There's a debate to be had about this but the majority of his career he was starting next to Robinson, Nesterovic, Oberto, Splitter, Elson, Mohammed, etc... you'd have to prove those guys were playing PF... To me, he's the best PF of all-time. Durability aside, at his peak, he was a monster in the post and on defense + he wins.
I'm talking any ranking. Top 10 players, nobody has Duncan ahead those centers or MJ, Magic, or Bird. So, if he was listed at his proper position (C), he wouldn't "arguably be the greatest center", as the other poster claimed.
ESPN panel voters = The League of Captain Obvious"es" There's no kind of mystery at power forward. Duncan would've been #1, ten years ago. 2 MVPs and 3 NBA Championships. #3 - #8 is a SERIOUS toss up, though. Elvin Hayes is a little low, even Bob Petit had some extraordinary accomplishments that was matched by any power forward until Malone and Duncan. Barkley and KG vs. Nowtizki is a drag out argument. Where's Chris Webber? Webber should be about 7 - 9. Even, Jerry Lucas, George McGinnis, Rasheed Wallace, and Dave DeBusschere (HM). I know people love Rodman and think his tenacity and toughness were unbeatable. I know Gasol is getting the popularity and the championship vote. But, I don't remember a single season where Rodman or Gasol would've been a more player to a team than Webber. Webber was an MVP-caliber player (top 5) for five to six seasons. While, he was a dominant rookie. Gasol or Rodman never expected to carry a team, while Webber was a go-to player for practically his entire career.
Explain. Webber still had better numbers playoffs. Also, remember Pau's highlights came on a team with Kobe, Bynum, and Odom. Pau was more of a role player at times, while Webber was almost always the main go-to guy.
Big Webber fan myself. I used to argue that replacing Duncan with KG or CWebb would have resulted in just as much success. I think those last 3 seasons where he was a decent role player but barely playing until finally retiring at the young age of 34 hurt his career image. Incredible that he's still basically a 20 and 10 player for his career even with those last years hurting his averages and to still average over 4apg and about 1.5 steals and blocks. That's an all around great right there. Don't remember how he was on defense though.
He is a tweener, hybrid, whatever you like to call him He mastered the C spot very well, he is not as tall as some of the traditional Centers but he found his way to play effective minutes there. and when paired up with a C he delivers and rebounds better than his C partner.
TD has been best PF of all time for quite a while.... Is there a reason people argue Malone is better than KG? I would pick KG over him every time if given a choice. Superior rebounder and defender, and could close the entire paint down. Malone a better scorer, but KG better in every other facet.
Webber has better numbers, but more deviation between regular season and playoffs. Recall his running from 4th Q shots, elimination game vs MIN and don't recall many clutch career moments. His "timeout" in college was the antithesis of clutch. You have a point though with Pau being more a role player compared to Chris. Rebounding a pretty a wash.. Garnett fell off severely after MIN. Post defense, Garnett gets an edge, but he can defend perimeter too. Malone's scoring far exceeds Garnett, by far. Kevin has longevity, but it still doesn't match Karl. Malone averaged 21ppg 36mpg 8rebs at age 39. Garnett hasn't averaged 20pts or 36mpg since MIN.
It's a shame KG wasn't more selfish and took more shots or had a pure pg feeding him all of his career. He's really just as good as a scorer as far as skill level, but Malone got to the line significantly more than KG. I will say Malone had to develop into a midrange shooter and a good free throw shooter. Gotta respect a guy who goes from 48% ft to almost 80%. You can see here the kind of player he developed to. You can also see that he and KG had the same type of faceup game, but Malone had quicker release and you gotta love those rainbow swishes. But....it's okay to hate his guts too. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uKedq1udBZ8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Malone got to the line more because he had much more post-game than Kevin. Kevin shot more fadeaway jumpers and jumpers in general. Both players had choke problems in the postseason overall.
I would say KG is more all around talented than both of them, as a package of physical & skills attribute, Rasheed Wallace was the best among them all, too bad his head can't match them to begin with. If we go further back, Derrick Coleman was one hell of a talent too.
i just think cweb is the all time best in terms of bball talent. just my opinion. but yours is just fine with me. what i sorta have a problem with is some rank dirk too high. i know he's got a ring, but in terms of bball greatness, he's clearly behind td, kg, cweb, and the hated karl malone. and i mean CLEARLY.
I'm taking KG over Duncan. More versatility, quickness, better overall defender. How different this conversation would be if Boston had gotten Duncan like they had tanked for.
I dont get the OP's point? Duncan is clearly the greatest PF all time and its not even close. 2-8 are debatable. I'd go Duncan Malone KG Dirk Barkley as my top 5
Switch Dirk over KG only becuz of playoff success as the "Man" , KG could never be the number one option and go to the finals twice and at least win once .
Yeah, i kinda forget about CWebb, he is like Duncan, an early injury robbed him much of his physical athleticism, but he more than made it up by developing his all around skills & improving his game -team first mentality. Rasheed has never had that injury problem though, a legitimate stretch 4 who was a bull dog in the paint defensively when motivated, and has post game too. Legit 6'11" with long wingspan, well built body, and above average athleticism at his position.
I'd put duncan as one of the GOATs easily. Consumate professional, healthy and ultimate leader. Sure you can easily find guys who had way more talent and were miles better as a player like Shaq, MJ, LBJ, Magic etc. etc. etc. but a lot of those guys had tons of drama, were divas or are obsessed with being the "greatest" and wanted to go to bigger markets to promote their brand. TD doesn't care about any of that and just goes to work day in and day out, every year for like 10+ ****ing years. And even with all that he's willing to take a discount if you can surround with good talent. It's no coincidence the Spurs are the winningest franchise in all of US sports, Pops had a lot to do with that but TD was just a big a factor, all the guy does is win. He's also so easy to build around since his game is like textbook C, post defender+scorer+with some hookshots and a working J, if you were designing your ultimate franchise guy it would be TD.
