Curry vs Duncan, who ranks higher all time?

[zimpy27]

Yes there are ranking here but I'd like to see a 1 on 1 argument as to who is better all time.


Similarities: 2 MVPs, 4-5 championships, same number of non-1st All-NBA selections

Pro Curry: Scoring championships, led Olympic team to Gold (Tim led to a Bronze), all time greatest 3 shooter, higher career BPM (6.5 vs 5.6)

Pro Tim: 10-4 lead in 1st Team All-NBA, 15-0 All-Defense teams, 3 finals MVP to Curry's 1



What are your thoughts?

[pipfan]

I have the GOATs in tiers
KAJ/LBJ/MJ
Russell/Wilt/Duncan/Shaq/Magic
Curry/Kobe/Bird/Hakeem

Clearly Duncan to me

[zimpy27]

I have the GOATs in tiers
KAJ/LBJ/MJ
Russell/Wilt/Duncan/Shaq/Magic
Curry/Kobe/Bird/Hakeem

Clearly Duncan to me

I think Duncan had the longer peak, does the difference really come down to that?

Duncan was the far better defender while Curry was the far better offensive player.

[Blame Rasho]

The difference of accomplishments between them is a hall of fame player career but hey… people can choose to ignore that or not.

[SlimShady83]

Duncan, his my top 4 all time ... When it comes to my own opinion no wrong answer, ain't no body changing my mind on Duncan and I'm Kobe/Laker fan and love to hate Duncan at the same time. Curry Is In the top 10 though and should be In everyones books along with Duncan.

[penbeast0]

I have Duncan higher for his longer/stronger prime, though Curry may have peaked higher. Duncan's generation may have been the last one (until the next rule revision) where big men were generally more impactful than wings/guards. Since pace and space really took control of the NBA, it's even or tilted in favor of the smaller stars. And, of course, it was always easier to find a great small man than a great big man just due to the limited number of human beings 6'9 or above.

[mikejames23]

Duncan

- Beat LBJ in 2014
- Remarkably consistent
- Defense and maturity make him a Top 5 all timer candidate
- Top 5 all time peak

Curry is Top 10 worthy but not as good as Duncan IMO. Duncan's style can even challenge Kareem or Russell.

[PistolPeteJR]

Today, Duncan, and I don’t really see an argument for Curry above him tbh. I say this while saying I have Curry in my top-15 all-time. But Duncan is without question top-10 all-time for me.

[MacGill]

We are now including 'Olympics' in nba player rankings now.....?

Curry hasn't even broke into the top 10 in my list. 11-15 range with a long list of other ATG's, many who like Duncan, were strong 2-way players. While you cannot dispute that Curry is the greatest 3-point in league history, scoring isn't hard in the nba in comparison to anchoring a defence. Duncan wasn't a slouch offensively either.

[CodeBreaker]

One led Team USA to Gold with a historic performance. The other one got bronze and then never competed internationally again.

[jalengreen]

Think it’s weird to describe Curry as leading Team USA in 2024 when he … wasn’t really the leader in any sense. Duncan was, and failed, but we have not seen Curry lead an Olympics team as we have Durant, LeBron, etc.


Only saying this because the Olympics were mentioned - really not sure they should be factored into this discussion at all, but that’s debatable I suppose.

[AdagioPace]

One led Team USA to Gold with a historic performance. The other one got bronze and then never competed internationally again.

when you play along with Durant and Lebron, the teams "leads" itself to victory to be honest. Nobody led anything. Just great players taking turns against good teams. yeah, Duncan hated FIBA and he really felt those rules were like a handicap for him but his NBA career is stll better than Curry's

[Cavsfansince84]

I see Duncan as tier 1.5(1.0 being goat level). Steph just got into tier 2.0 imo.

[trex_8063]

Duncan comfortably for me. Don't see Curry catching him before his career is over, either. Two wildly awesome careers, though.

[xb3at band1tx]

duncan, amazing defensively player and in his prime a phenomenal offensive guy

[ardee]

I have Duncan higher for his longer/stronger prime, though Curry may have peaked higher. Duncan's generation may have been the last one (until the next rule revision) where big men were generally more impactful than wings/guards. Since pace and space really took control of the NBA, it's even or tilted in favor of the smaller stars. And, of course, it was always easier to find a great small man than a great big man just due to the limited number of human beings 6'9 or above.

Curry peaking higher than Duncan is hard to reconcile. Duncan's 2003 season was one of the most ridiculous carry-jobs of all time all the way to a title. I mean, hard to argue with 25/15/5 and 3 bpg in the Playoffs combined with all the ridiculous impact stats, and the way he raised his game in the later rounds against tougher opposition.

If you combine Steph's 2016 RS with his 2017 PS then sure he may have a case, but just as they are, it's hard to place any one Curry season over 2003 Duncan for me.

[tsherkin]

Duncan hits different for me. Steph's peak was great, but...

