I assume you mean 2000-'02. In 2000 Duncan was injured. In '01, his best wing player/2nd best player on the team was injured. In '03, Duncan beat Shaq and Bryant en route to a championship.
it's not my opinion. it's a likelihood calculator. http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/hof_prob.html a finals mvp doesn't not cut it. parker's had two all-star appearances? he's short, that helps, not so many assists/game, no reb/gm, pts/gm is not that high. manu won a euro championship, was an mvp there, won an olympic gold (best player on that team), three nba championships, and put south america on the basketball map. he's a lock. dave
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/hof_prob_career.html i stand corrected. he's well into the range of nba probability to get in, in front of 15 guys that are in (plus DJ that was just voted in). dave
Tim Duncan's NBA finals numbers against Dikembe Mutumbo (not too old) and Kenyon Martin (prime) Duncan completely dominated. His averages of 24.2 points, 17.0 boards and 5.3 assists and 5.3 blocks per game for the series. Doesn't dominate? WTF?
I think you missed the point. I've heard the argument about Shaq's hands being too large many times before. I've never heard the argument that he was too strong. That hasn't stopped him from developing really nice touch around the rim.
What part of his argument was wrong. Robinson was well past his prime. Sean Elliot was a very good role player, but we're not talking about a perennial all-star. Avery Johnson was a great leader, but definitely had a lot of shortcomings as a player (small, couldn't shoot). Ginobili and Parker have been really good, but have not had HOF NBA careers. Excellent point. Everyone seems to think you need to average 30+ points to be dominant. But Duncan would score in the post when his team needed a bucket, and anchored one of the best defensive teams of all time. He was dominant.
Kobe wasn't the Kobe we see today. He didn't reach his prime until 05-06. Imo Kobe in those years was not as good as a prime Pippen. And Ginobili+Parker>Kobe at that time. I didn't say Duncan was not dominant, Shaq was just more dominant then he was. Fisher/Horry/Fox and other role players were getting plenty of open looks because of Shaq's presence. If you didn't double or triple him he would score on you all night. And I don't remember Duncan ever played against Deke in the finals?
You could just as easily say, "stop letting defenders mug Shaq on every play and he wins the poll by even more."
Hell, I'd be happy with either one of them! Duncan on this one. He plays with a certain finesse I love to watch instead of brute force as implimented by Shaq (Not that there's anything wrong with this, but I just prefer the latter).
99-00 Shaq averaged 29.7 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 3 blocks a night. Duncan has never had a season with those kind of scoring or rebounding numbers.
I don't know how much of the difference this accounts for, but keep in mind that Shaq always played for faster paced teams. That's probably worth a couple of extra points/rebounds per game (although he still scored a lot more than TD).
