Scouting reports on Tim Duncan from the draft in 1997

[Im Still Ballin]

Some cool stuff here. From an old Usenet page. Getting comparisons to Hakeem, D-Rob, and Brad Daugherty. It's nice to see that people back then saw the similarities with Brad, although Duncan clearly was more explosive.

https://www.ibiblio.org/craig/draft/...t/scout/c.html

Duncan is the best player available in the draft and a lock to be the
first overall pick. He has the ability to become a NBA superstar.

Scouts have mixed opinions on Duncan's NBA position. He may be a more
dominant player early on in his career at power forward but has the
tools to be a dominant center. His position will depend on the team
that selects him.

In terms of comparisions I have heard David Robinson and Brad Daughtery.
I feel Hakeem Olajuwon is a closer comparison because of his mobility
and size.

In terms of physical skills Duncan has great mobility. He is capable of
consistantly beating his man down the court. He has long arms and
excellent timing for blocking shots. His footwork on post moves is
constantly improving.

In terms of basketball skills, Duncan has the total package. Duncan can
score is a variety of ways. He can take his man down low with an
assortment of post moves. He uses the glass well on his turn around
jump shot. He can also step outside and hit the mid-range jumper.
Duncan's passing ability is incredible for a player of his size and
experience. He led Wake Forest in assists. Duncan handles the ball
better than most post players.

Duncan greatest attribute is his defense. He averaged double figures in
rebounds in his final three years of college. This past season he
averaged close to fifteen boards a game. Duncan can swat shots with the
best of them. He is the all-time blocked shots leader in the history of
the NCAA.

Despite his overall game he has a few things to work on. His biggest
need is adding strength and weight. He will need to adjust to the power
of the NBA. He needs to continue to develop is offensive game. One
concern is his low free throw percentage (64%). However, his was his
lowest total of his four years.

As NBA Scouting Director, Marty Blake says "He may be the most complete
player to enter the NBA in the last ten years".

Tim Duncan is not the most talented player in this draft. However,
he is the best player in it, and he will be a successful NBA player,
both because of his style of play. For Duncan, it is simple: he plays.
He plays hard every minute, with confidence and emotion, at both ends of
the floor, and he plays to win. He has a winning attitude that will
greatly help the team that drafts him, going beyond what he will do that
shows up in the box score.
Duncan is the type of player who can lift his team with his play,
as he can take over games at either end of the floor, and is the
consummate team player. He can dominate defensively, as he is an
excellent shot-blocker and rebounder. At the offensive end, he is
constantly adding to his game, as he has expanded his shooting range
with time. When double-teamed, he will pass the ball back out to an
open teammate; he involves his teammates as though he were a point
guard, as he realizes that he alone will not win ball games.
Duncan will be a franchise player because he makes his teammates
better, in addition to being a great individual talent. He averaged a
double-double in each of his last two seasons in college, in scoring and
rebounding.
If Tim Duncan is not the first pick in the draft, the GM doing the
selecting will be referred to the best psychologist within a fifty-mile
radius. This holds even if the team selecting first is set at center,
as Duncan can play power forward as well.

Duncan is one of college's most dominating centers to play the game since
HAKEEM OLAJUWAN. Duncan makes all the right plays offensively which is
perhaps his only weakness is that it is raw but still devloping.
He is a HUGE defensive presence in the paint as a rebounder and a
shot-blocker. He isn't the kind of leader that some coaches would prefer.
But if you look at wake forest's record you'll see that he did just fine.
If he had desired to go into the past 2 drafts he would have been number
1 overall. But there is no douting that he is a huge talent that will
surely devolp into a fine superstar his averages
20.8 PPG, 14.7 RPG, AND 2.9 APG. This is the most complete player i've
sen in years

Tim Duncan-- An extraordinary college ballplayer; if you haven't seen
him night in and night out you can't appreciate it. Needed badly to
stay the extra year to work on his offense, but now has excellent
footwork inside. Can nail the mid-range J. Good rebounder, both
athletic and technical; reasonably good shot-blocker. Man defense not
really tested in the ACC (no other centers of note). Starts as a 12/10
guy like Mutombo (fewer blocks) but his work ethic could make him into
an Olajuwon type. To my mind a very easy #1 pick, the only guaranteed
star and the most probable superstar in the draft.
Worst he could be: Otis Thorpe with a few assists thrown in.
Best he could be: Olajuwon.

[90sgoat]

Cool find!

Yeah, Duncan was a big deal in the draft. I remember everyone agreeing that Duncan was basically a sure thing as an NBA superstar.

[Im Still Ballin]

Cool find!

Yeah, Duncan was a big deal in the draft. I remember everyone agreeing that Duncan was basically a sure thing as an NBA superstar.

I'm not sure there's ever been a player that was more complete/NBA-ready. Both physically capable and technically sound. He set a career-high in FG% and dunks as a rookie. Not to mention his mid-range numbers were really good as well. He shot 43% on 4 long two-point shots per game (10ft+). It was one of the top three best mid-range shooting seasons in his career. His two best were around 45.5% (2000) and 46% (2012).

[Xiao Yao You]

Cool find!

Yeah, Duncan was a big deal in the draft. I remember everyone agreeing that Duncan was basically a sure thing as an NBA superstar.