They match up well in the classical stuff in terms of rings and MVPs. All-NBAs, right? Duncan has all those All-D teams, and then I think Marcus Camby and Ron Artest/MWP stole DPOYs from him, but whatever. It's clear that defense was more his bag, certainly far more than Steph. And Duncan led ATG defenses, while Steph led ATG offenses. TD, especially pre-2007, was actually a pretty efficient scorer, and his raw volume is somewhat understated by the pace at which the Spurs played (and of the general era). And he had a net minor rise in his efficiency in the playoffs through 2007, which is a big deal given that most players have a net drop. So not only was Duncan a monster on D, he was also a somewhat underrated offensive player, and that goes beyond his scoring efficiency, of course.

So when you start talking about a two-way guy versus a one-way guy, similar accolades, similar team results, and the two-way guy went through a bunch of significant competition? I lean in that dude's direction. You can argue Steph's 2016 RS peak is in his favor over Duncan's. But then you have to look at playoff peak, and I think that leans more in Duncan's direction.

[iggymcfrack]

Should have a poll, but I think it’s clearly Duncan however you look at it.

Best individual season: Duncan (2003)
Years as best player in the league: Duncan 4-1
Longevity: Duncan
Rings: Duncan 5-4
Consistency: Duncan- He led the Spurs to 50 wins every single year while Curry had several years where he was severely hampered by injuries and other years where he was unable to lead his team to the playoffs even healthy.

Curry’s a top 10 player OAT but Duncan’s top 5.

[iggymcfrack]

I see Duncan as tier 1.5(1.0 being goat level). Steph just got into tier 2.0 imo.

It’s funny you mention half tiers, because I tend to always think of it as:

Tier 1: LeBron, Jordan
Tier 2: Hakeem, Duncan, Kareem, KG, Shaq
Tier 2.5: Curry

Like I think of them as a half tier apart also, but Curry’s the one who doesn’t quite fit with the all-time great big men, but still feels a little ahead of the next group.

[tsherkin]

So, let's talk about 2003.

San Antonio won 60 games. 7th on O, 3rd on D. Ranked 3rd in SRS and net rating. 20th in pace. +2.0 on O, -3.9 on D. Not their strongest showing by far, but still quite good, obviously. Tied Dallas for best record in the league.

They faced Phoenix, LA, Dallas and New Jeresey in the playoffs.

Phoenix was a 44-win team, dog-ass on offense, faintly above-average on D. Marbury sucked. Marion sucked. Amare was good, but a rookie and wasn't really in full form. He was still useless outside of 3 feet, he hadn't developed his J yet and didn't really have a diverse game yet. He was also 20 years old, so, you know. Not his fault. They were also still starting the remains of Penny Hardaway. So they didn't really have any chance of competing with the Spurs.

LA had won 50 games, they were 4th on O but 19th on D during the RS, then 7th during the PS. Shaq and Kobe were great. Fisher was strong. Devean George was not particularly good. Horry was COMPLETELY useless (and then hilariously dipped for San Antonio after). B Shaw was useless. And they gave meaningful minutes to Stanislav Medvedenko. They didn't really have much of a bench, nor a third scorer of proficiency. So that wasn't awesome. And the Spurs spanked them on O. They posted a team ORTG of 109.8, better than the 105.6 they managed during the RS. LA managed 103.5, worse than their RS 107.2. You can sort of infer the result from just that, but...

Duncan, in particular, absolutely spanked them, but Manu and Bowen were also very good support in low volume. They were 25/39 from 3, those two. Parker was crap, but whatever. And D Rob was a nice 20 mpg vet during that series. Duncan had a couple big scoring performances in the mid/high 30s during the series and closed LA out with 37/16 on 64% from the field. Parker had a great game in Game 6. Kobe had a 7-turnover game, and Fisher/George/Horry/Shaw/Pargo combined to shoot 5/26 from the field. Hilariously, Medvedenko shot 6/12. But yeah, the supporting cast was mostly brutal, and Kobe struggled pretty badly in that one. Shaq dropped 31/10/3 on 61% TS but it wasn't enough.

That series had 94 Rockets vibes all over it. Contributions at the right times from the other guys while the focal star dominated.

Then versus Dallas, Duncan posted 28/17/6 and 3 bpg on 60.3% TS. He OBLITERATED the Mavs. Stephen Jackson had a particularly strong series and the Spurs leveraged that strong post game and offensive rebounding to just smash the Mavs. Duncan faded a little as a scorer as the series wore on, but he had some big, punchy games early. And he opened with a 40-point disassembly of the Dallas front line. As ever, he anchored their D the whole way.

The Finals were one of the ugliest things I've ever seen, and very much not high on my list of favorite postseason matchups. Both teams were disgustingly poor on O, but TD still managed 24/17/5 on 54.6% TS, which was +2.1% over playoff league average that year. Fortunately for them, only Dikembe Mutombo and Anthony Johnson managed even a 49% TS for the Nets, and they combined for 19 shots, with Johnson only played 5 games. So you can imagine exactly how putrid was New Jersey's offense. They were hilariously bad. Not-Duncan wasn't much better, but TD was still crushing it well enough.

That was a big run from TD. He was a monster all the way through. He had guys come through at the right time, but it was mostly about his two-way dominance from start to finish.