San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan, center in street cloths, listens to teammate David West (30) during a timeout in the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in San Antonio. San Antonio won 107-92. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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By Mark Travis

It is hard to imagine a worse injury in sports that isn't career threatening than the one Manu Ginobili suffered Wednesday night.

While going up for a shot in the paint, Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson inadvertently kneed Ginobili in the groin, causing an injury that required testicular surgery Thursday afternoon. The Spurs announced Ginobili is not out indefinitely but will be out for at least a month. That means it is highly likely the Spurs will head out on theannual rodeo road trip with Ginobili and Tim Duncan sidelined.

The timing is never right for an injury like this to happen, but at the very least Ginobili should return with two weeks to a month before the end of the regular season so he can work himself back into gear for the playoffs. Additionally, this might be the least daunting rodeo trip the Spurs have had in recent memory, so Ginobili's absence might not take its toll right away.

It will be interesting to see how the Spurs go about replacing Ginobili's production. Although the Spurs are rightfully praised for having the best bench in basketball, the truth is that so much of their second unit's success is still derived from Ginobili's playmaking ability.

Even on nights when he is not shooting well, Ginobili's ability to initiate out of the pick-and-roll opens up the floor for the rest of the bench to attack closeouts and run secondary actions. Patty Mills is one of the more dangerous pull-up shooters in basketball, but he doesn't possess the ability to carve apart defenses like Ginobili. Of utmost importance for the Spurs is finding someone who can replicate, or at least provide a semblance of Ginobili's off-the-dribble game for the second unit.

Relatedly, Jonathon Simmons, one of the surprises of the season for the Spurs, is in line for a substantial increase in responsibilities.

Simmons is San Antonio's most athletic driving threat, and he has shown an uncanny ability to finish over bigs in the paint. What has been lacking from Simmons' game is the fluid drive-and-kick motion that is the lifeblood for San Antonio's offense. When Simmons takes it to the basket, he is usually doing so after the Spurs have gotten the defense off balance and forced rotations and he is usually looking to score. Now Simmons will be tasked with creating that separation for his teammates, and how successful he is will go a long way in determining how the Spurs fare without Ginobili.

San Antonio's starting shooting guard, Danny Green, will also play a more important role during the next month or so. Green has been pulled more times than an iPhone charger this season, but he is likely to have a slightly longer leash with Ginobili out. Green's 3-point shot returned in January (he shot 49.1 percent from deep in 13 games), so he's starting to have a positive impact on both sides of the ball again, and I would expect Popovich to deploy Green more often with the second unit to give them reliable spacing and defense while the reserves figure out how they will replace Ginobili's creative oughts.

Since Duncan began sitting out with knee soreness at Golden State, San Antonio's rotation has been down a big man. Popovich has not used Boban Marjanovic in the thick of games lately, instead opting to toy with a small ball second unit. That means more minutes for Kyle Anderson, who did a great job defending Anderson, New Orleans' super sub, on Wednesday. Popovich was so committed to playing small against New Orleans that Anderson got 18 minutes, including nine in the second half, while Boris Diaw did not play in the second half.

In no way was that a precursor of things to come; Anderson is not going to replace Diaw in the rotation. But it did show that Popovich was using Duncan's time off to experiment with different combinations and to see what his unproven rotation pieces can offer in certain situations.

Although nobody would wish what happened to Ginobili on their worst enemy, his much-needed recovery time does provide the Spurs with more time in the sandbox to prepare the back end of their bench for a potential postseason role.

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Mark Travis is a Sports Media major at Oklahoma State University and a graduate of Flour Bluff High School. He covers the NBA for Caller.com. You can reach him on Twitter @Mark_Travis and check out his other NBA musings at butthegameison.com.