Let's settle this. Do you think of Duncan as a PF or C?

[ciueli]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Tim was a great player, no doubt, but he was extremely lucky to play with other stars and Hall of Fame caliber players throughout his NBA career. David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kahwi Leonard. Throw in Greg Popovich as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the Spurs organization as one of the best run teams of the late 90s and 2000s and he was set up extremely well to succeed.

[art_tatum]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Tim was a great player, no doubt, but he was extremely lucky to play with other stars and Hall of Fame caliber players throughout his NBA career. David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kahwi Leonard. Throw in Greg Popovich as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the Spurs organization as one of the best run teams of the late 90s and 2000s and he was set up extremely well to succeed.

Then what the hell is lebron? He was on the team too and duncan only took 4 shots more

Allen iverson not surprising took the most shots of the team and shot .378 while duncan was at .587 and like 3rd on shots.. Failure all around from roster to coaching to players

[NO-KG-AI]

If I’m building a team, he’s playing C, unless I have some unicorn C that basically doesn’t exist, or someone who is also a C, and I’m trying to make a mediocre fit work based on pure talent.

I think your team is better on both ends of the floor with him at C than it is at PF. I don’t think you need a substantial amount of rim protection, rebounding, and post play if you got Timmay. He can handle all that, and you can put a switchy, shooting, more athletic and versatile guy at the 4.

I’d certainly explore big lineups though.

Fyi, I’d do the same things with KG, maybe a little more units with him at the 4, but I think teams have figured out how to optimize lineups, and these guys would play a lot more 5 than they did (and even in a less optimized era, KG played 25% of his minutes at the 5, and Duncan 63%, which is admittedly a little more heavily skewed for Duncan as he played 100% of his minutes at C basically from 2007 on)

Versatility is always good though.


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[Ballerhogger]

His talent ascended one position.

[Ballerhogger]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Tim was a great player, no doubt, but he was extremely lucky to play with other stars and Hall of Fame caliber players throughout his NBA career. David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kahwi Leonard. Throw in Greg Popovich as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the Spurs organization as one of the best run teams of the late 90s and 2000s and he was set up extremely well to succeed.

Then what the hell is lebron? He was on the team too and duncan only took 4 shots more

Allen iverson not surprising took the most shots of the team and shot .378 while duncan was at .587 and like 3rd on shots.. Failure all around from roster to coaching to players

Lebron is Point Foward like magic who can shoot. so goat lvl talent.

[NO-KG-AI]

Some of the arguments for an against the title are ridiculous. Tim was playing a ton of PF, because he’s a ridiculous basketball talent, but it was also a by product of an era that wasn’t maximizing his value IMO. Teams insistence on playing mediocre to bad players just because they were 7’ hurt the entire league, and the Spurs. The Spurs offense went into supernova mode when they slid Tim to the 5 full time, and their defense didn’t suffer as much. Despite it not being prime Tim.

Just have to ask yourself, would you rather have Tim and an average 4 man, or Tim and the average 5, which is clearly an inferior player, and brings less synergy and more overlap?

Tim can play the 4 enough to be called a 4 I guess. I don’t know why people even care. Almost no one plays one position, and it doesn’t effect his all time ranking at all. He’s top 10 all time EASILY, even if he’s a C.

[LAL1947]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Tim was a great player, no doubt, but he was extremely lucky to play with other stars and Hall of Fame caliber players throughout his NBA career. David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kahwi Leonard. Throw in Greg Popovich as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the Spurs organization as one of the best run teams of the late 90s and 2000s and he was set up extremely well to succeed.

Good point, it never gets remembered enough in TOP 10 debates. Tim Duncan wasn't starting on that team, he was the CAPTAIN of that team, along with Iverson. First and only US Men's Olympic Basketball team that didn't win the gold medal in 32+ years and counting. Tim Duncan (as well as Lebron and Dwayne Wade) needed Kobe Bryant to rejoin the team and rescue the greatness of the legacy they had lost.

[LAL1947]

Allen iverson not surprising took the most shots of the team and shot .378 while duncan was at .587 and like 3rd on shots.. Failure all around from roster to coaching to players

Don't forget leadership. Tim Duncan and Iverson were captains of that 2004 team. We've all heard and read the stories coming from the players themselves (even Lebron), of the impact that Kobe's leadership and work ethic had on all of them in 2008.

[old skool]

Positions don't matter all that much, but haven't seen a thread on this in a while.

What do you think?

I don't think that a discussion on RealGM has ever settled anything.

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[Jasen777]

I think of him as a C because when they listed him as a F it caused Dirk to miss too many all-star game starting lineups.

[HEAT33]

If David Robinson was not there, he would be a traditional Center. He was just forced to play PF and he had the skill to play it too

[SNPA]

GOAT PF. Period.

Agreed. Bird is clearly the GOAT PF.

