"It's got to be a strange thing to be Matt Herring today.

On the one hand, you've just landed a plum job as the strength and conditioning coach of the Spurs. On the other, there are no players around to strengthen or condition, and won't be until the NBA's labor morass mercifully ends.

At this point, we can only imagine what Herring's typical day at work might entail. We half envision him spending his afternoons leading Gregg Popovich in suicide sprints up The Hill behind the Spurs' vacant practice facility.

Herring might not arrive in San Antonio with players to coach, but he does arrive with goals. One of them: He hopes to help Tim Duncan add years to the tail end of his career.

"You can have a positive impact on a guy like Tim Duncan and helping him get three, four, five more years out of his career and end on his terms,'' Herring, formerly of the University of Florida, tells GatorZone.com .

If Herring can really help Duncan discover the Fountain of Youth, it would make him the Spurs' most important addition since perhaps Duncan himself. At age 35, Duncan is clearly slowing down.

His decline has been gradual, and he remains one of the league's most productive big men, but the decline has been sure. No longer the Spurs' offensive centerpiece, Duncan last season saw career lows in minutes (28.4), points (13.4) and rebounds (8.9) per game.

Duncan was surprisingly durable last season, the likely result of the dip in minutes, missing only one game until the day he landed on Ekpe Udoh's foot in a March 21 game against Golden State."