Tim Duncan Returning To Spurs After Signing $10.3 Million Player Option

Tim Duncan will be back for his 18th season with the San Antonio Spurs after exercising his $10.3 million player option for next year.

There was little suspense whether Duncan would return to defend the NBA title, but he didn’t officially sign the player option until this week. Duncan expressed a desire to retire with the Spurs, where he has spent all of his 17 seasons so far, winning the NBA championship five times.

Though behind the scenes most expected him to return, publicly Tim Duncan had expressed doubt about what he would do in the future. If Duncan hadn’t signed his player option by Tuesday, he would have become a free agent on July 1.

There was also a chance that the Spurs could have restructured Duncan’s contract, but ultimately he decided to stay in the current deal.

Though he is 38 years old, Tim Duncan had an incredibly productive year for the Spurs. Coach Gregg Popovich had taken on a strategy to limit the minutes of his star players, including Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

As a result, the trio was able to remain healthy for the playoff run. By contrast, the Miami Heat’s Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh racked up big minutes and seemed to tire late in the playoffs.

Bert A. Ramirez of Rappler noted the stark differences between Duncan and James:

“Illustrating this burnout factor is the disparity in total minutes played by James and Duncan this entire past season. While Duncan played a total of 2,910 minutes in 97 games (including 23 in the playoffs) for an average of 30.0 minutes, James totaled 3,665 in the same number of games (20 in the postseason) for a norm of 37.8 minutes. The 755-minute disparity between the two players, even assuming their eight-plus-year difference in age but factoring in the all-around production required of James, translates to roughly 16 more games played by James.”

The relatively low mileage Tim Duncan has put on in the past few years means he could have several seasons left in the NBA. This last year he showed little signs of slowing down, averaging 15.1 points and 9.7 rebounds in 74 regular-season games, as well as 16.3 points and 9.2 rebounds over 23 playoff games.

[Images Via USA Today and Bing]