Duncan( 97-99) vs Wemby (23-25) two years in...who you got?

On the flip side though, does anybody think '98 or '99 Duncan would lead this Spurs team in this current western conference to a title?

Like I'm looking at the Spurs roster and after Wemby the leading scorers are Julian champagnie, Kelton Johnson, and Stephon Castle.

:biggums:

David Robinson was All NBA in the late 90s and had dominant top 5 superstar metrics in 1999. And they faced the Ewing-less 8 seed Knicks in the NBA Finals.

We have to apply some context here when talking about the team result in there respective cases.

[QUOTE=3ba11;14967281]I don't watch basketball, so I missed the 3-point revolution, but once I was up to speed on threes, everything was back to normal - I predict everything right.

Otoh, you guys don't understand how basketball works... When someone says they got "hot" - you have no idea what they're talking about... You don't know what people mean when they say someone is a "dog"... You don't value or understand ball movement, and why it's the best brand of ball.. This is because you've never stood around twiddling your thumbs while some dumb ball-dominator takes forever to make their move.. (you never played).

Again, you don't understand basketball, so you don't understand how suboptimal Wemby's game is - he will need ridiculous help to even contend, let alone win... [I]I guarantee that Popovich knows that he can't win with Wemby, but he's just going along with it because the NBA is just entertainment now anyway (WWE style)[/I]..

no one cares about winning anymore or thinks it reflects basketball ability... Things have completely devolved to this level, and it's due to Lebron's "decision", which opened the Overton Window of less competitiveness, such aa an easy-scoring format or load management..[/QUOTE]

13,000 posts on a sport you admit you haven't watched in a decade makes you an uninformed idiot. None of your copy and paste shit changes that and even having the gall to utter such a dumb opinion about Curry in the first place. If I were you I wouldn't tell anyone you played at whatever level you claim to have played at.

[QUOTE=tpols;14967282]On the flip side though, does anybody think '98 or '99 Duncan would lead this Spurs team in this current western conference to a title?

Like I'm looking at the Spurs roster and after Wemby the leading scorers are Julian champagnie, Kelton Johnson, and Stephon Castle.

:biggums:

David Robinson was All NBA in the late 90s and had dominant top 5 superstar metrics in 1999. And they faced the Ewing-less 8 seed Knicks in the NBA Finals.

We have to apply some context here when talking about the team result in there respective cases.[/QUOTE]


All the best players in today's game are bigs like Embiid, Jokic or Giannis, so Duncan would be no different.. Duncan entered the league as the best post player in the game, and that would be no different today.

The reason that great bigs can run roughshod in today's game and populate the top 3 spots in the league is due to the spacing and open paint, which allows big more room to operate... full stop

[QUOTE=tpols;14967282]On the flip side though, does anybody think '98 or '99 Duncan would lead this Spurs team in this current western conference to a title?

Like I'm looking at the Spurs roster and after Wemby the leading scorers are Julian champagnie, Kelton Johnson, and Stephon Castle.

:biggums:

David Robinson was All NBA in the late 90s and had dominant top 5 superstar metrics in 1999. And they faced the Ewing-less 8 seed Knicks in the NBA Finals.

We have to apply some context here when talking about the team result in there respective cases.[/QUOTE]

THANK YOU. That's literally why I said the 'championship argument' doesn't work in this comparison, but it's used as a gotcha.

[QUOTE=Phoenix;14967285]THANK YOU. That's literally why I said the 'championship argument' doesn't work in this comparison, but it's used as a gotcha.[/QUOTE]


Duncan entered the league as the best at the most important skill (post), while Wemby entered the league without being top 50 in any skill except blocks... That's why Duncan won right away and Wemby will be a perennial loser.. Wemby will never be the best at any skill in the NBA except blocks, so he will always trail his more skilled peers... I'm sure the NBA will manufacture his team like they did Lebron's, so he can win some chips... But he lacks the fundamentals to build great chemistry and team on his own.

[QUOTE=3ba11;14967284]All the best players in today's game are bigs like Embiid, Jokic or Giannis, so Duncan would be no different.. Duncan entered the league as the best post player in the game, and that would be no different today.

The reason that great bigs can run roughshod in today's game and populate the top 3 spots in the league is due to the spacing and open paint, which allows big more room to operate... full stop[/QUOTE]


:pimp:

[QUOTE=3ba11;14967289]:pimp:[/QUOTE]

Bro you're going to end up eating your words on wemby just like you did on Curry when he was coming up. Then you'll have to lump him in with all the other off ball shooter superstar types as the ones that win.

Somebody with giraffe legs isn't meant to dominate the low post like Shaq. He has no leverage for that and it goes against the laws of physics. He's better off playing an off ball finesse game of catching lobs and shooting jumpers. Something you've generally praised over ball domination.

