Tony Parker is no doubt an NBA future Hall of Famer with 4 championships behind his illustrious career but a storm looms as San Antonio Spurs faces 2016-17 season without their super-scorer Tim Duncan.
Tony Parker stays with San Antonio until 2021 after signing a long-term contract extension for $43 million. Ironically, Parker will be 40 by then - the same age Duncan traversed in April prior retirement before the 2016-17 opener. Many pushed Duncan to give it a year more but the "greatest power forward" of all time decided to call it a career after 19 years with the squad. So the torch of leadership was passed on to Parker.
Asked about the impact of Duncan's retirement, Tony Parker said that there is a gaping hole that the five-time champion left. Then he adds that nobody can replace the contributions Duncan gave to the squad. At any rate, Parker is still confident that San Antonio Spurs can keep on winning. Parker feels that there is sufficient supply of quality player including LaMarcus Aldridge, Sky Sports reported.
Meanwhile, what could be the greatest challenge for Tony Parker and the Spurs are strengthened lineups of rival teams. Especially so that Western Conference is laden with legitimate powerhouses including Stephen Curry's Golden State Warriors and Dirk Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks. Parker assured that there are exciting addendums to the squad as well. However, ESPN believes that Parker's remaining tenure will see less scoring antics but more of mentoring for the young prospects including Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard.
Come to think of it, the past seasons have witnessed Tony Parker as motivational player sacrificing his own scoring chances. In fact, there is a gradual decreasing trend in his scoring average. In 2013, Parker was at the threshold of elite NBA point guards with 20 points per game average. Then it dipped to 17 points per game in 2014. The last two NBA seasons registered even worse at both 10 points per game average.