Spurs could sit Tony Parker “a while” to rest nagging hamstring

Tony Parker sat out again Saturday night when the Spurs took on the Pelicans. The reason is a nagging hamstring issue that has kept Parker out nine of the Spurs last 12 games.

That’s the problem with hamstring injuries — you think it’s healed but if you come back even a little too early you just aggravate the injury again. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has never hesitated to rest guys to get them healthy, and he could be doing that again for some extended time to get healthy.

Here’s what Popovich said, via Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News:

“Every time he thinks it’s back, he feels something,” coach Gregg Popovich said before the completion of the sixth of seven double-doubles in 32 days for the Spurs. “He felt it at the end of the Clipper game. He gave it a run (Thursday). You can’t have him doing that so we’re going to sit him. Give it time and if we err, it’s on the conservative side. It keeps coming back and that’s not good, so we’re just going to sit him out for a while.”

While the Spurs are usually resilient in the face of injuries, Parker is the guy who keys their offense and it’s not the same without him. Combine that with his primary backup Patty Mills being out, not to mention the Spurs’ best defender and key player Kawhi Leonard sitting with a hand injury, and you have a Spurs team that is 3-7 in their last 10 games and looking like father time is starting to finally win the race with them.

Thing is, we’ve all written Spurs obituaries before, only to have them reinvent themselves, get healthy and prove us all wrong. Nobody around the league is shoveling dirt on the Spurs yet. But until they get Parker back they are vulnerable.