Pippen was awesome but you always wanted him taking the shots on those Bulls teams. Anyone other than Jordan who could score at will with two guys on him and a third running at him. Once Jordan used this defensive attention and started passing to Paxson and then Kerr, he won championships.
and Robert Horry is greater then Kobe... good point! As for Curry vs whoever comparisons, I think you have to factor in how much his deep ball stretches the D to measure his impact. Draymond gets many of his assists after the D commits 2 defenders to trapping Curry out beyond the 3 point line giving the W's a 4 on 3 advantage. Green tallies the assists, but it's Curry's perimeter threat that creates the situation. STOMP
How many other teams have been burned by picking up the Spurs "great" role players only to find out the are mediocre and that the Spurs system and Greg Popovic is so efficient any player who is willing to buy in will look way better than they actually are? It reminds me of the Nash lead Phoenix Suns era where quite a few guys ended up getting well paid by other teams are were just "meh". Remember Quentin Richardson? Raja Bell? James Jones?
You're fighting the good fight. People have such short memories. And some don't have a frame of reference for things that happened before they were old enough to observe it first hand, or in some cases, even born. Curry is a phenomenal shooter. His teammates benefit by him stretching the floor. But he should not be in the conversation for best NBA player of all time. Just my opinion of course. Worth about 2 pesos last time I checked.
He's great...as a Spur. But I suspect if he were the #1 option on any other team, with teammates who are similar to his current teammates, he'd be battling to make the POs and a more apt comparison would be Anthony Davis rather than Curry.
The thing is, Davis had elite tools from the get-go, and his presumed expected dominance is based on those. Leonard has become elite through development. I'm amazed at how his shooting percentages have gone up as his usage has increased, and let's not ignore that he's now almost a 90% FT shooter as well. I mean, he could be a 50/40/90 guy PLUS an elite defender. This...doesn't really happen. http://bkref.com/tiny/fMunz
OK--that was pretty funny. Guess I should have said "Anthony" and "Kawhi" so nobody thought I meant Ed and Meyers...
And everything he does would take a hit if he were playing on any other team. He's great, but much of his greatness is because of who he's playing for. On any other team he'd be Paul George - very good, but IND is a bottom rung PO team.
So, by the same logic, Duncan would have been Carlos Boozer if he played anywhere else? Shouldn't Aldridge be feeling that Spurs' system bump by now? It's one thing to point out how much the Spurs' system helps role players, and it's inarguable. But "systems" don't create premier talents.
Maybe not Boozer, but maybe Barkley? Ewing? Malone? The thing about Duncan is that he's the most fundamental player I've ever witnessed - to use him as an example doesn't make a strong argument. LMA is more effective than he's ever been...but he's not smart enough or good enough to do that with increased usage. I do think that system has created premier talents. If Parker had been drafted by us, and coached by Nate, he'd probably be Isaiah Thomas (current edition, not DET edition). Pops made Parker who he is...and at one point that was a Top 3 PG, and a Finals MVP.
Umm Malone never won a ring, but I wouldnt put Duncan over him overall. Look at Malone's numbers... Malone was better than either Ewing or Barkley.
Tim Duncan never played with the all time leading assister. Malone simply is not to defender that Tim Duncan was. Tim Duncan is by far the best power forward of all time.
