He's had the best career but he's not the best player at his position. I'd argue he hasn't been the best player on his team for the last 5-7 years
You can make that argument. You would be wrong, but you can make it nonetheless. He isn't the best player now. At some point over the last 2 years Kawhi Leonard took over that role. But he was easily their MVP every year of his career prior to that. His on-off numbers have been top 10 in the NBA virtually every season, he was always top 5 in his prime. Even now with his reduced role, he is still a dominant defensive presence Ginobilli and Parker were never as important as Duncan. He didn't have flashy stats but he is an all time great defensive player.
Fifth Best Center doesn't have as good a ring. Popovich already stated his agenda years ago regarding Shaq. True, except postseason. Trust Pau to be more clutch.
If you classify him as PF he's the GOAT. If you'd classify him as a C, he'd still arguably be the best.
Dirk??? Better than Barkley and KG??? Of course i shouldn't expect any better from rankings that already have Curry as the 3rd greatest PG of all time and Durant as 3rd greatest SF. And Jerry West as a SG when he played all but 2 seasons of his entire career as a PG. Dirk is a one trick pony. He's not top 5 PF. You have to be great at both ends or at least incredibly well rounded offensively. Too much emphasis on a team accomplishment when discussing individual talent level. Tim Duncan hasn't even been the best player on his team for nearly a decade now. He's the Kareem(also wasn't the best player on his team for over a decade) of PF's...longevity and consistently winning and so you can guarantee you will see Kareem and Shaq ahead of Hakeem, when that is complete horse ****. Hakeem is the most versatile big man ever but bc he never had the teams Kareem and Shaq had, he's faulted for it?
Prime for Prime, take away organization and team, Kevin Garnet is a better basketball player than Tim Duncan. Charles Barkley is a better basketball player better than Tim Duncan. Karl Malone is a better basketball player better than Tim Duncan. It's also annoying how greats of the past are just basically ignored. Bob Pettit. Elvin Hayes etc
remember when we had that argument over Duncan is a PF or not ( you claiming he's not a PF) ? there's you're answer.
Lol, no... After that the Spurs picked up Nesterović and then what's his face... I can't remember and too lazy to look up. He didn't switch to Center until last year and this one. Obviously you could make the argument sometimes that his role seems more like a center but he's always been listed as PF in the box/stats. And another thing... Just look at all the all star games after Robinson (before the switch to backcourt/frontcourt voting only), and he was voted in as PF. Haha, some guys make the argument they did this on purpose to avoid votes against Shaq/Yao... But Duncan has always been a PF and will go into HOF listed as one.
