San Antonio Spurs: 2015-16 Season Outlook

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Sep 28, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (9) is interviewed during Media Day at the training facility. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

Three Key Storylines (cont.)

2. What Does Tony Parker Have Left?

The Spurs have Aldridge, one of the best power forwards in the NBA. They have Tim Duncan, one of the game’s all-time greats who seems to get better with time (he was Third Team All-NBA last year at the age of 38-39). But if Tony Parker continues to regress the way that he has been lately, the Spurs won’t be outright favorites in the West by any means.

Last season, Parker averaged 14.4 points and 4.9 assists per game while shooting 48.6 percent from the floor and a career-best 42.7 percent from three-point range. So what’s the issue?

Well, even though Parker’s regular season numbers don’t indicate any alarming signs of regression (with TP even fine-tuning his three-point shot to remain effective as his speed and athleticism diminish), he was absolutely abused by Chris Paul in the postseason.

In that seven-game defeat, Parker’s numbers dropped to 10.9 points and 3.6 assists per game on 36.3 percent shooting from the field and 0-for-9 shooting from downtown. CP3, on the other hand, nearly slapped up a 23-8-5 stat line for the series, making Parker look ancient and borderline unplayable.

Over the summer at EuroBasket, Parker did little to reassure Spurs fans that it was just a bad series, averaging a meager 12.0 points and 4.2 assists per game on .363/.286/.743 shooting splits. That may not seem like the end of the world, but when you consider that NBA players — especially Parker — normally dominate these international tournaments, the red flags start getting harder to ignore.

Parker doesn’t need to play like he did in his prime for the Spurs to win. With Aldridge onboard and Kawhi Leonard ready to take the reins of the franchise, this team has plenty of firepower.

But Parker is the little engine that makes the Spurs’ offensive machine go. If he’s unable to penetrate, be a threat on offense and avoid being a liability on defense, the elite guards of the Western Conference will eat him alive come playoff time once again.

Next: Storyline: Is This The Year Kawhi Reaches Superstardom?

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