San Antonio Spurs: Are They Officially Too Old To Compete In Today’s NBA?

Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs may be the greatest power forward of all time. (Photo: Flickr user Killbucky).

They say that age is just a number; is it? Or is age truly what is starting to catch up to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 NBA playoffs? How old is too old? Well, the Spurs are beginning to find out in their semifinal series with the Golden State Warriors. For the duration of Game 4, the Spurs were in the driver’s seat. San Antonio dug into the well a little bit, and were playing like the Spurs that won four NBA championships, most recently in 2007. Duncan was holding down the paint, while Manu Ginobili channeled his old self and was making shots from downtown a la 2008.

Then came the late-game run by the Warriors that helped reveal exactly what the Spurs are–old. With just less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Spurs held an eight-point lead on Golden State and then it all began to fall apart after that. In the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Spurs scored just six points. San Antonio’s big three of Duncan-Parker-Ginobili shot a combined 1-for-8 in the last five minutes and a total of 5-for-19 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Manu Ginobili looked awful in the late going of Game 4 and the 37-year old Tim Duncan wasn’t any better, either. For a team that was on its way to a defining 3-1 series lead, this was quite the collapse. It was only a year ago that the Spurs were taking the Oklahoma City Thunder out behind the shed and doing work on them; now, essentially the same team is struggling to close out a young Warriors’ squad with little to no playoff experience on its roster.

No one will debate how truly talented Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are for Golden State, they’ve proven in this year’s playoffs that they are the backbone of the Bay Area franchise, but the Spurs have to start finding answers to what is starting to become a ton of questions.

The Spurs have been able to avoid age for quite some time now, overshadowing it with great leadership and knowledge of the game, but Father Time will never be beaten and it’s been proven here in the playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers’ starting lineup features only one player less than 30 years old, Dwight Howard. Outside of Howard, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash’s average age is 34.2 years old, which is near the very top of the league in regards to the oldest teams in the NBA.

So, when you ask the question, “Are the Spurs officially too old?” I think the answer is simple, yes. The Spurs are no longer the team that will beat you with their wisdom, but will instead beat themselves with their age. You can run all of the suicides you want, you can outsmart anyone you want in any situation. However, when it comes down to it, age will catch up to you, like it’s caught up to San Antonio.