SAD NEWS :San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan confirm dead at 47 from a brutal.⬇️⬇️

Much of the reason people thought Kawhi would follow in Tim Duncan’s footsteps was the stark similarity between the two in terms of their demeanor. Both were stoic, unflappable in the face of pressure, and seemingly delivered every time the stakes were high. It almost seemed too perfect of a fit.

DeMar DeRozan’s arrival in the Alamo City was a huge surprise to everyone involved. Truly, even DeMar himself never expected to leave the city he had grown to love so deeply in Toronto. But in July 2018, he was the centerpiece for the infamous Kawhi Leonard trade.

With DeRozan becoming the Spurs’ new franchise player, he found himself thrust into a completely new situation. But as he came to accept his new situation and as he gained coaching from one of the most accomplished Head Coaches in league history, Gregg Popovich showed that he had a new vision for DeMar.

While playing with the Raptors, DeRozan was a highly-skilled scorer that got to his spots and made jump shots from nearly anywhere on the floor. With the Spurs, the coaching staff still wanted to utilize his scoring prowess, but they opted to lean more into his playmaking ability as well.

The result was DeMar becoming the team’s de-facto point guard, averaging a team-high 6.2 assists per game in 2018-19. This became a large part of his role over the course of his three seasons with the team. Though he was in San Antonio for a short time, DeRozan’s all-around play contributed to landing him surprisingly high on this list for PER

But in the end, Kawhi was not meant to carry the mantle of Spurs basketball for 19 seasons the way Tim Duncan did. As a prospect from the US Virgin Islands who was unknown for many years before being recruited by Wake Forest, Duncan had to earn everything in a way few other all-time greats ever did.

After playing four years in college for the Demon Deacons and fulfilling a promise he made to his late mother that he would finish school, Duncan entered the league as a pro-ready big man with a rounded game. He was extremely adept at scoring on the low block with his signature bank shot, and his defensive capability made him the missing piece for a team that been falling just short of a championship for years.

Timmy’s extremely effective style of play earned him the nickname “the big fundamental,” and his unrelenting competitive nature drove him to become one of the best this sport has ever seen. It is honestly surprising that he is not first on this list.