Duncan to benefit from reduced time

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CMC): Tim Duncan hopes a significant reduction in playing time will allow him to get through his 14th season in the NBA.

The 34-year-old, St Croix-born centre/forward declared himself fit and ready for the San Antonio Spurs' training camp ahead of a season in which he is expected to carry a lighter workload.

"That was the plan last year, but we got ourselves in a bad way for a stretch and couldn't make that work," said Duncan.

Duncan, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, had undergone a summer that included conditioning drills designed to minimise stress on his dodgy knees.

He played 78 of 82 regular-season games last season and averaged 31.3 minutes, the lowest per-game figure of his 13 seasons.

nights off

Duncan is expected to have an occasional night off in the second game of back-to-back sets and the arrival of seven-footer Tiago Splitter, the 25-year-old MVP of the Spanish League last season, could help even further.

"Obviously, I want to be on the floor every minute there is, but that's not what's best for us and not what's best for me," said Duncan.

He added: "If we work it out to the point where we're playing well and going in the right direction and that works best for us, we'll do that."

Duncan felt fortunate that he did not have to suffer the same reduction in playing time as Houston Rockets' Yao Ming.

The Chinese centre will not be allowed to play more than 24 minutes in any game, to protect his injury-prone legs.

"I'd go batty (if that happened to me)," said Duncan. "I'd lose it. There's no way. At least, he's on the court, right?

"They're trying to keep him healthy and the same thing with us. Pop's going to try to keep me healthy. Whatever those minutes translate into, hopefully it's closer to 32 than 24."

Ironically, the Spurs open their pre-season schedule at the Rockets next Thursday, October 7.

They begin the 2010-11 NBA season at the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, November 1.