Tim Duncan has had an incredible career filled with winning that dates back to the David Robinson era. As Robinson grew older he was paired with Duncan to make a twin towers that dominated the court.

Now the time for Tim Duncan is growing short and he knows it. San Antonio’s management also knows it, so they took a desperate gamble.

The original thinking was to find a Super Star player in the up and coming free agency of 2010. Every team in the league wants to be involved in the 2010 free agent battle. LeBron James, Chris Bosh, maybe Dwyane Wade, and others will be available as free agents. San Antonio started to clear salary cap to prepare, but then realized that it may not do any good if Tim Duncan is no longer around.

Tim Duncan needs to win now!

Last year Dallas bounced Duncan and the Spurs out of the playoffs in 5 games in the very first series. That just does not happen to Duncan. The Spurs realized that and immediately decided to sign players right now. They signed Jefferson from the Bucks and free agent Antonio McDyess from the Pistons, and tried to sign Rasheed Wallace from the Pistons. The clock was ticking on the knees of Duncan.

So they elected not to wait. A few days before scoring DeJuan Blair with the 37th overall pick in what immediately was trumpeted as the steal of the draft, San Antonio traded three expiring contracts to Milwaukee — Fabricio Oberto, Kurt Thomas and defensive mainstay Bruce Bowen — for the right to inherit the final two years and nearly $30 million left on Richard Jefferson’s contract. The Spurs then extended two guaranteed years at $9.4 million and a partially guaranteed third year to free-agent forward Antonio McDyess, who just turned 35.

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They are well over the luxury tax threshold now and no longer involved in the chase for Chris Bosh, but that does not matter, because the Spurs feel they can win right now!
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The center position in basketball just ain’t what it used to be. It used to be you started with a center and then you found a point guard to lead the way. You had to have that big guy in the middle or you were toast. That was then and this is now. Now a day, there are some up tempo teams that would rather not play a true center. They would rather have a fast mobile power forward. Phoenix with Amare Stoudemire comes to mind.

Still for your intrepid author it is great to see the big guys play whether it is the Shaq, Ewing, Wilt, Russell, Kareem, or even big bad Dwight Superman Howard. They just bring a different element to the game.

The Ball Don’t Lie has his version of the top 10 centers of the last decade, so let us take a look.

10. Alonzo Mourning – Alonzo once beat my Pistons all by himself. He was just so much bigger and stronger than anyone on the court or in the stands that he could not be stopped and prevented anybody from entering the lane.

9. David Robinson – The Admiral came to Michigan State University when he played for Navy in college. You could see then that he was just too tall and too smooth to be stopped.

8. Yao Ming – the man that reminds us there are tall Chinese people in the world may soon exit from the basketball stage if his ankles and feet don’t hold up. When he is healthy there are few better than him in today’s game.

7. Amare Stoudemire – there is that power forward again. Amare just oozes with talent and you wonder what would happen if he played next to a dominant center.

6. Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Not really an Ilgauskas fan myself, but when he is in the game it is always a tough matchup.

5. Jermaine O’Neal – Another one of those power forward types playing center. My lasting memory of Jermaine is the fact that Rasheed Wallace played with him in Portland before he went to Indiana. Jermaine was just a kid back then. When Indiana played against the Pistons in the playoffs, Rasheed was able to shut Jermaine down game after game. For that matter why isn’t Rasheed Wallace on this list? Geez, “The ball don’t lie” was one of his favorite sayings. You can argue he was a power forward, but he played center after Ben left all the time.

LeBron wonders why Rasheed Wallace is not on the list?

4. Ben Wallace – The other Wallace combined with Rasheed to shut down every player on the planet and get a NBA title for the Pistons. How did Ben do it? He was only 6′ 8″ tall, but when he went up for a board with all those muscles and the wild Fro, it just looked like he was 7 foot tall. Fear the Fro!

3. Dwight Howard – Truly Superman, Dwight Howard just grows better as a player each year. He was scoring in his first two season without really even having any moves!

