5 reasons why Tim Duncan should retire

4: He’s lost his drive

Chalk it up to whatever you want, whether it’s age or the league catching up to him, but Duncan has lost the competitive drive that he used to possess. Looking at his game-by-game log is damning evidence of that fact.

He averaged 5.9 points in the playoffs, and in games 2-5 of the Thunder series, he scored a combined nine points. It was during that stretch that the series shifted completely towards the Thunder’s favor. A possible sweep after an embarrassing Game 1 drubbing suddenly had Oklahoma City on the verge of the Conference Final, and after losing once at home all season, they lost twice at home in the series.

While the two are not directly correlated, Duncan’s struggles were a microcosm of the Spurs’ struggles in that series, and it saw his minutes drastically decrease in favor of Boris Diaw and Boban Marjanovic.

And he shouldn’t have to carry that play into the next season. Not only have opposing teams’ frontcourt caught up to Duncan, but so has the Spurs’. Popovich has essentially handed the keys for the power forward position over to LaMarcus Aldridge while Boris Diaw has evolved from a great bench option to a starting role.

It was already hard enough to watch Duncan struggle in the playoffs; there’s no reason to have that play stretched out over the course of a full season, especially after we were subjected to plenty of poor seasons from Kobe Bryant.

Next: 3: The rise of small ball