San Antonio Spurs: Manu Ginobili Already In Rough Shape Prior To Regular Season
By Cody Daniel
The San Antonio Spurs’ regular season tips off Oct. 28 when the Dallas Mavericks come to town. From that point, they will be a grueling 82 games away from when the playoffs begin and what they hope will be a successful run at back-to-back NBA championships.
Unfortunately, a key piece of the dynasty and why the Spurs have had so much success, Manu Ginobili, is already suffering from lingering injuries and conditioning issues with the regular season still over a week away.
"“I have a lot of pain in different areas. I feel the same way I finished last season. There’s a little problem in the left Achilles that bothers me in the first minutes of play. I was also going crazy with a problem on my small left toe in my left foot. I’m in poor physical condition. I get tired quickly, I’m a bit slow. Since I couldn’t do much in the offseason, I’m steps behind my teammates and everything is a tougher.”"
There can be a positive view and a negative view to this dilemma for the Spurs’ veteran guard.
The worst news is without a healthy and ready-to-go Ginobili, the Spurs simply won’t be able to make it out of the absolutely loaded Western Conference, and even if they were able to do so, still having enough in the tank to overcome what should be the Cleveland Cavaliers or Chicago Bulls in the Finals would be a near impossible feat without their fearless sixth man.
Additionally, although it isn’t an absolute necessity to have the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the playoffs — which is expected from the defending champion Spurs – being able to have the easiest road and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs will be detrimental for this ever-aging core group. You always have to consider Oklahoma City as one of the elite teams, while the Los Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers and even Golden State Warriors will all be looking to contend for the No. 1 overall seed. With an unhealthy Ginobili, the Spurs could find themselves on the less fortunate end of the playoff tree and taking to the road series after series to face some healthy, up-tempo style teams.
But on the brighter side, Ginobili did express that he feels his conditioning was due to not doing much in the offseason as he recovered from other injuries, but with a coach like Gregg Popovich, there shouldn’t be any doubt that his conditioning will be up to par by the time late April rolls around.
As for the injuries, this is something that Popovich can only pray doesn’t become a consistent issue, but at 37 years old, Ginobili’s health going downhill is inevitable and the recovery period for those injuries is going to increase with his age as well.
Ultimately, it should be a good sign that we’re discussing this before the regular season has even begun and we all know how much Popovich likes resting his vets throughout the season. This should come to a show a much needed boost in Ginobili’s health and rest, but it’s still an overall thought that will make any Spurs’ fan cringe at the thought of their veterans potentially struggling with injuries from day one as they’re championship window looks to be coming to a close.