NBA Rumors: Tony Parker wants to play in 2018-19; Will Spurs re-sign him?
NBA Rumors: Tony Parker envisions himself playing next season, but isn’t sure it will be with the San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs didn’t have a San Antonio Spurs-y type season, and they have a ton of questions to answer this summer.
While the biggest of the biggest questions revolving around whether Kawhi Leonard will want to play for San Antonio next season, there are a number of other issues that the Spurs will have to address this offseason.
And one of the issues is whether or not Tony Parker will return next season. Parker has already made it clear that he would like to play in 2018-19, but isn’t sure it will be with the Spurs.
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"[via ESPN]R.C. Buford said the Spurs will make a decision on Parker at the appropriate time.“We’ll see,” Parker said. “I said already I want to keep playing. I’m happy I don’t have those retirement parties. I want to keep playing, and we’ll see if it’s in San Antonio. Everybody knows I would love to stay here. But free agency is always crazy, so we’ll see.”"
Even though it would be weird to see Parker in a different uniform next season, all bets are off in today’s game. Long gone are the days where one player remains with one team for the entirety of his career.
And there’s a chance that the Spurs elect to blow it all up this summer, especially if Kawhi demands a trade and refuses to sign an extension. In that situation, it would make little sense for the Spurs to bring back a veteran player like Parker.
Then there’s the entire pay cut thing.
The Spurs just paid Parker more than $15 million this season. If Parker is going to return to San Antonio next season, there’s no way his salary is going to be anywhere close to that figure. And maybe Parker is OK with that.
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Parker only played in 55 games this season, and started 21 of those. He also averaged a career low 7.7 points and 3.5 assists per game. He also played a career low 19 minutes per contest.