This. Add in the fact that RJ was such a slug out on the court and is only going to get worse as he ages...I agree with the OP however Duncan unfortunately hurt his ankle towards the end of the regular season and tweaked it again midway in the first round. Dealing with both an injury and an undersized roster made him look worse than he was....but then again part of being old is that it gets harder to finish a season healthy
However Duncan set the tone early in the series with 10 blocks in the first 3 games. He was also grabbing 11+ boards per game and was shooting over 50%. Duncan was also throwing down flashback dunks that we haven't seen from him all season before he re-injured his ankle.
But after he tweaked his ankle he didn't seem as active. Also he was defending Marc Gasol who is not only nearly a decade younger but also weighs at least 20 pounds more while possessing a wide variety of skills of his own. Duncan also had to help out a lot and since no one else has the size to defend Gasol it opened up the court for the Grizz.
With Dice retiring next season and the Spurs lack of size and athleticism on display in the first round, hopefully Duncan and Splitter will form their own twin towers. But that means the Spurs need to find a better answer for the back-ups than Blair and Bonner. An athletic shotblocker would be nice.
It also doesn't help that the Spurs have a lot of undersized players even outside of their frontcourt especially compared to the Grizzlies and OKC. Spurs never had a real back-up SF, didn't have an athletic shotblocking big, etc.
How specific need I be.
I'm talking done in terms of franchise player, all-star player, difference maker.
Maybe he can start for alot of teams but some here think he's still All-NBA. R
Throw all that PER mumbo jumbo if you want, but what did that mean last month? A 6 game series loss to a last seeded team.
25 year old Tim Duncan is not walking through that door guys.
I will take 29 year old TIM to be honest since that one is not walking through that door
Ship him out, he's done!
I fixed the video in my original post. Please go back and look at it, then tell me if those moves could be pulled off by an NBA player who is "done." , his ankle wasn't even 100% in game 1 when he pulled off half of those moves.
He didn't get the ball enough, plain and simple. Whenever he did, our spacing was so atrocious (since our guys weren't used to Tim isoing) that he rarely had enough room to work. You'd frequently see Dice cutting to the paint during Tim's wing isos and just staying there.
OBVIOUSLY Tim is not 25 anymore, but he's still damn good. This team needs better luck with injuries and competent frontcourt players. No need to freak out and proclaim Tim and the team as done.
The Spurs just ran into a wall called the Grizzlies. You see how tough they are playing the Thunder as well. The Spurs' up tempo offense wasn't a match for the Grizzlies 2nd and 3rd shot opportunities on every trip. Still, we were close in most games.
With the power shift to the East (it seems), the Spurs need much more than different schemes. They obviously need a 1st overall pick a few times to compete again at that level because no game changers who are still young enough to do that are going to come to SA.
Dude is tired.
I think it was pretty obvious TIM lost his confidence, which with him means he is banged up imo. And with him being 35 even the little injuries slow him down. His lack of confidence at the line doesn't help either, don't really see the pump fakes or up and unders anymore. A low post scorer is needed badddddd....
Timmy's ankle wasn't 100%. He had like 5 dunks in Game 1 and disappeared afterwards. Dude can't take on Randolph/Gasol by himself. Blame Pop for not giving Splitter more minutes in the regular season and using Blair/Bonner super tandem.
The Spurs should have got him some help. Playing with like Bonner, NO defense Blair and an old Dice is not really a dream. Those guys can't play against Z-Bo & Marc. Even Arthur was way too much for them. And we all know Pop is an idiot for not playing Splitter in the season.
I'll just say it again. The Spurs will never win a championship if Matt Bonner will play 20+ minutes, even 10+ minutes is too much for that piece of , and if Blair will be our starting center. Oh and that got is also on this team.
Tim gets a pass forever no matter what he does or doesn't do.
I didn't realize how much he dunked in the playoffs.
Apparently you're not alone. Again, when a guy doesn't get the ball, he can't score. It's that simple.
If it weren't for how terrible Pop made his rotations, this thread wouldn't even exist at this point.
Failure to integrate Splitter AND bolster the front-court with players above 6'11' were the downfall of the Spurs.
We literally had no inside game outside of Duncan (who is past his prime). Can you believe that ?
No team, absolutely, no team, will win like that.
Ifs & buts....
Now there's a smart guy.
I don't know if Tim in his prime could have done much with the likes of Blair, Bonner & Dice. Tim might be approaching his expiration date, but folks like to forget how terrible these players are. When a throughly broken-down Dice is your second big man, you ain't getting out of the first round, end of story.
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