Spurs' elephant in the room keeps growing larger with every game

Fewer than 25 games remain in the regular season, and the San Antonio Spurs have already more than surpassed their win total from last season.

Not only that, but they now have championship aspirations instead of lottery aspirations this season. It's obvious that they are ahead of schedule, but there is still a fair share of skepticism surrounding them.

In fact, on a recent podcast, NBA analyst Nate Duncan questioned the Spurs' offense.

"They have a lot of depth, don't really haven't really had any injury issues since the early part of the year. But they win all these games, and yet I walk away from their offense being like, man, these guys really be able to score, but maybe it's just not gonna matter," Duncan said.

When the Spurs stunk up Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks days later, they proved Duncan right to some degree.

The Spurs offense is too inconsistent to trusted

When things are well, the Spurs have a high-powered and balanced offense. Take for example their 131-91 demolition of the Philadelphia 76ers, where the Silver and Black looked like they had the best offense in the NBA.

There's something to that. During their 11-game win streak, they ranked second in the NBA in offensive rating. However, when their offense is bad, it can be downright disastrous. Look, we all remembered January, right?

They shot just 32.4% from three during that nightmarish month. They've since gotten back on track scoring the ball, but their shooting remains a big wild card.

Then there is De'Aaron Fox. His offense really comes and goes, and that's a problem for the Spurs. Dunc'd On Podcast co-host Danny Leroux recently echoed that sentiment.

"Then, as can sometimes happen with him, he just kind of disappears for stretches. And the Spurs don't always need his initiation. They have other guys who can be the impetus in transition. They have other stuff, but I mean they're paying him a lot of money. He that is something you should do," Leroux stated.

De'Aaron Fox has been consistently inconsistent offensively

He ain't lying. It isn't that he has bad games, but more like Fox has good stretches in mediocre games.

Fox will hit a pull-up mid-range jumper, get a transition bucket, and hit a three in the first quarter, and then nothing. At least until the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.

That Toronto Raptors game was case in point. Decent start, afterthought, then Fox hits several big shots down the stretch. To be clear, I'm not blaming Fox for his inconsistent play.

Instead, I'm more pointing out that San Antonio needs to do a much better job of utilizing his skill set. When Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle both missed 10+ games, the Spurs' offense was firing on all cylinders with Fox. Just saying.

The ball should be in Fox's hands with him running spread pick-and-roll with Wembanyama. Shoehorning him into being a shooting guard and randomly letting him run offense for a few minutes at a time is essentially handcuffing San Antonio's second-best player.

With the Spurs and Fox's offensive struggles at times this season, the Silver and Black could solve both problems easily. Otherwise, this team might struggle to put up points in the playoffs.