The 2014 NBA Season Predictions are coming out and it is an easy assumption that the defending champions San Antonio Spurs would sit at the top of the predictions ladder. Considering that they kept their team intact amidst a league of turmoil, they still look very good.

According to a ranking system by ESPN, they will continue to look very good all the way to the next three years. The "Future Power Rankings" is a periodic assessment of the teams (and the organizations behind them) which considers all factors. A brief explanation can be found below:

"Each of the NBA's 30 teams received an overall Future Power Rating of 0 to 100, based on how well we expect each team to perform in the next three seasons.

As you can see, we determined that the most important category is a team's current roster and the future potential of those players -- that category accounts for 50 percent of each team's overall Future Power Rating.

At the same time, we looked at many other factors, such as management, ownership, coaching, a team's spending habits, its cap situation, the reputation of the city and the franchise and what kind of draft picks we expect the team to have in the future."

It is not necessarily a championship prediction or even a power ranking for the next year-the time period is three years so even if a team looks good next year they could get lower points if the contracts are expiring or there's an impending blowup.

Some would argue that San Antonio will face uncertainty because of the possible retirements of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. That's a valid argument, but there are still no clear indications that they would retire and until then, ESPN assumes they will keep playing.

Another factor for their success is that the Spurs management had a perfect score. From roster acquisitions all the way down to coach Gregg Popovich masterful pacing of his players, Spurs have done everything right. They have locked up young players like Kawhi Leonard, Patty Mills, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green to take the cudgels when the legendary Timmy and Manu eventually hang up their sneakers. Now that's great management!

Just a testament to their standard of excellence-we are now talking about Tim Duncan's retirement after 17 seasons since 1997. During that time, Timmy and the Spurs NEVER missed the playoffs! That's not an accident, and it also looks like they will be fixtures in the postseason in the foreseeable future.