Pop Sticking Around: San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and franchise player Tim Duncan had things positioned perfectly to fittingly walk away from the game of basketball at the same time. Both of their contracts expire after next season, but that could change soon for Popovich.

According to Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports an extension for Popovich is all but a formality at this point. Within the last year the Spurs have also locked up star guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to long-term extensions and both of them wanted to make sure that Popovich would continue to be their coach.

"I kind of feel I have to commit to those guys," said Popovich.

With four championships as a head coach Popovich is going to have a job with the Spurs for as long as he wants one, whether it be as a coach or a consultant. He recently suggested the idea of eventually making the transition back to the front office to owner Peter Holt, but he wasn’t ready to sign off on that.

"He suggested that maybe he could have some kind of consulting role," acknowledged Holt. "I told him I didn’t need a consultant; I need a coach."

As long as Popovich is the coach the Spurs figure to be in pretty good shape, although they are undoubtedly going to take a step backwards once Duncan retires. Replacing Duncan is going to be far from easy because not only is he the greatest power forward to ever play the game, he’s also the most ideal leader a franchise could ever want.

Duncan helped create a culture of hard work and dedication by giving it everything he had in every practice and game. Duncan’s high level of commitment demanded that everyone else on the team do the same.

Playing 13 years in the NBA takes its toll on player, though, and Duncan is reaching the end of his illustrious career.

"I would love to play until the wheels come off, but that’s not how it goes," said Duncan. "I want to play at a high level and I want to be able to play well. If that’s not the case, then it might be better for me to walk away."

Despite averaging career-low numbers across the board it’s still clear that Duncan is a high-level player for the Spurs. He’ll be at his best come playoff time when the team needs him the most. As for now, Parker and Ginobili will continue to carry the heavy load. They’ve done a great job so far, leaving a lot of reason to be optimistic about the post-Duncan era – especially now that Coach Pop has decided to delay his retirement.

D’Antoni Talks Carmelo: A three-team trade went down yesterday involving the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets. Although the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony were not involved, they’re still hot topics of discussion. Everyone is wondering whether or not the two first round picks that the Nets acquired are enough to land Carmelo and if it helps motivate the Knicks to increase their offer for him.

From the Knicks perspective the rumors are untimely because they are playing some of the best basketball in the league right now. However, head coach Mike D’Antoni is doing what he can to make sure they stay focused and ignore all the rumors and chatter as much as they can.

"Just like in the bad times you try to live within the walls of the practice facility and within your team," explained D’Antoni on ESPN Radio in New York. "You tell relatives and friends you don’t read papers, you don’t listen to people, and you do your work and you go about it. I know it’s hard sometimes but when times are bad and times are good you can’t listen to it because 98 percent of it is just talk. It’s based on a little bit of face and could be, would be, maybe and who knows. That’s part of the job. Part of the job is to focus, come every day and block out everybody else that’s not your teammate or in the organization."

{AUTHOR_BOX}So far D’Antoni’s Knicks are managing to do just that at a very successful rate. They’re 16-9 overall, good for 5th place in the East, and 9-1 in their last 10 games.

"It’s nice to get out of the hole that we were in," admitted D’Antoni. "But then again it’s a long season and a lot of things can happen. I’ve been around too long to get excited, but it’s enjoyable.

"I think to a certain extent we can get a lot better. We have some young guys and that’s just going to take time. It’s not even a matter of being new, it’s just being young and being in different situations and playing for an important game every week. We’ve had a lot of guys that have not done that in the NBA. A lot of new things are happening but I would’ve loved to have had a better start. In reality going to Europe in preseason and different things, we just started slower. It just jelled when it did and hopefully we can keep getting better."

According to D’Antoni, continuing to jell and form chemistry is the biggest key for his group the rest of the way.

"It just depends on how we come together," said D’Antoni. "Everybody has talent in this league, it’s just a matter of them coming together, being healthy, seeing how the season goes and stuff like that. Is it in the realm of possibility (to become contenders), sure it is. I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t, but at the same time we all know it’s hard to do in this league. Let’s try and make the playoffs and let’s try to be as good as we can be."

As D’Antoni said, it is very possible for them to grow into contenders as currently assembled because they do have some very nice players. However, if they were to add Carmelo Anthony without completely gutting their roster their potential would become a whole lot greater. That’s why the Knicks will have to continue to deal with the rumors until he’s either a Knick or no longer available. 

Worried About Noah: The Chicago Bulls are starting to become concerned over the status of starting center Joakim Noah due to persisting issues with his right hand. Noah started off the season incredibly strong, but has seen his play drop off as of late perhaps because of his ailing right hand.

ESPNChicago.com is reporting that there could possibly be ligament damage in his right thumb. The team has an examination scheduled for it when they return back home to Chicago on Thursday.

"We’re still evaluating to see what’s wrong with it," said Noah. "I’m not sure yet. We’ll find out."

"He’s got a couple things going on," added Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau. "Basically all the big guys in the league go through this where their hands are constantly being raked, and it’s hard to recover from it because it continues to happen when you’re rebounding the ball or you’re going for a shot and they’re trying to strip. His shooting hand is nicked up."

The Bulls already had to play the first several weeks of the regular season without power forward Carlos Boozer. He and Noah missed out on some very valuable time to form chemistry together and it would be disappointing for the Bulls if Noah had to miss an extended amount of time right as Boozer comes back.

If Noah was to miss any time the Bulls would likely rely on second-year forward Taj Gibson to play out of position at center and increase the role of rookie center Omer Asik. They also have seldom-used veteran Kurt Thomas who is capable of playing both the power forward and center position who they could call on.

Noah will play tonight against the Toronto Raptors and should know in the next few days just how severe his right hand injury is.