therealbig3 wrote:I feel dirty voting against Duncan, because he's my favorite player of all time, but how much of him playing well is him, or Popovich's system? In his prime, it was very clearly Duncan carrying the Spurs, no question, but now, I can't help but feel that the Spurs machine will keep chugging along with or without Duncan. He's an important part of their team, but he's just "one of the guys" at this point, rather than the MVP of the team. I think there's a legit debate about who the most important member of the Big 3 is.
I've been trying to say this for a bit of time now, but TD holds some demi-god status on many places on RGM.
The times that I've watched SA over the past two years, if there's any guy who's leading the gang consistently, it's TP in my eyes.
I'm not saying he's out and out leading the charge, but I feel like I have to divide leader of the team percentage on the Spurs, I'd give 45-40% TP, 37%-35% Duncan.
TP's impact is higher than what a lot of people give him credit for.
There's a reason why when Pop sits his starters SAS still competes well. His system is like a well-oiled machine.