Rating the Number 1 Draft Picks of the last 23 years

[ElNono]

Both great players, but one was dominant on BOTH ends of the court.....and led a team of nobodies to a championship. I wonder if you asked NBA GMs whom they would take which would win?
DD

I agree. TD dominated both ends of the floor his entire career. He has won championships with completely different rosters. Talk about domination.

[ambchang]

Duncan > Hakeem, at having better teammates. Hakeem would be putting up 40 a game on a frontline of Gasol/Odom/Turiaf. Ok, maybe not 40....but he would be completely destroying that frontline and scoring at will.

Duncan is great, but I have seen Horry contain him in a playoff round. I have seen a frontline of Erica Dampier and Dirk give him trouble in a playoff series. I have seen Sheed and B.Wallace give him trouble. I have seen Amare light him up in the playoffs. Again, he is shooting 43% this series against a frontline of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom!!!

The only thing that seperates Shaq and Hakeem from Duncan is their ability to go out and drop 30 a night..and just score at will in the postseason when it's needed. At their peak, they were just better. That is quite evident in this series against LA. Other players are struggling and Duncan can't just completely dominate the series offensively. Spurs fans always say Duncan hasn't had to dominate offensively like that...and it's somewhat true based on his great teammates. But IMO, he just isn't an explosive scorer like that. He should be killing this frontline and he isn't. Do you really think a frontline of Gasol and Odom would be able to contain Shaq or Hakeem...seriously? How fast would they foul those dudes out of the game?

I give him the edge over Shaq because of his defense and lack of being hurt, but Hakeem was clearly a better defender than him as well.

Do you want to go through another 33 pages arguing this? I thought we putt his to rest.