[Fox Sports] Dream vs Duncan

Duncans offense is really not like dreams at all. Thats the point, no one seems to have the skill Dream had on the offensive end.

 

I think anyone who thinks that Duncan's offense is in any way comparable or bears any resemblance to Hakeem's offense should be forced to watch Clutch City DVDS for an entire weekend. Duncan essentially has NO moves. All he does is that face up and jumper and that face up fake where he tries to come up under the defender and draw a foul. Even Yao's repertoire of moves dwarfs Duncan's low post game. And Hakeem had all of Yao's moves as well as 2 or 3 countermoves per move, so there really is no comparison between Duncan and Hakeem's offense. You are comparing a guy with one or two moves to a guy with an inexhaustible array of moves which could not be stopped simply because if you stopped it, he would immediately move into his countermove. I am not even going to bother wasting my time listing the reasons why Hakeem's defense is also on a different level than Duncan's since I feel that should not be necessary on a Rockets message board.

 

Let me add that the rebounding issue is bogus as well. Duncan has been very consistent throughout his career, but has yet to reach the drop off of his later years. That Dream's rebound average is so close to duncan's tells you that in his prime, Dream was the better rebounder.

In fact, in Duncan's best year he averaged 12.9 rpg. Dream had 4 years with a higher average, topping out at 14.0 and leading the league twice in rpg, something Duncan has never done. Furthermore, there were three years where Dream had more total rebounds then Duncan's best year.

Dream had a higher rpg number than Duncan through his first 12 seasons, when, like Duncan, he never slipped into single digits. For years 13-18 he averaged 8.0 rpg. We'll see how Duncan does in those later years.

Duncan has led the league in individual categories 4 times: Total rebounds (2), free throws, and defensive rebounds.

Dream? 18 times he led the league in an individual category:

Field goal attempts, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds (2) total rebounds (2), blocks (2), personal fouls (OK, not that great a category to lead the league in... but it means he was challenging shots), rebounds per game(2), blocks per game(3), offensive rebound %, defensive rebound % (2), and total rebound %.

(I didn't count "games played.")

 

I like how no one seems to mention, the quality of competion that Hakeem faced as apposed to Duncan, and remember the leauge had completly diffrent rules, none of these powder soft foul calls we see today.

 

Great points. Also, don't forget that Barkley was sucking up a lot of the rebounds once he got here.

 

didn't know dream led the league in fouls.

 

More stat comparisons:

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best ppg: 4

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best bpg: 10

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best spg: 18

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best drpg: 2

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best orpg: 9

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best trpg: 4

Number of years Dream beat Duncan's best apg: 0
(Can't win them all.)

 

If you want to compare their rebounding prowess by the numbers, compare their rebound-rate over the first 12 years of their respective careers.

The per-game stats can be misleading, considering that Olajuwon played the bulk of his career in the faster-paced 80s and early 90s where there were more possessions per minute (consequentially, more opportunities to collect stats).

Code:

 [B]                Olajuwon                      Duncan
Season    ORB%      DRB%      TRB%      ORB%      DRB%      TRB%[/B]
1         16.9      20.4      18.7      10.5      23.8      17.6
2         14.4      19.8      17.1      9.7       22.2      16.3
3         12.7      21.3      17.1      10.8      24.8      18.1
4         11.2      24.1      17.7      9.7       25.1      17.8
5         12.2      27.2      19.8      9.6       25.9      18
6         10.3      28.3      19.5      9.9       27.3      19
7         11.4      28.3      19.9      10.2      27.6      19
8         10.7      24.7      17.8      10.7      28.2      19.4
9         10.5      25.9      18.7      10.1      26.9      18.7
10        8.2       23.3      16.2      9.8       27        18.7
11        7.3       23.1      15.6      10.7      28.3      19.6
12        7.3       24        15.9      9.4       26.6      18.1
Avg       11.0      24.2      17.8      10.2      26.9      18.7

In the last row, I calculated a weighted average of their Reb-R's based on minutes played each season. That's one way to look at it.

 

why post stats?
its about what's in your heart.
its about the non believers.
its about beating the best.
its about representing a city from the day you step off the cab as a student
to the day you have a statue in front of a stadium that steve francis built

 

Unfortunately, there are those who elevate stats above all those other things. If you can use stats to get them to open their eyes and realize what it is really all about, then that's good.

 

Garnett seems a better comparison, but he relies more on his length in the post, while Olajuwon relied on his combination of elusive quickness and strength.

 

It is hard for me to imagine anyone in semi-present style basketball, Jordan included, being as dominant as Hakeem was during the Championship years. He was the best player in the world during those two years and that is not to discount his entire body of work, just to say during those two years there was not a better basketball player on the planet.

 

Otis Thorpe grabbed a whole bunch of rebounds as well.

 

Back then you could get away by putting two hands on post players. Anthony Mason practically used all 6 of his limbs to try to push Hakeem out of the block in the finals. Mason should have fouled out within 5 minutes if we go according to today's rules.

 

Icehouse, very well put. This is exactly what I tell people when the debate between the two comes up.

 

The long time Spurs fans can be happy they have more championships than us, but they do remember 95 cause it happened in their house.

and there was alot of people wearing red in that alamodome too.

we were all witness

 

San Antonio had to borrow Rocket legends in order for them to win anyways

Mario Elie
Robert Horry

 

hes got it backward i think, Dream did have better moves with no doubt.

 

And Sampson before him.