Pau Gasol Must Walk Fine Line Replacing San Antonio Spurs Legend Tim Duncan

SAN ANTONIO — There is no replacing Tim Duncan, the great power forward who retired in July after leading the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA championships and the best record in the NBA over the past two decades.

Pau Gasol, who will fill Duncan’s spot in the Spurs' starting lineup when their regular season begins with an Oct. 25 game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena, understands this better than anyone.

"Tim has been so exceptional and unique," Gasol said. "He’s been considered by most of us to be the best power forward who has ever played the game. So I’m not coming here to fill his shoes and the spot that he left. I’m here to fit in as best as I can with the guys who are here to win a title, basically. And work as hard as I can to do that."

When the Spurs signed Gasol to a free-agent contract in July, they may have accomplished something unprecedented in NBA history: replacing a Hall of Fame player with another who also may be enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts, someday. A six-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection with career averages of 18.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and two NBA titles, Gasol’s NBA resume combines with an outstanding international career, both in the Spanish ACB League and FIBA competitions.

Finding great big men is hard enough; Replacing one of the greatest bigs with another elite center is nearly impossible.

The Boston Celtics came close, but when Bill Russell retired after the 1968-69 season, they had to endure a 34-48 season with Hank Finkel, a skinny 7-footer who averaged just 9.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in Russell’s starting spot. That gave them Dave Cowens with the fourth overall pick in the 1970 draft. Cowens played 10 seasons, led Boston to two NBA titles (1974 and 1976) and entered the Hall of Fame in 1991.

The Los Angeles Lakers know plenty about replacing Hall of Fame centers. Elmore Smith, who supplanted Wilt Chamberlain in 1973, was a solid 5 who led the league in blocked shots during his first season as the starter but never made an All-Star team, let alone the Hall of Fame. They later drafted 7'1" Yugoslavian star Vlade Divac to take Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s spot as starting center after the NBA’s all-time scoring leader retired in 1989.

Divac had a fine NBA career but made only one All-Star team.

Douglas C. Pizac/Associated Press/Associated Press

And when, despite making it to the NBA Finals four of the previous five seasons, the Lakers broke up their team in the summer of 2004 by trading Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat, his starting center spot fell to journeyman Chris Mihm. A 34-48 season followed.

Brent Barry, a two-time NBA champion, understands the challenge of replacing a legend. He stepped into Michael Jordan’s spot as the starting shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls after Jordan’s second retirement.

"I figured Pete Myers survived it," said Barry, "so I could survive it, too."

Myers never had played more than 52 games during his previous five NBA seasons when Phil Jackson made him the starter at shooting guard after Jordan's first retirement at age 30.

"There wasn’t quite the same anticipation for me as MJ’s replacement in Chicago as there now is in San Antonio for Pau as Timmy’s replacement," said Barry, now an analyst for NBA TV and TNT.

Barry believes the Spurs may be more efficient at the offensive end with Gasol than they were with Duncan, who averaged only 25.2 minutes per game and career lows in scoring (8.6 points) and rebounds (7.3) last year.

"No knock on Timmy," Barry said, "but I’ve seen some numbers diving deep into where Pau’s shots came from last year. LaMarcus [Aldridge] was the fourth-most efficient big man whose shots came from 15 to 19 feet, and Pau was fifth. For a team trying to move forward and take another step aimed at getting mid-range looks with nobody in the way, Pau Gasol is a great pick.

"The overriding thing about Pau, though, is not a statistical thing. It’s who Pau is that’s even more important. It’s his sense of what the franchise is and how he can slip right in and be effective to keep the franchise winning. It’s the idea about Pau’s ability to recognize who Tim was for this organization and how he conducted himself.

"That is something that, on the shoulders of a Pau Gasol, becomes a lot easier to handle. It’s not anything to do with basketball but to his intellect—to know better than to have people compare him to Tim. He’s too grounded for that. And what the NBA represents to Pau Gasol is part of this chapter in his career, and if you don’t think Pop [Gregg Popovich] and R.C. [Buford] recognized that in looking at who was ready for this responsibility, you’d be mistaken."

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Gasol calls the chance to assume Duncan’s starting spot both an opportunity and a privilege.

"But at the same time it’s a challenge," Gasol said. "I’m a very ambitious guy. I look for challenges like this, and this is why I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity. I’m just going to focus on working and analyzing and getting a feel to see what is the best way to help this team be better."

His analysis has led to an unambiguous conclusion.

"It’s very hard to replace the things that he did on the floor, especially because of his presence, the way that he had in the locker room," Gasol said. "You can’t substitute that, I think. So all of the other guys are going to have to pick up from the leadership standpoint, the presence standpoint. But at the same time, we have to have our own identity and do what we can from our position.

"Defensively, he was a guy who was always in the right spot at the right time. He might have not been as athletic as he used to be, but he was always altering shots, communicating comfort and confidence to his teammates. That’s kind of what I’m going to try to do, what I’ve been able to do most of the time in my career.

"I learned that’s an important thing to be an anchor defensively. Be a facilitator. We have a lot of talent offensively, so we’re just going to have to keep moving the ball and playing the game the right way, unselfishly, finding the open guy, which are concepts that are sometimes overlooked but are concepts that have defined the Spurs over the years."

They are concepts that should provide more of the uncontested mid-range looks that have made Gasol such an efficient scorer through his career.

"Because he’s so intelligent and a great passing big, I think he will fit right in perfectly," said starting guard Danny Green. "The offense is pretty much built for his style of player."

Who but the Spurs could have pulled off such a seamless transition?

All quotes obtained firsthand. Follow Mike Monroe on Twitter at @Monroe_SA.