Gregg Popovich envisions Kawhi Leonard as the future cornerstone of the Spurs.

“I think he’s going to be a star. And as time goes on, he’ll be the face of the Spurs I think. At both ends of the court, he is really a special player,” said Popovich, who has been San Antonio's coach since 1996. “And what makes me be so confident about him is that he wants it so badly. He wants to be a good player, I mean a great player. He comes early, he stays late, and he’s coachable, he’s just like a sponge. When you consider he’s only had one year of college and no training camp yet, you can see that he’s going to be something else.”

The Spurs are set to return their entire roster, plus Nando de Colo, who the team selected with the 53rd pick of the 2009 draft.

“Well we thought we were very fortunate and we were very happy that we were able to sign our guys, that we could bring Boris (Diaw) back and Danny (Green) back,” Popovich said. “And they’re going to be even better for us this year, so that’s what we look for in improvement, for them to understand the system more, for Kawhi Leonard to be here in training camp, and so in a sense those three guys are like new players for us. We regard them almost like free agents, and we look forward to them rounding out the group that’s been here.”