Can you really hold it against Barkley, and Malone that they played in the time of the GOAT? No matter how much i hate Malone, i believe he and Barkley could have won a championship post Jordan era sooner than it took Dirk to win one and Dirk couldn't have carried a team to a championship in the Jordan era. KG was just a sad waste of extreme talent on a terrible teams. But, of course it's all what if's that mean nothing.
Meh, bad karma would have followed Karl Malone and he would have found a way to lose. He still played on great teams after MJ's retirement (most notably '99 and '04). He truly was a scumbag.
I think I agree with you exactly... but problem is, not sure who is #1. The issue, aside from the is he a center or power forward debate, is that Tim gets way too much credit, imo, for being so damn consistent. He's been the exact same really really really really good post player from the day he entered the league. It's also goes to show, imo, how the depth of talent in the frontcourt has both gotten much much smaller, and changed, over the years. Smaller as in there just aren't many great big men anymore, and changed in that Dirk and KG, while all-time greats, certainly aren't traditional big men. With regards to Duncan, if he was considered a center, I certainly wouldn't have him as a top 5 center of all time. He's a two time MVP, made the all-defensive first team a ridiculous number of times, but I don't think comes close to Hakeem, as an example, from a defensive standpoint... ok, close, but is certainly no Hakeem. He never averaged more than a steal a game... Hakeem averaged 1.7 for his career, including multiple years over 2. He never averaged more than 3 blocks per game, Hakeem's career average is 3.1, and averaged over 4 three times. He has been a great great rebounder, but still, Hakeem's all-time high rebounding season of 14 per game tops Duncan's high of 12.9 per game. Hakeem averaged 13+ rpg 4 times in his career, including one year averaging over 10 per game on the defensive glass alone... Duncan obviously none higher than 12.9, never higher than 9.7 on the defensive glass. I could go on... Not trying to be biased here. Again, maybe Tim is the #1 PF of all time. I have a hard time making a case for someone else being better. But again, if so, it's clear to me that I'd put Kareem, Russell, Wilt, Shaq, Hakeem ahead of Duncan on the all time list... so just speaks to how weak the PF position has been compared to the centers. As for Dirk, he's clearly moved up there. Obviously behind Duncan still, but not ridiculous to place him above KG, McHale. Maybe even ahead of Malone now, because of the ring, and how he dominated.
Finals averages: FG%: 0.416 3P%: 0.368 Season averages: FG%: 0.517 3P%: 0.393 Significant drop off in each. Dirk played poorly. Jason Terry, on the other hand, was money. (even though I hate him) Finals Average: FG%: 0.494 3P%:0.393 Season Average: FG%: 0.451 3P%: 0.362 Significantly better in both.
Um, no. Dirk played out of his mind in the WCF, better than his season stats. 32.2 points per game on 56% shooting
i meant to say Finals. They showed some top players every, and most stats were way down, except MJ if you call Dirk's finals bad, i can't argue with you. no point
Dude, I just showed you Jason friggin' Terry's stats in the finals. He was nutzo. How do you explain that? (Jason Kidd played better, too)
yes crazy stats for him. but i'm talking about the greats. They showed MJ, Magic, Kobe and dirks.. and i was a little surprised
didn't say that. Somebody used the argument that they couldn't b/c of MJ.. and i simply said they had 2 chances to win a finals, when MJ was not playing.
As I already said, he had an incredible WCF, and his 2nd round was good too. And trying to pass it off like it's not a big deal, "He didn't shoot well"... as if shooting the ball isn't 90% of Dirk's game and purpose on the floor? His postseason was overall very nice, but he did not play well in the Finals (by the standard he has set for himself at least).
