Undeniable Truths About Tim Duncan

[ArbitraryWater]

This guy

i second "that guy".

[Kblaze8855]

still "this guy" i see a couple moves and mostly getting bird fed, stop it.

You see turnaround jumpers, faceup drives across the lane, hooks with both hands, finishing as the roll man, right handed finger rolls going left….you see basketball. Effective basketball. It just isn’t very much appreciated in the era of tik tok highlights and tweets telling fans what good is.

[ArbitraryWater]

You see turnaround jumpers, faceup drives across the lane, hooks with both hands, finishing as the roll man, right handed finger rolls going left….you see basketball. Effective basketball. It just isn’t very much appreciated in the era of tik tok highlights and tweets telling fans what good is.

i saw 6 non bird-fed baskets.

this is kinda like you showing that one russell highlight to prove he surely could have scored a lot more cause look at this!!

[Kblaze8855]

What point do you think you’re making? David Robinson was at 8 and change makes a game for 4 of his 6 prime seasons. Think he got a couple dump offs or finished some rolls for the 8-9? Zo only made it to 8 made field goals a game 2 seasons. Jokic averages 9 made shots a game. Think a couple easy ones might be mixed in? Prime KG had seasons at 8. I seem to remember a quick dunk or two off penetration or a rebound. Duncan averaged 7 made shots a game when he was 29.

How do you think it’s supposed to look?

It being something he could likely replicate pretty easily is the whole point. He didn’t need to do much to score. He chose to do other things when he could have made those plays you’re unimpressed by most if not all of his career.

[DMAVS41]

What point do you think you’re making? David Robinson was at 8 and change makes a game for 4 of his 6 prime seasons. Think he got a couple dump offs or finished some rolls for the 8-9? Zo only made it to 8 made field goals a game 2 seasons. Jokic averages 9 made shots a game. Think a couple easy ones might be mixed in? Prime KG had seasons at 8. I seem to remember a quick dunk or two off penetration or a rebound. Duncan averaged 7 made shots a game when he was 29.

How do you think it’s supposed to look?

It being something he could likely replicate pretty easily is the whole point. He didn’t need to do much to score. He chose to do other things when he could have made those plays you’re unimpressed by most if not all of his career.

The "Duncan couldn't score" narrative in 2023 shouldn't surprise me because of how insane things get about the past, but I must admit I did not see having to debate whether or not Duncan could get 25 if he was a far more selfish player that took 20 plus shots a game.

[Prometheus]

I have had several discussions recently about how the impact of a basketball player is far more difficult to quantify than in most other sports. My best friend is a huge baseball fan, and I think baseball is its polar opposite in this way.

Tim Duncan might be the best example of this principle. He has to be - in the modern era at least. I suspect if I was old enough to have watched basketball in the 1960s, I would feel the same way about Bill Russell.

We spend so much time analyzing statistics, from the box score numbers to the advanced analytics - and yet, much of what leads to winning basketball is virtually impossible to quantify.

Do the best, most impactful players typically generate more impressive numbers than others? Yes. But the only numbers that actually matter - ever - are the numbers on the scoreboard. The impact of any player is simply a question of how his presence on the court correlates to the score of the game.

It's not like Duncan's metrics weren't impressive... but I don't think they come remotely close to capturing his greatness. He was an extremely intelligent, selfless, poised, focused, emotionally steady competitor. Every last thing he did - on the court, in the locker room, in practice - was geared toward winning. The purest of intentions. His coachability, as mentioned in the OP... his selflessness on offense, especially in his twilight years, as pointed out by blaze... his defensive greatness... his calm, positive attitude... Everything was about winning basketball games.

EDIT: typo

[rmt]

I have had several discussions recently about how the impact of a basketball player is far more difficult to quantify than in most other sports. My best friend is a huge baseball fan, and I think baseball is its polar opposite in this way.

Tim Duncan might be the best example of this principle. He has to be - in the modern era at least. I suspect if I was old enough to have watched basketball in the 1960s, I would feel the same way about Bill Russell.

We spend so much time analyzing statistics, from the box score numbers to the advanced analytics - and yet, much of what leads to winning basketball is virtually impossible to quantify.

Do the best, most impactful players typically generate more impressive numbers than others? Yes. But the only numbers that actually matter - ever - are the numbers on the scoreboard. The impact of any player is simply a question of how his presence on the court correlates to the score of the game.

It's not like Duncan's metrics weren't impressive... but I don't think they come remotely close to capturing his greatness. He was an extremely intelligent, selfless, poised, focused, emotionally steady competitor. Every last thing he did - on the court, in the locker room, in practice - was geared toward winning. The purest of intentions. His coachability, as mentioned in the OP... his selflessness on offense, especially in his twilight years, as pointed out by blaze... his defensive greatness... his calm, positive attitude... Everything was about winning basketball games.

EDIT: typo

Ditto - TD did whatever it took to win - whether it was carrying the team early on (I shudder when I think of the wild, out of control 2nd year Parker and rookie Manu), slowly relinquishing the offense so that they could develop and shine or taking a back seat (offensively - not defensively) later on - all for the betterment of the team. It was a fantastic run of sustained excellence, and I miss those days.

[Im Still Ballin]

What point do you think you’re making? David Robinson was at 8 and change makes a game for 4 of his 6 prime seasons. Think he got a couple dump offs or finished some rolls for the 8-9? Zo only made it to 8 made field goals a game 2 seasons. Jokic averages 9 made shots a game. Think a couple easy ones might be mixed in? Prime KG had seasons at 8. I seem to remember a quick dunk or two off penetration or a rebound. Duncan averaged 7 made shots a game when he was 29.

How do you think it’s supposed to look?

It being something he could likely replicate pretty easily is the whole point. He didn’t need to do much to score. He chose to do other things when he could have made those plays you’re unimpressed by most if not all of his career.

I have had several discussions recently about how the impact of a basketball player is far more difficult to quantify than in most other sports. My best friend is a huge baseball fan, and I think baseball is its polar opposite in this way.

Tim Duncan might be the best example of this principle. He has to be - in the modern era at least. I suspect if I was old enough to have watched basketball in the 1960s, I would feel the same way about Bill Russell.

We spend so much time analyzing statistics, from the box score numbers to the advanced analytics - and yet, much of what leads to winning basketball is virtually impossible to quantify.

Do the best, most impactful players typically generate more impressive numbers than others? Yes. But the only numbers that actually matter - ever - are the numbers on the scoreboard. The impact of any player is simply a question of how his presence on the court correlates to the score of the game.

It's not like Duncan's metrics weren't impressive... but I don't think they come remotely close to capturing his greatness. He was an extremely intelligent, selfless, poised, focused, emotionally steady competitor. Every last thing he did - on the court, in the locker room, in practice - was geared toward winning. The purest of intentions. His coachability, as mentioned in the OP... his selflessness on offense, especially in his twilight years, as pointed out by blaze... his defensive greatness... his calm, positive attitude... Everything was about winning basketball games.

EDIT: typo

Great posts.