2. Shaquille O’Neal – Shaq is truly bigger than life whether he is rapping, acting, or playing center. Shazam! Shaq has won titles in L.A. with Kobe and in Miami with Wade. He is often doing more talking than playing, but for years the NBA rules allowed Shaq to use his rather large rear end to back into the paint and jam the ball down. Unstoppable!

1. Tim Duncan – Mr. Fundamental.

Duncan won’t blow you away. Shaq seems scarier, and the “power forward” designation might throw you, but don’t get shook.

Tim guards the low post (guards everything, really), and works from the low post while his “center” teammate (David Robinson, Nazr Mohammad, Fabricio Oberto(notes), Matt Bonner(notes)) works anywhere from the high post (D-Rob, Nazr), the baseline (Fab), or the 3-point line (Red Rocket).

In the meantime, Duncan has destroyed teams defensively, drawn trillions of double teams, scored efficiently and generally acted as what we’d hoped Bill Walton would have turned into.

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That is why San Antonio is in the thick of things every year.

Now here is my question. Where is Kevin Garnett?
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Tim Duncan will once again have a team to write home about. There was serious talk that the Spurs had just grown too old and too complacent to be kings of the hill any more. Were they facing the same fate as the Pistons and heading into a slow destruction while still winning quite a few games, but not enough games?

It made for a very important off season for the San Antonio Spurs and future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan.

Tim Duncan is ready to challenge for the NBA title!

So how did the Spurs do? It appears a major upgrade took place and the Spurs can’t wait to start the season. Richard Jefferson, once one of the big three in New Jersey with Kidd and Carter, was added to the team along with veteran Antonio McDyess, a stand up guy and a stand out 15 foot jump shooter.

If it was only those two players you would have to be happy, but the Spurs appear to have some up and coming young talent including second round pick, the supposedly undersized DeJuan Blair.

Former University of Pittsburgh star DeJuan Blair, once considered a lottery pick, slipped all the way to 37th overall, where the Spurs gobbled him up like Homer Simpson would a doughnut. After a standout college career, Blair entered the 2009 draft following his sophomore season. In his second season at Pitt, Blair, who averaged 15.7 points and 12.3 rebounds (a whopping 5.6 of which were offensive) per game, led the Panthers to the team’s first ever No. 1 national ranking before falling to Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
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Spurs fans everywhere have to be excited about this team!

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Look out Lakers.
Look out Celtics.
Look out Cavaliers.
Can we say Look out Nuggets? We are saying it. Look out Nuggets.
The Spurs are coming back with a vengeance.

First they picked up Richard Jefferson. They gave up Bruce Bowen, among others, but may get him back.
Jefferson will give them more scoring from the forward position.

Tim Duncan will be back with new friends

Now there are rumors of talks with Rasheed Wallace to increase the front line size and Rasheed still has plenty of game left.

The draft may present them with the possibility of getting Taj Gibson, the super junior big man from USC. Even with USC’s tall guards, the offense and defense still ran through Taj Gibson.

This could give the Spurs another NBA title.

If Wallace were to sign with the Spurs, San Antonio would have one of the best starting fives in the NBA with Duncan, Jefferson, Ginobili and Parker, catapulting the team into the upper-echelon of the league.
Should Wallace sign elsewhere or decide to walk away from the game altogether there are a few available options on the free agent market that could benefit the Spurs on the cheap… at least, compared to the money Wallace is expecting.

Former Denver Nugget Chris Andersen averaged over six rebounds and 2.4 blocks (second in the NBA to Dwight Howard) despite playing just 20 minutes per game could be available for a relative bargain and 13-year veteran Antonio McDyess, who is chasing an NBA title, is a possibility as well.

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Manu Ginobili is out. There is nothing the Spurs can do about that and it is a hard loss to take. Manu is often the X-factor that spells doom for the other teams. If they bully Parker and double Duncan then Manu kills them with his outside game or slashes to the basket for repeated layups.

