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lol Pau.
Dirk, Bosh > Pau
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bal...urn=nba-265161
Looks like he got this one about right.
Pauer to the people.
lol Pau.
Dirk, Bosh > Pau
34 years old and still the second best pf in the game. Nice
Like when Dwyer ranked Wade over Kobe, I've got no beef with this. Wade and Gasol are simply younger and more athletic - Duncan and Bryant have too many miles and it shows compared to those guys.
I think I'd still take Duncan over Pau right now, but I wouldn't knock someone for going with Pau. Pau has improved his game a lot and even added some toughness. But I do think if a team consistently stays physical with him throughout the game, his game will sooner or later be negatively affected, whether by forcing him more into a face-up player on offense or simply shying away from the physical contact down low.
Duncan's numbers are all right on par with Pau's or better if you even out the minutes played. Pau is younger and, because of that, quicker and more athletic. I think I go with Duncan because Duncan's level of play is still very close with Pau's and when it's a close game, I trust dumping the ball down to Duncan without fearing he'll get bullied. Pau may not get bullied as often as he used to be, but I have more confidence that Duncan won't be.
But again, I don't knock anyone for taking Pau over Tim.
Amare over Dirk is kind of funny.
Amare is better then Dirk
/Worthless article
I think you'd be a fool to take Duncan over Pau at this point.
Did you notice how much his defense has declined during those Mavs and Suns series? He was a turnstile. Gasol has him on both offense and defense.
Yea but to Dwyer's credit he basically said they were interchangeable ( "But, really, I'd have no qualms with anyone switching his and Amar'e's rankings.") and that he wasn't going "half empty" on his assumptions about Amare's transition to the Knicks. He seemed to also have penalized Dirk for having a better team, especially since Mike D'Antoni won't help when it comes to defense.
I'd rank Dirk over Amare as well but they're both pretty close to the same type of PF in the sense that they're both incredibly efficient on offense but relatively lackluster defensively and on the boards.
tim duncan is a power forward?
Yea, thats why you'd be a fool to take Kobe over Wade especially for the long term. These guys have too many miles.
I like Pau ... A LOT. But I'd take Duncan still. Maybe this year he truly passes Tim. We will see. just like it is presumptious that Wade is better than Kobe ...but AGAIN we shall see.
Perhaps true. I do think Duncan has lost quite a bit defensively. But then again, he's coming down from such an elite level that his standards are much higher. And while Pau has improved a lot defensively, he's not always consistently good defensively. Let's not forget the couple of games a broken down KG punked Pau in the Finals. Duncan actually still rebounds defensively at a better rate than Pau, and they have similar defensive ratings in both the regular season and the playoffs last year. I think it's the perception that Duncan was such a defensive wall that now that he's come down to earth and lost a few steps defensively that he's just bad. He's still pretty good.
In fact, if you compare Amare's stats in the playoffs against the Lakers and against the Spurs, even with the Suns sweeping the Spurs and losing to the Lakers, Amare shot better from the field (52.6% FG against Lakers, 47.5% FG against the Spurs) and shot more free throws (11.5 FTA against the Lakers, 7.8 FTA against the Spurs) against Pau and the Lakers than he did against Duncan and the Spurs. Now I know neither Pau nor Duncan defended Amare exclusively, but I'm not about to go through every play of each game in those playoff series. Heck, KG shot 51.1% from the field on Pau after he had just gotten done shooting 39% from the field on Rashard Lewis in the conference finals.
In reality, while Duncan has lost quite a bit defensively, Pau's defense still isn't consistently great either. And as shown in the Finals, it's not like he was coasting in games that didn't matter. He wasn't a shut down defender in all of the big games either.
I think it's closer to being a push defensively with the two players. Pau is better offensively, but again I revert back to what I said earlier about having more confidence in Duncan late in a game to get things done and to not get bullied. By no means does that mean Pau isn't a great player. He certainly is. And if you prefer Pau, I can understand why. I think it's short-sighted and naive to suggest it's foolish to still think Duncan could be better. Perhaps it's a wash between the two. But it's not a significant difference either way.
Duncan is still a better defender than Pau, no question. If you stick Ron Artest and Bynum around Duncan, the Spurs are an elite defensive team.
Does Dwyer not like Troy Murphy or something? Almost every picture was a picture of Murphy getting dunked on or burnt on defense.
Duncan's defense against Amare really wasn't that bad, I still don't know why anybody would say that..his defense was better against Amare last year than it was in any other year against him during the playoffs IMO..
Duncan struggled with the switching scheme against the Suns, he was having trouble stopping Nash in 1 on 1 situations, and he was also having trouble helping out at the same time..I don't think some people understand how much responsibility Duncan has with this current Spurs defense, the rest of the team is pretty poor defensively, and Popovich does him no favors with some of the lineups he puts out there..
Something of a running joke. The SG series had Mayo getting clowned on (don't you remember the Mayo-guarding-Mayo pic?) and the SF had James looking foolish.
Pretty funny actually.
Surprised this didnt put Chris Anstey, Donald Hodge or Doug Smith @ #1 to disrespect Dirk even more
Duncan's man defense is still solid. Its his help defense that has nosedived. He looked horrible out there trying to rotate and contest interior shots, like his feet were stuck in blocks of cement. Gasol plays good man D, but at this point he is a substantially better help and PnR defender, because he is much more mobie than Duncan is and has a greater wingspan. His overall defensive impact is greater than Tim's, and his offense goes without saying.
I'm a bigger Pau fan than most of the Laker fans here, but I disagree..
This season, Gasol had Duncan beat in 2 defensive categories..Gasol was better than Tim at defending face-up big men and defending from outside the paint..defenders scored on around 42% of their chances against both, but Gasol had significantly more plays, thus making his efficiency more impressive..
Gasol was a lot better than Duncan at rotating to outside shooters, this is his main defensive advantage over Duncan..it wasn't even close..there's pretty much no doubt that Gasol is more mobile than Duncan by a good margin..
Duncan has the advantage in a few categories as well..
Post-Up D wasn't close..offensive players shot 42% against Duncan out of post-up situations, they shot 46% against Gasol..they scored on 39% of their overall chances against Duncan, while scoring on 45% against Gasol..
Surprisingly, Duncan's pick and roll D was better as well..the margin was close enough, but Duncan was better by a less than 1% margin..
In overall defensive rankings, it's extremely close..players scored on 41.5% of their chances in plays where Gasol is the main defensive focus, while 41.4% against Duncan..however, opponents drew 2% more fouls vs. Gasol, a decent margin considering the cir stances..
Now you have to account for the fact that Duncan's help on D is Matt Bonner(average overall defender), McDyess(average defender, occasionally above), Blair(poor defender)..his stoppers are Manu Ginobili(above average defender), Richard Jefferson(below average defender) and George Hill(average overall defender)..
Gasol's defensive supporting cast is Bynum(above average defender when injured, for his size alone), Odom(good defender)..his stoppers are Ron Artest(great defender) and Kobe(above average defender)..
Not exactly fair..
Dirk should have been ranked higher than Pau. I mean right now, nobody in the entire league can guard Dirk. I love TD and I respect every facet of Pau's game, but right now, Dirk is slightly ahead of both of them.
0-12 for #1
Actually it's O & 12! for #4.
tee, hee.
Then we're crossing fingers & toes--wishin' & hopin', gettin' our Dusty Springfield on that Artest implodes, eh, tights?
tee, hee.
why is duncan in here? he has been a Center for the last 7 years.
I think Pau Duncan and Dirk are the clear 1 2 3... different people will have them in different orders.. Amare doesnt belong with those guys.
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