Tag: Tony Parker

Buford: Spurs not caught up in Parker’s pessimism

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was at the NBA’s pre-draft combine in Chicago on Thursday when he heard that point guard Tony Parker this week said the Spurs, as constituted, aren’t capable of contending for an NBA championship.

“Who knows what the motivation is to say something like that,” Buford said. “I’m not going to get caught up in comments. All I can say is that we’re going to continue to build our team and try to be as good as we can be in the future.”

At a press conference in Paris early this week Parker was asked about the Spurs and their disappointing finish to a 61-win season.

The French sports publication L’Equipe quoted Parker on his concern about the team’s ability to remain among the NBA’s legitimate title contenders.

“Our team can still perform at the highest level, but next year I don’t think we can play for the title,” he said. “We have to be realistic. It was kind of our last chance this season because (Tim) Duncan and (Manu) Ginobili are getting older.”

Parker also said he understands it will be difficult for the Spurs to improve through trades because of the nature of the team’s contracts.

“We don’t have many players that can be traded, and we’re going to have to be lucky during the draft,” he said. “But Pop (head coach and president of basketball Gregg Popovich) always makes the right choices.”

Parker acknowledged that, as a 29-year-old three-time All-Star with a hefty contract, he has more trade value than his teammates.

“If they have a player they can trade, it is clearly me,” he said, “but Pop told me I will not go anywhere, so we’ll see. Obviously, the NBA is a business. You have to be ready for everything.

“That being said, I don’t think they would have signed me for four more years to trade me, but you just never know.”

Buford understands that Parker’s comments are apt to spawn another round of trade speculation.

“I can’t control that,” he said, “and I’m not going to worry about it. We’re just going to move forward and work to improve the team.”

Last stand for Spurs’ Duncan?

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

Maybe it’s the creak in his knees, warning him that the end is near. Maybe it’s the cold hand of Father Time on his back, nudging him toward the door.

Maybe Tim Duncan believes what the rest of the NBA seems to, that the Spurs’ title window is closing, if it hasn’t been slammed shut and padlocked already. There is a prevailing notion the playoff run that begins today against Memphis might be the venerable Spurs captain’s last good chance to pursue a fifth championship ring.

And maybe it is.

“Until the next one,” Duncan said. “Every year, we’re given our last chance. We’ll take this one as it is.”

On the precipice of another playoff, with the Spurs owning a No. 1 seed so unexpected their head coach never saw it coming, Duncan doesn’t deny a heightened sense of urgency.

In NBA years, the two-time MVP is straddling a line between older and old. He will turn 35 before the end of the first round, with a contract that might be wiped out by the league’s looming labor impasse.

If retirement isn’t imminent, Duncan can see the Barcalounger from here.

“Every game, every playoff run, everything is special right now,” Duncan said. “I’m not taking anything for granted.”

If these playoffs represent Duncan’s final last chance, it is a good one.

For the first time since 2006, the Spurs enter as the Western Conference’s top seed, ahead of the two-time defending champion L.A. Lakers, by virtue of a 61-21 record that was the second-best of Duncan’s 14 seasons.

It is something few could have imagined a year ago, when the Spurs struggled to a seventh-place finish they did well to parlay into a second-round playoff exit.

“I don’t think there’s anybody, in or out of the league, that thought this team would be the first seed in the West,” coach Gregg Popovich said.

As they head into Game 1 against the eighth-seeded Grizzlies at the ATT Center, the Spurs’ prime motivation is simply to not muck up what they’ve already earned.

Already, they have been reminded how tenuous a successful playoff run can be, with guard Manu Ginobili listed as doubtful for Game 1 with a sprained right elbow.

“Our window is closing,” said Tony Parker, the 10th-year point guard and Duncan’s sidekick for three titles. “I really feel like it’s our last chance to really do something.”

Before the season, with so much in doubt and a seventh-place roster a year older, Popovich for the first time distilled his goals to their most basic.

“We really were just hoping to make the playoffs,” Popovich said.

Now the Spurs can, with a straight face, talk about making a run for their first championship since 2007.

As they have for 12 postseasons, much of the Spurs’ hopes rest with Duncan, the Finals MVP in 1999, 2003 and 2005.

Duncan was at times a forgotten man during the regular season — as forgotten as a future first-ballot Hall of Famer can be — as Popovich capped his minutes to career lows. Duncan’s scoring (13.4 points per game) and rebounding (8.9 per game) dipped in tandem.

The object was to keep mileage off Duncan’s rising odometer, to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Now that they are here, Duncan’s teammates expect the All-Star to again be at the center of their game plan.

“Every time we play in the playoffs, Timmy’s going to be very aggressive,” Parker said. “You can see Pop call more plays for him. We’re definitely going to use him more.”

Duncan arrived here nearly 14 years ago, by lucky bounce of a lottery ball, to a small-market city he had never before considered. With the raising of four championship banners, he transformed one of the NBA’s hardest-luck outposts into an unexpected keeper of the basketball flame.

Beyond these playoffs, there is no telling what Duncan’s basketball future holds. If next season is completely erased by lockout, Duncan will stand to lose $21.2 million due the final year of his contract, more than any player in the league.

He will also stand to lose time, and that’s one commodity an NBA player in his mid-30s cannot replace.

So if this is it, if this playoff run is indeed Duncan’s final last stand, it is only fitting he makes it with the ball in his hands.

“We’ve been blessed,” Duncan said. “We’ve had a good run. Hopefully, we can make another one.”

McDyess: ‘Now is where the playoffs start’

The four injured Spurs who missed Monday’s game against Portland all were working to a goal of playing in tonight’s pivotal game against Boston at the ATT Center.

Coach Gregg Popovich again said that Tony Parker (left patella contusion) and Antonio McDyess (lower back contusion) both were closer to recovery than Tim Duncan (sprained left ankle) or Manu Ginobili (left quadriceps contusion.) Both Parker and McDyess have said they could have played Monday night in an emergency situation.

Popovich said that Duncan and Ginobili will be game-time decisions.

McDyess said the additional rest has helped the team as it prepares for the stretch run with eight games left in the regular season.

The Spurs will be attempting to turn around a season-worst four-game losing streak. In each game, they squandered a fourth-quarter lead.

McDyess said having the time off has helped the team refocus after the recent slump.

“That’s tough, but we look at it it as a positive because we were in every game,” McDyess said.  “Now is where the playoff starts. We need to focus down the stretch and get the rest of these games.”

Tonight’s game starts a tough finishing kick for the Spurs, who will play their final eight games during the next 14 days. Included will be three groups of back-to-back games.

McDyess said the upcoming schedule is the primary reason he is pushing the start of the playoffs ahead a couple of weeks.

“It’s now,” he said. “You can’t just jump into the playoffs and feel like we’re going to start in the first game of the playoffs. We’ve got to prepare ourselves before. That’s why we say that this is when the playoffs start.”