Now the Spurs have faced injured players before and if that was all there was then they would not be so worried. Sure the Lakers are the odds on favorites to win the West, but the Spurs have triumphed before when the odds were not in their favor.

The real worry for the Spurs is age. Tim Duncan only has so many big games left in him. He already complains about knee problems and gets rested during back to backs.

When will Tim Duncan just walk away from the NBA?

Hey, you can shrug it off if you want, but we saw age finally conquer the Shaq and recently the Pistons.

But deep down, the Spurs know something else: At some point, there won’t be a next season. Not for Tim Duncan. If the past few months have proven anything, it’s that the clock has finally begun to tick for the Spurs and their greatest player.

For all the concern about Ginobili’s ankles, the Spurs’ success in these playoffs was always hinged to Duncan’s health. For weeks, Duncan has told friends how much his knees have bothered him, and that’s telling for one reason: He never complains about his injuries. The Spurs gave Duncan three games off to rest at the end of February, but he has continued to labor.

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Manu Ginobili is looking for the ball

Manu Ginobili has returned to the San Antonio Spurs.

Ginobili, who missed San Antonio’s first 12 games, scored 12 points to help the Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies 94-81 on Monday night.

“I felt pretty good about it,” said Ginobili, who played 11 minutes in his first outing. “I didn’t rush it a lot. I took my time, found the open seam, made a couple of shots. I wasn’t thinking about a great game on my first one, so I’m happy with what I did.”

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San Antonio has seemingly just been plodding along at 6 – 6, but things will change now that Manu is back. His ability to penetrate and also make big shots takes a lot of pressure off of Tim Duncan. With Manu and Tony in the game, you cannot get away with a double on Duncan.

So, what did Tim Duncan think?

“He gave us a boost when everything went dead,” Duncan said of Ginobili. “We gave him the ball a couple of times in a row, and he was able to get to the free throw line.

“He really picked us up in a time that we were struggling.”

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Tony Parker is unstoppable

With no Manu and the San Antonio Spurs slumping, somebody had to do something. Well, Tony Parker did more than just something. Tony did everything.

The San Antonio Spurs needed every last layup and feathery jumper from the fast-moving Frenchman, whose unstoppable performance was just enough to fuel their first win.

Parker scored a career-high 55 points, including a 20-footer at the buzzer to force a second overtime, in San Antonio’s 129-125 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.

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It was only the Timberwolves, but the Spurs needed this win!

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Dirk Nowitzki is listening for a Spurs rally, but did not hear anything

Dirk Nowitzki goes off for 30 and the Mavericks still look like a team to contend with in the West.

Can San Antonio win a game this year?

It remains to be seen. The new Dallas Mavericks with the same old players beat the Spurs 98 – 91.

They still have to play without the injured Manu Ginobili until December.

It is a rough start.

Odds remain high the Spurs aren’t going to finish the year 0-82. It only seemed that way during the lowest moments of Tuesday night’s 98-81 loss to the Dallas Mavericks at the AT&T Center, which dropped the Spurs to 0-3 for the first time in their NBA history.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 30 points, Jason Terry chipped in 29 and the Mavericks had their way with the Spurs for most of the game — in the paint, on the glass and from the perimeter.

The last time the Spurs began a season with three consecutive defeats, the year was 1973, they were playing in the ABA, and Duncan had yet to be born.

“It’s uncharted territory for us,” Duncan said, striking a serious note. “We’re 0-3. We’ve played some bad basketball so far. What can you say?”
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The Spurs have had slow starts before in the Duncan era and they do not panic.

“It’s the NBA,” Mason said afterward, “and it was one of those nights.”

The trouble for the Spurs is that they’ve had three of those nights, and here is where they are hoping history stops repeating itself.

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One of my favorite hoop sites is basketball reference.com

Today, why don’t we look at playoff games for a player’s career?

So who has the most NBA playoff games in their career that is still playing?

