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Why is Gregg Popovich refusing to bench Tim Duncan this series?
Duncan has had a great career and is a class act so it's a shame to see him going out like this. However, he's completely washed up now and is clearly the worst player on the court for either team. Duncan has become a huge liability and the Spurs are basically playing 4 on 5 when he's on the court. Duncan's last 4 games combined: 9 PTS, 16 REB, 3-18 FG
So why is Popovich refusing to bench Duncan and play Boban Marjanovich? Is it just as simple as showing loyalty to Duncan (who was really the guy who made Pop's career) more important to Pop that winning the series?
The Spurs have gotten absolutely killed on the boards each of the last 4 games, and Boban had by far the best rebounds per 36 minutes on the Spurs roster this year. The Spurs really wouldn't be able to use Boban against a small lineup like Golden State that can stretch the floor, but he would be perfect for this series, especially when OKC is playing their huge lineup with Adams and Kanter together.
I know Boban is still pretty raw, but he's shown flashes when he's gotten the chance this year. (In addition to the good rebounding, he shot over 60% from the field.) Why can't Popovich at least give Boban 10 minutes and see what he can do with those minutes? It's not like he can be worse than Duncan.
5 Answers
- JacobLv 55 years agoFavorite Answer
Duncan is old, but he could still post up and get 20 points in a playoff game. However, he is much more valuable as a defensive player at this point in his career. Aldridge, Leonard and Parker can carry the load offensively, which means Duncan doesn't have to score and can just focus all of his energy on defense.
The Spurs have to play Duncan because the Thunder have started to use the Kanter-Adams lineup more, and Duncan and Aldridge are the only ones who can go up against those guys. I realize that Boban has good per 36 minutes stats, but per 36 is incredibly inaccurate when talking about a player who only averaged 9 minutes per game, most of those minutes coming in garbage time. If Boban was given 36 minutes a game in the playoffs, do you really think he would average 21-14?
The Spurs really should have signed an experienced center who can defend and rebound to backup Duncan instead of bringing in Andre Miller AND Kevin Martin.
- 5 years ago
Loyalty. In addition, they didn't have a problem in the regular season where they won 67 games. Duncan averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds on close to 50% shooting. Duncan struggling this badly is quite frankly a new twist that Pop wasn't expecting. So maybe we will see changes.
- Anonymous5 years ago
He has nobody else, remember Coach Pop, like Phil Jackson isn't just playing basketball, they're running a system, which has very specific requirements of players, it all hinges on Tim Duncan, and Kawhi, the problem right now is, that both aren't doing well enough.
- 5 years ago
Tim Duncan had a great regular season for his age and he is a big morale boost for the team as he is one of the greatest players in history
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