatched in the history of the sport. Without the Admiral last year, the Spurs were simply horrible, and there's some concern in San Antonio about Robinson's ability to return to form after missing most of last season. He hasn't been tested in game competition since late last December, but a month before camp opened, he said, "Right now, I feel incredible."

That's good news for the rest of the Spurs, who live off Robinson's presence in the middle. Without him, small forward Sean Elliott was asked to do a lot more offensively, but nagged by tendinitis in his right quadriceps, he saw his scoring average drop by five points per game. He had surgery last February and missed the final 38 games of the season. With Robinson and Duncan working the high and low posts, a healthy Elliott will draw less attention—and get a lot more open shots.

No one relies on Robinson's high screens more than shooting guard Vinny Del Negro, who rolls off them to fire his accurate midrange jumper. With Robinson out, Del Negro's field goal percentage dropped from his .497 of the previous season to .467. And when he got beat defensively, there was no Robinson waiting in the lane to help. Del Negro hardly fits the mold of the classic 2-guard on a championship-caliber team, but you could do worse. If he falters, especially at the defensive end, forward Monty Williams will get minutes at guard.

Point guard Avery Johnson also missed Robinson terribly as he darted through the lane looking for someone to pass to. This year, with both Robinson and Duncan around, Johnson might be among the league's leaders in assists.

The recovery of the Spurs won't be complete, though, without a complete recovery by forward Chuck Person; the Rifleman missed the entire '96-97 season with a herniated disk that forced him under the knife last October. Person is one of the few NBA players with the range to hit from this season's deeper three-point line, but there's no guarantee he'll be healed enough to be effective.

Though the epidemic of injuries played a big role in the Spurs' collapse last season, general manager Gregg Popovich fired coach Bob Hill after only 18 games and took over the coaching job himself. It wasn't a popular move with the fans, and the pressure is on Popovich to win big this season. "It would be great to compete for the title," Popovich says. Thanks to Robinson's doctors and the drafting of Duncan, the Spurs will do no less.

—Tim Kurkjian