Duncan needs rest desperately, seeding be damned

[hitmantb]

He was limping near the end of the game and IMO, very close to the wheels falling off tipping point.

The two back-to-back triple OT's did huge damage to his longer term health for this season. Not sure if he can recover anytime soon.

To many back to the basket plays this season, on top of playing without Splitter which puts a lot more wear and tear on him.

Play Splitter/Diaw/Baynes, a fully healthy Spurs team at 8th seed is much better than a Duncan-less Spurs team with 1st seed!

Last season, Pop gives up games much earlier, rarely put a ton of minutes on GDP even if there is still a 10% chance to win. This season, yes injury is one thing, but I don't feel Pop is forfeiting enough games. The OT losses are far far far more damaging than 20 point losses.

[Malik Hairston]

I agree to an extent, he's having to carry way too much of the load this year, tbh..

Tough to avoid, though, with Leonard/Splitter injuries and Diaw/Parker playing poorly..

[Beaverfuzz]

Duncan is fine. He has been given quite a bit of rest already. Missed Diaw's presence in the middle today and this team really needs to pick up the defense as it's been atrocious the last three weeks.

[Juggity]

Unfortunately as a 7th seed the spurs do not have the luxury of forfeiting games this year.

[Sean Cagney]

Unfortunately as a 7th seed the spurs do not have the luxury of forfeiting games this year.

^^^^^^^^ This, they are already behind.

[Darius Bieber]

Unfortunately as a 7th seed the spurs do not have the luxury of forfeiting games this year.

Truth Nuke in this thread right here, especially with OKC catching up.

[Johnny RIngo]

Duncan is fine. He has been given quite a bit of rest already. Missed Diaw's presence in the middle today and this team really needs to pick up the defense as it's been atrocious the last three weeks.

He does need rest. He's playing 32.2 mpg this year(up from 29.2 mpg last year). Manu also has been playing more than usual - 25.5 mpg(up from 22.8 mpg last year). These two have been shouldering too much of the load lately due to all the injuries to key players(Leonard, Splitter, Mills). Everyone thought Parker was going to improve from his dismal showing last year after a summer of rest but TP continues to disappoint. He's actually playing even worse this year. Back to relying on the big two like he has for most of his career.

[PingPong]

Adams made Tim look really old and tired. But not all teams have the tandem Gasol-Randolph, Ibaka-Adams.

[intlspurshk]

This is all because of the front office and owners are so mean to not acquire a decent PF. They never spend the MLE and just sign 2 million worth players. You can't get a decent PF at this price. Just trade for Brandan Wright or B Bass which are available and take off Tim's workload

[Chomag]

Pop should not have rested players so early in the season. Now they are going to most likely have to go all out the second half of it. I would much rather of haf players taking days off in the second part of the season so they could have fresh legs going into the playoffs.

[BillMc]

I wonder if TIm plays tonight?

[ElNono]

I wonder if TIm plays tonight?

[Agloco]

He has to. Can't afford to be uncompetitive anymore. Winning against OKC might have provided some leeway.

[Capt Bringdown]

Pop should not have rested players so early in the season. Now they are going to most likely have to go all out the second half of it. I would much rather of haf players taking days off in the second part of the season so they could have fresh legs going into the playoffs.

Bingo. Pop's miscalculations and hubris coming off a title run - we've seen it before. Too cute for his own good sometimes.

[Johnny RIngo]

This is all because of the front office and owners are so mean to not acquire a decent PF. They never spend the MLE and just sign 2 million worth players. You can't get a decent PF at this price. Just trade for Brandan Wright or B Bass which are available and take off Tim's workload

Mean is the wrong word to describe the Spurs owner and front office. Cheap is the correct term. The team had glaring holes going into this season(backup guard, backup wing, another big) and they decided not to use the MLE and instead keep D-Leaguers like Daye/Ayres on the payroll. They brought back Bonner too because he was the cheapest option. Belinelli choked HARD in the playoffs but they decided not to upgrade him hoping he'd improve with another year in the system - he only got worse and came into camp overweight. The Leonard injury hurts the most because now you have to replace his minutes with a cancerous player like Marco. Would have been nice to have another decent wing player besides Danny and Manu to throw into the rotation.

[apalisoc_9]

I'd be surprised if tim plays tonight. They probably rested Diaw so they can run the offense through him.

[ThaBigFundamental21]

Duncan is fine. He and Pop are more than qualified when it comes to managing his minutes. You guys make Tim out to be some broken down, decrepit old man. Stop trying to coddle him, he is an athlete. He will be fine.

[SnakeBoy]

He's fine. A month of rest will only make him a month older.

[kobyz]

In those games like today whan we don't have 2 of our big 4 Pop should also rest Duncan instead wasting him and killing him with minutes cause it probably a loss anyway...

[mkurts]

Can't do it with craptacular Parker Ginobili tandem

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

You definitely rest him. He's no good for us if he's out. Tiago needs to start working his way back to starter minutes.

[Chomag]

Team should maybe start looking into possible trade or else they are going to run TD into the ground bye end season.

[TheGreatYacht]

TD and Kawhi are the anchors on defense. When Kawhi doesn't play, the team defense is almost at 50% capacity. Spurs are still a good defensive team, it's scary how good the team is with Kawhi on the floor but if Kawhi is not going to play then Pop might as well rest TD against good teams like the Rockets. There's no point in overplaying TD in OT games.

[kuato]

Just let Manu with the "B" team and rest TD, but use Manu as a creator for others, not the main scorer.