The Spurs continued to look unstoppable last night as the Western Conference Finals got underway, winning their ninth straight playoff contest and 18th straight game overall. While the team's postseason run means it's too early to start thinking about the offseason yet, Tim Duncan suggests to Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports that he has little interest in testing the free agent market this summer.
"Though I shouldn't say that; I have to threaten them that I'll leave," Duncan joked. "No… I'm not going anywhere. You can print that wherever you want to. I'm here and I'm a Spur for life."
Duncan is an unrestricted free agent this summer, though he's rarely mentioned among potential targets for teams with cap space, since he was never expected to leave San Antonio. The biggest offseason question for Duncan may be the length and amount of his contract, rather than his destination. The veteran big man tells Ludden that he expects to play for another year or two, though three or four years may be stretching it. Still, even playing another year or two would be good news for the 36-year-old, who at one point thought knee problems might make this season his last.
"I got to the point where I was depressed and pissed off that my body wasn't doing the things that it used to do, and that I was deteriorating skill-wise," Duncan said. "I'm a competitor. I want to be a staple on a team, I want to be a go-to guy on a team. When that changed, that obviously hurt a little bit. But I found ways to be a part of this team and be a big part of this team."
Coming off a 2011/12 salary of $21.16MM, Duncan is eligible to earn up to about $22.22MM next season, though given his age and decreased playing time, I expect that figure will go down rather than up.