Who would you rather build around ,prime Kobe or prime Tim Duncan?

[HacksawJimThuggin]

Duncan and it's not close

 

[Prodyson]

Edit:

I think it depends on who is available after I pick one of the two...

If there are slew of top notch permiter players available... ala Wade, MJ, Lebron, Durant, etc, and there aren't a lot of big men... I'm going with Duncan

The question is "who would you build a team around"... not "who is better." Kobe is better than Duncan, but the team with the best player in the league doesn't always win the Championship

I think it would be easier with Duncan because he doesn't limit what othe players you can put around him. But if you're telling me that Dwight Howard, David Robinson, or Patrick Ewing are still available... I'm probably gonna go with Kobe

 

[Mic-Nificent]

It's always easier to build around a dominant big than a dominant perimeter player. That's simply the nature of the game.

The thing about Duncan though is that he had a quicker drop off than Kobe. Kobe is still an elite player in this league while Duncan is barely an elite player at his position at this point in his career.

 

[MrFantastic]

Also every single dominant big man has had quicker sucess than a dominant wing. Going by past examples.. Kobe would not had been leading his team to the chip early in his career..

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Also every single dominant big man has had quicker sucess than a dominant wing. Going by past examples.. Kobe would not had been leading his team to the chip early in his career..

But we're not talking about them early in their career we're talking about them during their Prime....

 

[OG Talk]

Also every single dominant big man has had quicker sucess than a dominant wing. Going by past examples.. Kobe would not had been leading his team to the chip early in his career..

Like Hakeem who was drafted the same day as Jordan but didn't win his first ring until Mike already had 3?


Or David Robinson that didn't win his first until Pippen already had 6?




It seems like you are cherry picking your past examples

 

[King Jove]

Like Hakeem who was drafted the same day as Jordan but didn't win his first ring until Mike already had 3?

hakeem made the finals in 2nd year tho

 

[superunknown23]

2003 Western Conference semis, game 6

Two weeks later, Kobe took his rage out in Colorado...

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Yall do realize that rings are primarily a team accomplishment right?

 

[OG Talk]

hakeem made the finals in 2nd year tho

Yeah that is moderate success.. '95 Magic status..

 

[Jplaya2023]

It's always easier to build around a dominant big than a dominant perimeter player. That's simply the nature of the game.

The thing about Duncan though is that he had a quicker drop off than Kobe. Kobe is still an elite player in this league while Duncan is barely an elite player at his position at this point in his career.

Duncan was the man from day 1, and had to do the heavy lifting early which quickly led to his deterioration as a big man. Kobe was the 2nd option for 8 years in his career and took over the lakers in 05 during his prime. So it's natural for him to still be a great player today while duncan declines.

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Yeah that is moderate success.. '95 Magic status..

In what muthafukking universe is making it to the NBA finals "moderate success"?

 

[superunknown23]

In what muthafukking universe is making it to the NBA finals "moderate success"?

especially since it was the only team to prevent the Lakers from making the Finals between 1982-1990

 

[FTBS]

It's always easier to build around a dominant big than a dominant perimeter player. That's simply the nature of the game.

The thing about Duncan though is that he had a quicker drop off than Kobe. Kobe is still an elite player in this league while Duncan is barely an elite player at his position at this point in his career.

Too many people respond to to flash more so than effectiness and impact and therefore do not understand this concept.

As far as Duncan dropping off quicker he also started up quicker. Duncan was a 20/10 All-NBA guy out the gate meanwhile Kobe took a couple years to even start. Pop has been conserving Duncan's minutes since he was in his late 20's and Duncan hasn't played more than 35 min per game since 04. And he's always been an unselfish team first guy. He's never even taken 20 shots per game for a season meanwhile Kobe has done it 11 times. I'm sure if he wanted to, Tim could play more minutes and take more shots but thats not him. Duncan's impact can't be fully quantified by the stat sheet.

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Duncan was the man from day 1, and had to do the heavy lifting early which quickly led to his deterioration as a big man. Kobe was the 2nd option for 8 years in his career and took over the lakers in 05 during his prime. So it's natural for him to still be a great player today while duncan declines.

Yall grossly overplay that 2nd option bullshyt...Kobe was consistently logging more minutes than Shaq was during that period and was had to score as much as if not more than Shaq did at times.

I can give Duncan maybe two years of having to contribute more than Kobe but saying 8 years is a huge fukking reach. Those Spurs teams were WAY more balanced than the Lakers were.