So what ? Duncan carried the Spurs to 4 championships, while being the main defensive anchor in ring number five. No homerism, so obvious, LOL, you are entitled to your own opinion, no matter affected by the Rockets colored glass, it is fine, just don't claim otherwise.
First off, thanks for the responses. I wasn't addressing the OP's question. Duncan was 2nd Team All-NBA defense last year. Doesn't matter if some of that is rep and the fact SAS as a whole is the best defense, so a lot of that is him. And he continues at that end. My post was strictly a way to demonstrate via Duncan's historical numbers, that I just don't like DBPM or any other boxscore based measure of individual defense. They just are no good. Way too many assumptions are made. Second, I wanted to contribute to your comment above. People always bring up the hand check era. As a huge fan of NBA Defenses and Defensive systems, I always like to remind everyone that the removal of hand-checking was offset by the removal of the Illegal Defense rule. Illegal defense rules made it easy to clear out centers from the lane via stacking the weak side. Now Centers get to stay much closer to the basket, at will...with the only limit being the defensive 3-second rule. As for trying to use rules changes to explain why DBPM so erroneously ranks the careers of Hakeem, Deke, Howard and Rodman, I'm not one to care to attempt that. It's up to the creators of the stat to explain it, not us. Besides, if you look at the list, it is not really favoring one era over another. bottomline: most any poll will list Hakeem, Russell, Deke and Rodman in the top 5 defenders of all time. My guess is this huge oversite/flaw centers around how the boxscore-based stat uses rebounds. (And yes, I know Russell can't be in this stat.)
Spoken like a true Spurs fans. Calling someone a Homer for picking Hakeem over Duncan. Look in the mirror. Same could be said of you. Then you'll turn around some other day and talk about how important Ginobody was and it wasn't all Duncan.
I love Dream more than anyone but its arguable. Hakeem had an unbelievable 2-3 stretch where I would take him even over prime MJ, but TD IMO has been better for a longer stretch. The man is still good at age 39 now? LOL
You make a good point about the illegal defense rules. Anyway, I am not disagreeing with you - defensive stats are incredibly imperfect. My point was mainly that he was still an elite defensive force, but I think the DBPM has to be put in context of role and surrounding talent. But don't discount his experience, lightened offensive load, and lighter frame as well as better bigs that allow him to play a little more weak side defense. All in all, it's impressive that he's still so damn relevant defensively.
Lets not forget the quality of player he has to cover continues to get worse over the last decade on a nightly basis. Worse PF/C in today's NBA also most likely helps offset his aging a little bit. Not taking anything away from the guy, I believe he belongs in the top 5-6 all time.
No doubt - and if you consider that Hakeem guarded some of the all time great Centers and still dominated them defensively, that puts into perspective how special he really was. Still though, mad respect that Duncan can be this effective defensively at the age of 55.
Let's not forget he plays a position that usually drops off faster than guards and wings, and he's also apart of the group you're speaking of yet he continues to do well. There is something to be said for this guy and his consistency over the years.
Spurs are just saving him for the playoffs -- he of course has lost a step (or two), but he isn't 'done' quite yet.
I actually wondered if Duncan was done after the Mavs beat them in a first round series. That was back in 2009. He's obvisouly not a 25-12 every night anymore but he's still very effective for what they want from him.
Leading the league in DRPM and top ten in RPM -per December 24th, 2015 , not bad for a has been & already done player. :grin http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM
...or maybe he's just Spoiler done :grin: and i think this is a bad news for the Spurs cause: 1. they will not beat the Warriors without him 2. they'll have to sign a center this summer, so unless Pau is ok to sign for the MLE, they will use theur space to sign Pau and maybe a good/great bench guy, but not Durant for sure
Look at his per 36 numbers over the years. It's crazy consistent. His points have dropped this year but other categories are still on par with his career averages.
