Tony Parker on struggles: 'I don't feel great. Everybody knows it'

It sounds strange to say it, but it may be time to worry about the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs remain the Spurs and it's difficult to believe they won't figure things out and ultimately hit their stride in time for the playoffs, but there's reasonable cause for concern. They dropped their fourth consecutive game on Wednesday to fall to 34-23, are closer to falling to the eighth seed than jumping to the sixth and are missing their most dynamic offensive weapon.

That's not to say point guard Tony Parker is injured, he just appears to be missing in action.

Parker scored two points in Wednesday's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, shooting 1-of-8, committing four turnovers and adding four assists. For the season, he's averaging 13.8 points and 4.9 assists, both his lowest marks since his 2001-02 rookie season, and he's posting a below-average player efficiency rating (14.2) for the first time since his freshman campaign, too.

Things have only trended downward since a January return from a nagging hamstring injury, with Parker averaging 11.6 points on 40.8 percent shooting in his last 22 games. 

"I don't even want to use that as an excuse," Parker told reporters Wednesday when asked if the hamstring was an underlying cause for his struggles. "I don't feel great. Everybody knows it ... I just have to find a solution, even if I'm not feeling great."

What that solution could be is unclear. Parker could, again, sit down for a stretch to try to get his body back to 100 percent, but that may leave him rusty for the playoffs. Cory Joseph has proven a capable fill-in but doesn't have the upside Parker has, even if that's an upside Parker hasn't flashed in weeks.

Parker is getting to the basket less, his mid-range game has been spotty, he's not getting to the line as frequently and his assist rate has declined. For whatever stock can be put in advanced metrics, ESPN's Real Plus-Minus ranks Parker as the league's eighth-worst player this year. Ranking 484th out of 491. Tony Parker. It seems crazy.

As head coach Gregg Popovich has admitted, the team can only go so far without Parker at the top of his game and Parker's running out of time to find his stride. The Spurs are the Spurs, but they're not quite the Spurs with the current incarnation of Parker.