San Antonio Spurs: 5 obstacles to contending in 2017-18

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4. Point guard struggles

Since the 2001-02 season, Tony Parker has been the starting point guard for the San Antonio Spurs. The chemistry he has had with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and, more recently, Kawhi Leonard has led to sustained success.

The problem is, Parker will not be coming back to the Spurs lineup for awhile, even as he projects a November return that’s way ahead of his initial January/February return date. This leaves the point guard duties to Patty Mills and Dejounte Murray. There is a definite concern that this leaves the Spurs too thin at the point.

Mills is a superb player. His 3-point percentage (41 percent) was 11th in the NBA last season. He is a solid playmaker and usually makes good decisions.

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Murray is a second-year player who has put in huge work over the summer. The leap he is going to need to take with Parker out, however, is massive. Last season, Murray only played in 38 contests and only clocked 8.5 minutes per game.

With the moves around the NBA in the summer, the Spurs need more than solid, which is what these two offer. In their own division, they now have to take on both Chris Paul and James Harden when they play the Houston Rockets.

Add to this Russell Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors. It is going to be hard for this pairing to keep the Spurs at the top of the standings until Parker returns — even if he does only miss a month or so.

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