Ask Charlotte Hornets coach Paul Silas to assess Tim Duncan?s game and Silas says simply: "There?s nothing he can?t do. He?s got the total package."

Duncan, the fifth-year San Antonio Spurs? star from Wake Forest, makes his annual appearance in Charlotte tonight when the Hornets host the Spurs at 7 p.m.

And Silas, a former NBA power forward himself, continues to marvel at the progress and improvement Duncan makes seemingly every year ? even if Silas wasn?t so sure Duncan would become a sure-fire NBA star when he came into the league as the No. 1 overall pick of the 1997 draft.

"I knew he was going to be good," Silas said of Duncan. "But I didn?t think he would be able to put up the kind of offensive numbers he?s put up."

Silas? questions about Duncan were answered after seeing the 7-foot, 213-pounder go through the league for a time or two.

"You know, in college, I thought he played kind of a finesse game," Silas said of Duncan?s four-year stay at Wake Forest. "A lot of times those kinds of guys struggle with how physical the NBA can be. And I didn?t know if he?d be willing to take the kind of punishment he was going to have to take.

"Once I saw that he could, I started thinking immediately how he was going to be a really great player."