Johnny Ludden at Yahoo sports has a nice piece with Gregg Popovich talking about the Spurs’ upgrades this summer. “Pop” talks about knowing that to stay competitive, the Spurs needed to add to their mix. And they knew, too, it was going to be expensive:

The Spurs will pay for that right. For years, the franchise had remained, in Popovich’s words, “frugal.” In those rare seasons when the Spurs crossed the luxury-tax threshold, they did so only modestly. This season, their $80 million payroll could rank among the five highest in the NBA. If it isn’t reduced by season’s end, they will pay close to another $10 million in tax – a stunning jump for one of the league’s smallest markets.

“We’ve always wanted to compete, and the environment in the NBA allowed a team like us to do so,” Popovich said. “If you wanted to work at having a shot at winning the championship and still be under the tax, it could be done.

“But the way the talent has shifted in the league, it’s almost impossible to do that now.”

Indeed, the gap between the haves and have-nots is expanding rapidly in the NBA. A league that has always prided itself on a salary-cap system that allowed all teams at least a chance to compete, is falling prey to the economy — where a great many of the small-market teams, or the teams with owners in failing outside businesses, are big sellers rather than buyers.

And the day is coming soon when Portland’s going to be facing big luxury-tax decisions, too. In the past, it hasn’t bothered Paul Allen one bit. It will be interesting to see, moving forward, if any of that has changed.

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