This post, acknowledging the way players play instead of how they're listed, inspired me to share my modern all-time starting five (according to ability, fit, and personality):

PG - Magic Johnson (defensive SF)
SG - Stephen Curry (defensive PG)
C - Tim Duncan
PF - Larry Bird
SF - Michael Jordan (defensive SG)

Flame away!

I’m glad people are finally noticing the inspirational force of my posts.

[Cubbies2120]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Because all the other stars in the league weren't interested in going.

[LAL1947]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Because all the other stars in the league weren't interested in going.

How many more stars does one need to win against teams that didn't even have 1/3rd as many?

Tim Duncan (Captain)
Allen Iverson (Captain)
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Carmelo Anthony
Amar'e Stoudemire
Shawn Marion
Stephon Marbury

The only star missing is the one who was a cut above all the rest during the decade of 2000-2010, Kobe Bryant.
He had to withdraw because of the sexual assault case.

[kodo]

It's depends on which era is defining the term PF.
Back then, there were guys like Kevin Willis at 7' 0" and was listed as PF almost his entire career. His game was 100% center by today's standards.

I don't know if Tim Duncan really changed when he switched from PF to C, I think the NBA changed around him but he always played the same.

[celticfan42487]

Always was and always will be a Center

[DoctorX]

He kicked everyone's ass and in my opinion is one of the greatest 6 players of all time.

If he's a top 6 player All-Time, why did he come home with an olympic bronze medal in 2004 while his teammate Manu Ginobili won gold with a much less talented Argentinian team?

Tim was a great player, no doubt, but he was extremely lucky to play with other stars and Hall of Fame caliber players throughout his NBA career. David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kahwi Leonard. Throw in Greg Popovich as one of the greatest coaches of all time and the Spurs organization as one of the best run teams of the late 90s and 2000s and he was set up extremely well to succeed.

Then what the hell is lebron? He was on the team too and duncan only took 4 shots more

Allen iverson not surprising took the most shots of the team and shot .378 while duncan was at .587 and like 3rd on shots.. Failure all around from roster to coaching to players

People also forget the starting lineup of the team was AI-Marbury-Richard Jeffers-Boozer-Duncan. Terrible starting 5 since no one can shoot 3's. The team as a whole didn't have anybody who could shoot 3's consistently.

[DoctorX]

It's depends on which era is defining the term PF.
Back then, there were guys like Kevin Willis at 7' 0" and was listed as PF almost his entire career. His game was 100% center by today's standards.

I don't know if Tim Duncan really changed when he switched from PF to C, I think the NBA changed around him but he always played the same.

I also think some people in here forget that after Duncan's rookie year that's when pretty much the league's center position went on a decline that it hasn't really recovered until now when it comes to quality of big men. Ewing,Hakeem both aged out, and ZO declined due to his kidney problems which left only Shaq to compete with at the Center spot. The PF spot was where all the great bigmen played at during the '00s with Dirk,Garnett,Rasheed,J'Oneal,Elton Brand, McDyees,Malone,Gasol,Webber,Amare,K.Martin,etc. So it was a better for Duncan to play at the spot so he could match up defensively with all of those guys vs him guarding some stiff.

[DCasey91]

I think Tim Duncan being classified as a PF is the first time the NBA ever saw a 7-foot, 250lb Center being referred to as a Power Forward. Timmy was smart and called himself a Power Forward too, because he was scared of having to defend Shaq by himself when he came into the league, and could leave the thankless job of defending that Shaq to poor David Robinson... who would get absolutely hammered instead... while Timmy got to feast on guys like Robert Horry.

Here's a video of true prime, mobile Shaq dunking on David Robinson. This video needs an R or XXX rating for how badly he abused that man. You can see why Timmy wanted no part of a job that involved defending Shaq by himself until 2002-03, when Shaq had the toe surgery and lost the mobility... and after the reintroduction of Zone Defense in 2001-02.

Watch on YouTube

Nobody wanted anything to do Lakers Shaq,

Funnily enough the early 00 big depth was brittle, but the best bigs in theory and in practice happened to play against Shaq.... Wallace and Ming.

You’d need a Wilt reincarnate to neutralize Fat Shaq.

It’s funny when AD has to play center against Embiid. He poops himself lol

As title fights go they belong in different divs (this isn’t a question of who is better it’s just the massive size differences).

[DCasey91]

He was the pivot both on offense and defense. I think of him as a center. I mean, he almost never dribbled the ball or shot the ball off the dribble, unless it was a running hook shot.

Didn’t need that Big Fundamentals was that. 3 post moves and a left/right baby hook, power dunk, layup and a sweet midrange jumpshot along with being one of the better playmaking/passing bigs ever is all you need.

Mchale had a sweet fader too btw.

That above >>>>>> more important than the fancy dribble dribble stuff today. Bigs shouldn’t put the ball on the floor and do AI stuff. Being a defender you’d be counting your blessings.