Bring Duncan off the Bench for a while?

[FalleNxWiZarDx]

I'd say, for the first half of the season you guys should bring Duncan off the bench along with either TP or MANU....

just so that he can be real rested for the playoffs, and besides... I think Blair and Splitter should be fine inside

[8FOR!3]

I agree, our team should be played as...

C Antonio McDyess
PF Matt Bonner
SF Alonzo Gee
SG Gary Neal
PG George Hill
6 Manu Ginobili
7 Tony Parker
8 Tim Duncan
9 Richard Jefferson
10 Tiago Splitter
11 James Anderson
12 DeJuan Blair

Give our starters rest...:toast

No. :lol

[Dex]

Have you ever heard the phrase "it's easier to prevent a flood than to stop it once the rain starts falling?"

If you have two of our best players coming off the bench, they'd be coming into losing games and would have an uphill battle, draining just as much if not more energy to draw even. And we'd probably drop more games.

[ChuckD]

They'll rest Tim by sitting him for entire games, not by totally screwing up our rotation.

[Venti Quattro]

lol go if you want to get dominated every game

[Blackjack]

Toronto.

[alchemist]

:lol

[Fabbs]

Lots of things could have been done by a competent coach/FO to extend Duncans play and # of championships. I'm not agreeing the off the bench thing would work at this point in time but here is a nice article showing what a real coach, Pat Riles would do.

Jeff McDonald: Duncan as Kareem?
MIAMI -- Pat Riley has coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pat Riley has also coached Shaquille O'Neal. Good news for Spurs fans: Pat Riley says Tim Duncan reminds him of the former, and not the latter.

"Duncan reminds me a lot of Kareem," Riley, the Miami Heat coach, said after this morning's shootaround. "Kareem wasn't a physical center, he was a finesse center. And he played until he was 41 years old."

More than that, Jabbar remained one of the league's most dominant players well into his late 30s. In 1986, at age 38, Jabbar averaged 23.4 points per game.

Riley's point: Big men like Duncan and Jabbar, who rely more on their mind and their touch than sheer physical strength and skill, tend to have a longer shelf life in the NBA.

Meanwhile, players whose main strength is their strength -- like O'Neal -- often begin to show their age much sooner. O'Neal's body has begun to betray him the past couple seasons. At age 34, he is obviously on the downslope of his Hall-of-Fame career. This preseason, O'Neal has been plagued with a strained calf muscle. (He's expected to play in tonight's game after sitting out the previous two).

But back to Kareem ...

"I didn't start coaching Kareem until he was 32 years old," Riley said. "And he played nine more years after that. And he won four more championships after that."

[The Truth #6]

That quote by Riley is old and basically inapplicable. Duncan is worn down with knee problems. He'll be good in the first half of the season but the grind of the season has shown to wear him down. Sitting him out on back to backs may finally have to happen. However to stay in the hunt Pop has never been able to do it yet.

[Hooks]

That quote by Riley is old and basically inapplicable. Duncan is worn down with knee problems. He'll be good in the first half of the season but the grind of the season has shown to wear him down. Sitting him out on back to backs may finally have to happen. However to stay in the hunt Pop has never been able to do it yet.


Duncan had to give it his all for most of last season, Manu, Parker, Dice, just about everybody except for Duncan wasn't playing well. He was clearly the best PF in the NBA. Although they limited his minutes last year he didn't get to take it easy on the court, he was sort of carrying the team.

I doubt that will happen this year, with Splitter on the roster he won't have to play as hard. Manu playing well will also be easier on him, a lot of people forgot how bad he was playing the first half of the season.

[Fabbs]

^^I'm sure Pat Riley would have/still would surround Duncan with a frontline of Michael Finley and Matt Bonner. :lol

Yeah it's probably too far gone now but lets see if they can do it one more time.
As to sitting him for the 1st half, sounds like you agree?

[Sigz]

just bench him until the playoffs.

[ducks]

that worked so well for duncan when they did that NOT

[rmt]

I wish Duncan could start playing after the ASB, but the Spurs probably wouldn't make the playoffs doing that :lol

Barring that, if he didn't play any back-to-back or any 3 in 5 days or 4 in 7 days, maybe his knees will last for the playoffs.

[Sean Cagney]

LMFAO Yeah............

[jason1301]

No TD is NOT going to start the game sitting on the bench! Pop tried that sh1t already, we ll see him skipping the back2backs.

[Giuseppe]

I'd say, for the first half of the season you guys should bring Duncan off the bench along with either TP or MANU....

just so that he can be real rested for the playoffs, and besides... I think Blair and Splitter should be fine inside

You can't do that. He'd lose his self respect and the respect of the referees, their allegiance & protocol.

You have to go on to the end with him now.

[Leonard Curse]

were going to ride out with our true savior old faithful duncan and if we fail who gives a shit we did it with duncan as our leader he was born a leader and thats the way hes going to ride out tiago will help big time hes durable and does alot of that dirty work that is tough on timmys body so i think this year is going to be great

[Dex]

were going to ride out with our true savior old faithful duncan and if we fail who gives a shit we did it with duncan as our leader he was born a leader and thats the way hes going to ride out tiago will help big time hes durable and does alot of that dirty work that is tough on timmys body so i think this year is going to be great

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation