Tony Parker: Spurs’ core may have retired if LaMarcus Aldridge didn’t sign

Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge has looked like the best free agent signing in the NBA from this past offseason, and it hasn’t been particularly close. Aldridge’s interior defensive presence and weakside rebounding next to Tim Duncan as well his ability to act as a release valve for the San Antonio offense, stretching a defense out to 20+ feet and bullying opposing power forwards in the post have been indispensable to the team’s 22-5 start to the season. But now it appears as though Aldridge’s positive effect on the Spurs this year goes far, far beyond his individual impact on the court.

In advance of San Antonio’s matchup with the Clippers on Friday, their first since falling in the first round of the 2015 Playoffs to Lob City last May, guard Tony Parker spoke with the San Antonio-Express News, revealing that some key members of the Spurs core may have retired had the team failed to lure Aldridge in free agency.

The 33-year-old shed some light on just how up-in-the-air the Spurs’ future seemed after that first round exit. “I wasn’t sure this team would be the same,” said Parker per Emmett Knowlton of Yahoo! Finance. “I thought it was all going to be blown up and changed.

“Everybody knew maybe we could get LaMarcus. There was hope, but at the same time it could’ve gone all wrong. Because if you don’t get him, what do we do?” Parker continued. “It was like playing poker — all in, you know? Meaning, if we get LaMarcus, everybody’s back. If we don’t, I guess everyone will retire.”

Parker’s Big Three counterparts Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, in particular, were the ones who were both rumored to be contemplating retirement after the 2014-15 NBA season. But the 2015 offseason proved a fateful one for the Spurs, who managed to convince Danny Green to re-sign on a team-friendly deal and traded away Tiago Splitter’s contract to the Atlanta Hawks, thus enabling San Antonio to land their man in Aldridge and convince the gang to come back for one final hurrah. Now with the addition of Aldridge, the subsequent signing of veteran big man David West on a minimum deal, and the full-scale emergence of Kawhi Leonard as a go-to crunchtime/isolation scorer, new life has been breathed into the Spurs’ aging core as they look poised for yet another run at the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

For the 30-year-old Aldridge, whose significance to the team now clearly transcends his relatively modest averages of 15.7 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game, maybe he can start referring to himself now as “The Fish That Saved San Antonio.”

H/T NBA Reddit