[QUOTE=3ba11;14967286]Duncan entered the league as the best at the most important skill (post), while Wemby entered the league without being top 50 in any skill except blocks... [B]That's why Duncan won right away[/B] and Wemby will be a perennial loser.. Wemby will never be the best at any skill in the NBA except blocks, so he will always trail his more skilled peers... I'm sure the NBA will manufacture his team like they did Lebron's, so he can win some chips... But he lacks the fundamentals to build great chemistry and team on his own.[/QUOTE]

So why didn't MJ win right away? If the argument is because his team was shit, I invite you to look at the Spurs 2024 roster. The only other players right now who could get this group of G-leaguers + 40 year old Chris Paul to over .500 is probably Jokic and Giannis, two top 20 all-timers at the peaks of their careers. It doesn't matter if his individual skill breakdown is in the upper echelon right now or not because nobody his size is supposed to be doing the array of shit he's doing, period. The only thing I want to see is him work around the elbow more and cut the 3s in half.

Trolls don't have logic. On paper, Wemby fits the mold of everything that 3ball generally praises and is none of the things he critiques Bron or other "ball dominantors" for

Yet here we are.

[QUOTE=tpols;14967291] [B]finesse game and shooting jumpers[/B]. Something you've generally praised over ball domination.[/QUOTE]


^^^ He'll never be top 50 at those things though, so he won't win unless the NBA manufactures his teams just like another completely unfundamentally-sound player that couldn't develop great chemistry either (lebron)

And the reality is that you guys are hanging on the Curry example - that's all you have in a sea of correct predictions, such as predicting 10 years ago that the 3-point format would cause everyone to stop watching.. I was right about that and everything except Curry.

[QUOTE=Phoenix;14967293]So why didn't MJ win right away? If the argument is because his team was shit, I invite you to look at the Spurs 2024 roster. The only other players right now who could get this group of G-leaguers + 40 year old Chris Paul to over .500 is probably Jokic and Giannis, two top 20 all-timers at the peaks of their careers. It doesn't matter if his individual skill breakdown is in the upper echelon right now or not because nobody his size is supposed to be doing the array shit he's doing, period. The only thing I want to see is him work around the elbow more and cut the 3s in half.[/QUOTE]


Nobody expects Wemby to win now. His roster is complete garbage if we are talking championship caliber.

The difference is Wemby couldn't handle being the clear cut #1 on a title winning team right now. His offensive game would get exposed at the highest levels of playoff basketball, whereas Duncan was excellent as the go to guy - granted he still had flaws of reading defenses at times that he eventually corrected but his offensive skill set was good enough that teams couldnt expose him when it mattered.

Wemby does not have that kind of offensive ability yet. He would have a '07 Bron vs Spurs series vs any tightly knit defensive team with playoff basketball physicality (games are reffed different in the playoffs vs regular season)

[QUOTE=tpols;14967291]Bro you're going to end up eating your words on wemby just like you did on Curry when he was coming up. Then you'll have to lump him in with all the other off ball shooter superstar types as the ones that win.

[/QUOTE]

And when he does, he'll have the same 'Wemby proved me wrong, you guys don't understand basketball' bullshit he uses for Curry.

This is what Wemby IMO should be playing like stylistically:

[video=youtube;IT__LN7Sj7Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT__LN7Sj7Q&ab_channel=iBeButler[/video]

And in some ways he kinda does, but with 9 threes because that's the league he's in.

[QUOTE=Carbine;14967297][B]Nobody expects Wemby to win now. His roster is complete garbage if we are talking championship caliber. [/B]

The difference is Wemby couldn't handle being the clear cut #1 on a title winning team right now. His offensive game would get exposed at the highest levels of playoff basketball, whereas Duncan was excellent as the go to guy - granted he still had flaws of reading defenses at times that he eventually corrected but his offensive skill set was good enough that teams couldnt expose him when it mattered.

Wemby does not have that kind of offensive ability yet. He would have a '07 Bron vs Spurs series vs any tightly knit defensive team with playoff basketball physicality (games are reffed different in the playoffs vs regular season)[/QUOTE]

Nobody except 3ball, you mean.

I've said before I don't think Wemby is 1a offensively on a title team. I think he will be a 1b on offense but with game changing defensive impact. Then again the dude is 21 and we really don't know what he's going to become yet.

Duncan for me. Just more refined due to his collegiate background. I like the reliability of his post-up game over Wemby's high-variance, hot-and-cold approach. Victor doesn't quite have a consistent two-point shot he can go to/self-create in the half-court set yet. And that matters more in the playoffs and in the clutch.

It's not a ridiculous comparison though. I don't get some of the other posters acting like it's disrespectful. We have to contextualize things by accounting for team quality and the strength of opposition. We're talking about how good/impactful a player is, and things like team record, playoff record, and individual accolades are only weak signals for that.

[QUOTE=Phoenix;14967298]And when he does, he'll have the same 'Wemby proved me wrong, you guys don't understand basketball' bullshit he uses for Curry.

This is what Wemby IMO should be playing like stylistically:

[video=youtube;IT__LN7Sj7Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT__LN7Sj7Q&ab_channel=iBeButler[/video]

And in some ways he kinda does, but with 9 threes because that's the league he's in.[/QUOTE]

Bosh had such a nice face-up game. Super slithery. Some of those dribble drives reminded me of Shai a little.

^ Well said, that was the kind of comparison points I was hoping for when I thought up the thread.