1. Robert Horry 244 – Somehow this guy gets himself on teams that win it all and he makes big shots.

2. Shaquille O’Neal 203 – The big guy was the dominant player in the game for most of his career.

3. Tim Duncan 155 – The big fundamental always seems to get the job done and creates a mismatch on the court.

4. Derek Fisher 154 – Just like Robert Horry, this guy finds a way to play for winning teams and makes big shots.

5. Kobe Bryant 152 – What Kobe did last year cemented his legacy as one of the best players in the game for all time.

6. Rasheed Wallace 149 – The mercurial center for the Pistons can be whatever he wants to be on a given night and he plays superb defense.

7. Lindsey Hunter 141 – Lindsey may be done, but Joe Dumars keeps talking him into one more year. The speedy backcourt player is one of the best one on one defenders of quick point guards.

8. Sam Cassell 136 – You could see age catching up to the quick shooting Sam Cassell as he played for the Celtics last year. Sam could always get his shot off in the playoffs, which is a special skill in itself.

9. Bruce Bowen 130 – a key member of Tim Duncan’s team, Bruce can stop any forward or big guard in the league.

10. Chauncey Billups and Tony Parker 117 – both excellent guards at the point position for their respective teams. Tony is more of a penetrator and Chauncey is known for his big shots.
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Tim Duncan at 32 is the baby in this group with Bruce Bowen, Brent Barry, and Kurt Thomas

Image details: San Antonio Spurs v Los Angeles Lakers, Game 5 served by picapp.com

Los Angeles Lakers stay young

The Lakers are a young team and their victory over the Spurs may cause some changes to the league.

San Antonio’s elimination might signal the end of its era of dominance. With Duncan leading the way, the Spurs won championships in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007, but with a rotation made up solely of 30-something players except for the 26-year-old Parker, the future seems uncertain.

Meanwhile, starting guard Derek Fisher and seldom-used reserve Ira Newble are the only players on the Los Angeles roster over 30.

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Something happens to the body as it moves into its thirties. You don’t jump as quick or push as hard. The mind is still there, but the body begins to back off. Bruises hang around longer and injuries appear more often. It signals the beginning of the end.

The group of 30-something Spurs could not keep up with the in-their-20s Los Angeles Lakers.

After another fast start at Staples Center, San Antonio seemed to tire, again blowing a substantial lead and falling 100-92 on Thursday night as the Lakers won Game 5 to advance to the NBA Finals.

San Antonio took a 17-point lead in the second quarter, but the Lakers caught up in the third and put the game away late in the fourth.

In the Western Conference finals opener, San Antonio was up by 20 in the third quarter on the Lakers’ court before the Spurs began to struggle and Los Angeles stormed back to win 89-85.

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Age takes its toll. It does not mean the same Spurs team cannot come back next year and win a title, but it may be time to rebuild parts of the team.

Tony Parker, at 26 the lone member of the Spurs’ regular rotation under 30, and 32-year-old Tim Duncan did their part in Game 5, with Parker scoring 23 points and Duncan getting 19 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists.

But down the stretch, the Lakers again outplayed them and teammates Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry, each 36; Michael Finely, 35; and Manu Ginobili, 30.

Popovich didn’t use Robert Horry, who is almost 38, going instead with Kurt Thomas, who is 35. Thomas had 11 points in his 20:38 on the court.

Kobe Bryant, 29 and the Lakers’ oldest regular except for 33-year-old backcourt mate Derek Fisher, led Los Angeles with 39 points. Pau Gasol, 27, had 19 rebounds and 12 points, while Lamar Odom, 28, chipped in with 13 points and eight rebounds.

Although they’ve been the league’s best team in recent years, the Spurs still haven’t been able to repeat as champions.

One should keep in mind though that the Kobe came to the NBA from High School, so his body has taken an extra toll.

But none of that matters to the Lakers right now. They are going to the NBA Championship series! That is all they can think about.

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