Duncan's Spurs started the load management trend

[Lebron23]

"San Antonio Spurs started the load management trend. Now every NBA teams are doing it. One of the reasons why Duncan never averaged over 26 ppg in his nba career despite being one of the most fundamentally big man in the NBA." Getting healthy in the NBA Playoffs is more important, but I want to see a key matchup between star players in the regular season". No internet in the 1990's that's why we saw Jordan vs Shaq's Lakers, Lakers vs. Sonics on IBC 13"

[Smoke117]

Uh...the Tim Duncan remark doesn't even make sense. He averaged 40.6mpg when he averaged a career high 25.5ppg. He never averaged 26ppg because he just never averaged 26ppg. He clearly played enough minutes. In his first six seasons he never played under 38.7mpg.

[HBK_Kliq_2]

I think his minutes was just based on the circumstances of the franchise.

1999-2004 spurs were pretty top heavy and duncan was still young so he played 39-40 minutes

2005-2008 spurs duncan was playing about 34 minutes a game which is similar to superstars in the modern era. They had a big 3 in their prime and spread their minutes out, similar to teams like clippers\nets today

2009-2016 duncan was pretty much a glorified role player playing second fiddle to either parker, manu or kawhi. This is when he took a dramatic minutes cut to 28-30 minutes a game

[Micku]

The Spurs may have started the recent trend of load management, but that's not the reason why Tim Duncan never averaged 26 ppg.

He wasn't really a scorer like that, although he probably could've if he put his mind into it. You could see that in the POs sometimes. But under Pop system and the way Duncan played, it emphasis more on team anyway. Although it relied heavily on Tim Duncan on the offense and defense. As Smoke117 said, he had plenty of mins average 26 for a season. He was more like like the modern Bill Walton or Bill Russell.

He did other things on the floor that impact the game that you don't see in stats. Pop mentioned before that the players under him sacrificed their stats a bit to make the team better. It's part of the culture. He mentioned it before and actively look for players who are willing to do that:



The Spurs are notorious for finding quality, worldly players who have fun on and off the court and are willing to sacrifice personal numbers for the success of the team.

...
However, it's clear that more than talent, Popovich and the Spurs have made a system where if players act selflessly, they will benefit. They've created an enviable culture and workplace, and the qualities they demand in players are qualities that are desirable outside of sports, too.

...

"For us, it's easy. We're looking for character, but what the hell does that mean? We're looking for people — and I've said it many times — [who] have gotten over themselves, and you can tell that pretty quickly. You can talk to somebody for four or five minutes, and you can tell if it's about them, or if they understand that they're just a piece of the puzzle. So we look for that.


https://www.businessinsider.com/gregg-popovich-explains-qualities-spurs-look-for-in-players-2016-2

He constantly emphasis character and teamwork more than anything else. If I can recall, he is a big fan of how the 77 Portland Blazers and those 80s Celts and 80s Lakers team played. Not necessary the style on itself, but the team work and balance, and try to emulate it. But in the early 00s, it was more like the 90s Rockets with a mix of 77 Portland in a much slower pace. Tim Duncan was also a big Magic fan, so he tried to get his teammates more involved too and whenever he could do the fast break, he'll do his passes lol.