Tim Duncan’s career
8× 7× 5×
NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) NBA Finals MVP (1999, 2003, 2005)
NBA Most Valuable Player (2002, 2003)
NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2011, 2013, 2015) All-NBA First Team (1998–2005, 2007, 2013) All-NBA Second Team (2006, 2008, 2009) All-NBA Third Team (2010, 2015)
NBA All-Defensive First Team (1999–2003, 2005, 2007, 2008) NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1998, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015)
NBA Rookie of the Year (1998)
3× 2× 15× 10× 3× 2×
— which he helped develop and establish — will flourish and lead the team back to the NBA Finals. That the NBA better watch out now, because Jakob Poeltl, Trey Lyles and Luka Samanic are about to become All-Stars.
Neither is likely to happen. The best coach in NBA history was already going to be coaching that young front court. Duncan could be as good of a coach as he was a player, and those players still aren’t going to be All-Stars any time soon.
But he can help.
Poeltl and Lyles — both 23 years old — have shown flashes of potential through their short NBA careers. Poeltl only had one double-double last season but showed he could be capable of doing it on a nightly basis if he can put it all together. In a win
over the Pistons last season, he scored 11 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and blocked three shots in 34 minutes.
A few nights later, in only 17 minutes, he scored eight points, grabbed nine boards and, again, blocked three shots. This time it was against the eventual NBA champions (and his former team), the Toronto Raptors.
He’s never going to be Duncan. But, he could be a solid NBA center.
Meanwhile, labeling Lyles as anything but a disappointment for the Nuggets last season would be an understatement. He shot at a .358 clip from 3-point range during his first three seasons in the league, then dipped to .255 in 2018-19. After missing out on Marcus Morris in free agency, the Spurs settled and signed Lyles anyway. Now, they have surely tasked Duncan with doing everything he can to fix him.
For the Spurs, hiring Duncan makes a lot of sense. Who in the world wouldn’t want the best power forward ever to play the game coaching their young talent?
For Duncan, though? That’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
No, it won’t change his life much. He was spending most of his mornings shagging rebounds for anyone from Drew Eubanks to LaMarcus Aldridge anyway.
Duncan was always around the facility, if not readily available for the media. But he could also come and go as he pleased. He could wear a T-shirt and jorts.
Now, his life is going to be a bit more stringent.
Coaching is not an easy 9-to-5 life. It is filled with long — rodeo road trip long — travel days, hours upon hours spent at the facility breaking down film and backbreaking efforts to mold players into the Spurs system.
And his desire to sign up for that abuse is the only reason this news was a surprise Monday. Duncan’s desire to stay close to the game, the Spurs and his former coach was always clear.
Spurs fans should be thrilled with the news. Even if it would be wise to remember that not every great player can coach.
Larry Bird, so far, is the exception to the rule. As a coach, Bird led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals three times and NBA Finals once. He was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1998.
On the flip side, Isiah Thomas spent five excruciating years as a head coach and went 187-223. Bob Cousy, Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed and Wes Unseld might have been even worse. Jason Kidd, who took an assistant position under new Lakers coach Frank Vogel this summer, is a little under .500 as a head coach with the Nets and Bucks.
It is not the all-time greats, but the role players who have traditionally thrived as coaches. And Duncan was never a role player like Phil Jackson, Doc Rivers or Steve Kerr.
He is the best power forward of all time. The only other players on his level that ever went to the bench are Bird and Magic Johnson, who only coached 16 games with the Lakers, going 5-11.
All of those players, mostly based on their game talents, went straight to the head chair. Duncan didn’t do that. It wouldn’t be like him to do that — to usurp anyone, let alone Popovich. Heck, he probably is going to be and wants to be the third chair in the line behind Becky Hammon and that other guy in the press release, Hardy (who by the way is a darn good coach in his own right).
Duncan’s hire and how it was handled is another glimpse into the Spurs Way.
And the Spurs will be better for it.
“It is only fitting, that after I served loyally for 19 years as Tim Duncan’s assistant, that he returns the favor.” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, in the press release