I think he had been thought of that way since his sophomore year of college

[rmt]

Great to see his mobility before knee surgery. The second scout said it best:

He plays hard every minute, with confidence and emotion, at both ends of
the floor, and he plays to win. He has a winning attitude that will
greatly help the team that drafts him, going beyond what he will do that
shows up in the box score.
Duncan is the type of player who can lift his team with his play,
as he can take over games at either end of the floor, and is the
consummate team player. He can dominate defensively, as he is an
excellent shot-blocker and rebounder. At the offensive end, he is
constantly adding to his game, as he has expanded his shooting range
with time. When double-teamed, he will pass the ball back out to an
open teammate; he involves his teammates as though he were a point
guard, as he realizes that he alone will not win ball games.
Duncan will be a franchise player because he makes his teammates
better, in addition to being a great individual talent.

[Im Still Ballin]

Legendary big man coach Pete Newell raved about Duncan back in 1999. Truly the "Big Fundamental."

A little over 17 years ago, Tim Duncan walked out of Madison Square Garden with his first Finals MVP and his first NBA championship. A few days before Duncan’s Spurs easily defeated the Knicks in the 1999 NBA Finals, I reached out to Pete Newell, one of the most influential coaches in the history of basketball who ran a celebrated camp for big men in Southern California. He was considered an expert on the low-post game. Among the players who over the years sought out his expertise to improve around the basket were…are you sitting?... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Walton, Shaquille O’Neal and Ralph Sampson, to name only a few.

“I teach big men to read and react," Newell told me. "Read what your opponent is taking away from you. And react to what he's giving you. It's a game of counters. And, I try to introduce big men to their feet.’’

So, I asked Pete Newell, did he ever have the pleasure of introducing Duncan to his feet?

Nope. Not at that point, with Duncan just completing only his second NBA season. And that's the way it would always be.

Plus, there was this little kernel from the great Pete Newell: He might have been only 23, but Duncan didn’t need his help.

His highly refined game impressed Newell to the point where the old University of California and U.S. Olympic coach readily admitted: "I wouldn't begin to tell you that he needs my camp. I think we could help him. But how much, I'm not sure.’’

As endorsements go, you couldn't get anything better from Pete Newell.

And just in case that wasn't enough, Newell went on to compare Duncan to Michael Jordan -- long before anyone ever linked the two.

Turns out, Newell never worked with Duncan. But he did know Duncan's college coach, Dave Odom, who used Newell's techniques to teach Wake Forest's big men. Back when the game was played "inside-out'' and 7-footers had the requisite skills to make it a big man's game, Newell's "Post Play'' video was on every coach's shelf in America. So there was a chance that Newell did work with Duncan. Just not in person.

Newell was a tough critic. But when it came to Duncan, he simply gushed.

"I go back to George Mikan," said Newell, who was around basketball for more than 70 years and died at 93 in 2008. "This kid Duncan has come into the pros with a total game. I haven't seen anybody close to him, just coming in. I haven't seen a center with the kind of skills he has, and the total game, since Bill Walton. But Bill just didn't have the offensive moves with his back to the basket that Duncan has. He's the complete package.’’

The only area Newell graded Duncan lower than Walton was in out-letting passes to get the fast break started. But since there were no fast breaks being run, Newell pointed out, what's the difference? The most surprising aspect of Newell's evaluation of Duncan? That's easy. When he started comparing him to Jordan, who the year before we talked had just finished up his Bulls career by winning his sixth championship.

Back then, nobody dared compare any player to Jordan. It was considered sheer lunacy. But when Newell made the parallel, you listened. And here’s what Newell said 17 years ago linking Duncan and Jordan:

"He's got intelligence, like Michael did. He is gifted, like Michael was. And like Michael, he is not satisfied with saying, 'I'm more gifted than the other guy' and relying on that. He tries to make use of these gifts. When Michael came into the league, he was an average shooter from the perimeter. When he left, you better get up on him. That just didn't come with age. It came with working and recognizing 'I don't care how gifted I am, I'm always looking to improve myself.’ That's why you saw that great confidence in Michael. Because he worked to make himself great. Duncan is from the same cookie cutter.’’

Then Pete Newell said something that looks pretty good today, with Tim Duncan announcing through the Spurs (naturally) that he is done playing basketball.

“He has the desire to be the best,’’ Newell said. “And I think before it's over, he will be.’’

He will be, Pete Newell assured me. Nope, he didn't couch it.

Duncan's career is over now. Was he the best? You can certainly argue that he was among 'em. He leaves the game with five championships, six trips to the Finals, two MVPs and three Finals MVPs. He put a sleepy town in South Texas, the smallest market in the NBA, on the professional sports map. Who saw it all coming, long before Tim Duncan made his case to be up on basketball's Mount Rushmore?

Pete Newell.

[90sgoat]

We're lucky that Jokic took over where Duncan left of, but I do miss the Spurs-Heat finals series, those were something else.

[rmt]

^ good find - hadn't read that one.

Speaking of MJ - there's a clip of him in a gym (in '98 after he'd won) where someone asked him who was the most talented player in the NBA. He didn't say TD was the most talented though - just said "Watch out for Tim Duncan" - high praise (I thought) for a rookie.

As far as the comparison to MJ is concerned, TD was competitive (video games, paintball, etc.) but nowhere near super competitve as MJ was - it's like he holds a grudge for anyone who ever slighted him whereas TD never cared what people thought.