How many rings does a Kobe and Duncan duo win?

[T_L_P]

its more about the timing and when they can score. Obviously the spurs being more team oriented with ball movement, every player gets a great chance. Pop favorites duncan and gives him more chances to score, you know with him being a 7footer and all. Its in the clutch when it matters and when they gotta give the ball to a parker or a manu who can create shots and score the points. Duncan is more of a super role player like a danny green who excels at what he does best at.

The ball didn't move that much in 03.

In fact, I remember reading that no title team relied on isolating one player more than the 03 Spurs did with Duncan, so your point about him not being able to create his own shot is pretty bad trolling.

Also, you're talking about 03 Parker in the clutch now? You do realise Pop benched Parker in the clutch for Speedy Claxton?

[scandisk_]

2002
2003
2004 - Detroit's year
2005
2006
2008
2009
2010 - 2011 champ fatigue

7 rings at least

And no doubt Mamba and Duncan's team would be rebuilt every other year.

[aj1987]

Why 2008? Duncan is an improvement over Gasol. Like I said depending on role players. 2001 and 2002 isn't debatable to me. 2013 is the one most in question ... but assuming 2013 caliber Spurs role players? Definitely beat the Heat that needed a miracle to even beat that Spurs team.

The salary caps wouldn't work. Kobe's not going to take anything less than the max. How do you think Green/Neal/Leonard are gonna go off, when Kobe's taking ~20+ shots a game? '13, the Heat take it EASILY. Also, if that was a miracle, then what about Green, Parker, and Neal? TP hit a ridiculous GW, Green was just throwing up shots and everything went it (wasn't bad defense either), and as Neal.

The '01 and '02 Lakers were just Shaq + Kobe + role-players. Those teams were nothing special outside the big 2. Those teams needed Shaq averaging ~29/13/3 to win ~56 games. The '01 Spurs wasn't a great team either, but the '02 Spurs was decent.

2008, the Celts take them. You guys are forgetting about players health and fatigue. If all your previous hypotheticals are spot on, that means the Lakers core would be running on fumes. Duncan sure is an improvement, but they aren't going to beat the Celtics with the milage they have.

EDIT: The Spurs are a force in the WC. Who's gonna replace them? Shaq started declining by '06.

[DMV2]

Depends on who Shaq has during 1999-04 years. I honestly think Shaq would have still got a 3-peat with somebody like T-Mac.

Duncan-Kobe would win 99, 03, 05 with getting all the FMVP but then Kobe will push Duncan out of town like he did to Shaq.

[AintNoSunshine]

Not sure whether people who say every year they play together are serious. That would be a similar situation as Duncan/Ginobili, but Phil isn't as good as Pop, so I'd say 2-3 if they have Parker, if not then 1 or 2.

[rmt]

its more about the timing and when they can score. Obviously the spurs being more team oriented with ball movement, every player gets a great chance. Pop favorites duncan and gives him more chances to score, you know with him being a 7footer and all. Its in the clutch when it matters and when they gotta give the ball to a parker or a manu who can create shots and score the points. Duncan is more of a super role player like a danny green who excels at what he does best at.

You obviously didn't watch the Spurs in 03 and want to re-write history. There was no emphasis on ball movement - that's been an emphasis only in the last few years. Back in 03, it was 4-down - dump the ball into Duncan, watch him score, get doubled or pass the ball out for an open 3. Parker was benched in the last quarter of the last game in the Finals. Manu was a rookie who averaged 9.4 pts in the playoffs. Duncan led the Spurs throughout the whole playoffs in points, rebounds, assists and blocks - he carried a massive load - not some role player role like you wish.

[dubeta]

Lmao Duncan relies on a team offense where he can be a contributor, in a free flowing offense.

Kobe ball would render him into a spot-up shooter. Has Duncan ever won a ring being a spot-up shooter? Though so.

[24-Inch_Chrome]

Lmao Duncan relies on a team offense where he can be a contributor, in a free flowing offense.

LeBron ball would render him into a spot-up shooter. Has Duncan ever won a ring being a spot-up shooter? Though so.

Fixed.

Duncan's not playing with LeBron though, he's safe.

[SsKSpurs21]

Some of Kobe's issues around Shaquille O'Neal had to do with both his attitude (i.e., his insecurities) and also lack of overall work ethic, which Kobe did not respect.

With Duncan being a much more respectful teammate and a much harder worker than Shaq, the dynamic would work very well between Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. The duo could win six, seven or eight titles together.

agreed. They would learn to co-exist. I think the issue with shaq and kobe is that they both wanted the spotlight. kobe obvious jealous that shaq was getting the attention and decided that he was going to singlehandedly win games. iam sure some of that was fueled by people in kobes ear telling him hes better and shaq also throwing it in his face.

[houston]

they would be the new age magic and kareem

[tamaraw08]

They SHOULD win every year if both in their primes, but I don't think it would work out that way. Kobe's teams have always struggled in crunch time due to his hijacking the offense and refusing to let more efficient teammates shoot the ball. Would Kobe be willing to defer to the superior player in Duncan down the stretch of close playoff games? He wasn't willing to defer to the most dominant player ever in prime Shaq, so I doubt he'd be willing to do so with Duncan.

I'm not a great Kobe fan but if you watch closely, Kobe has been willingly passing the ball when it's needed, well except the finals vs Detroit.
Their most dominant playoffs was in 2001. He sat down for 14 games and observed how great the team was when they moved the ball without him.
When he came back, they went on a roll and pretty much demolished every team.
Swept the Blazers where he had 8 assists/game.
Against the heavily favored Spurs, Shaq didn't really dominate, so Kobe had to step up big time and upset them there 2 straight games. When they came back to LA, His teammates regain confidence, Kobe again shared the ball and collected 19 assists in 2 games.
Under the triangle system, I can't recall many players collecting more than 8 assist/game.