FanPost

Greatest PF of All-Time? Debunking the Myths of Tim Duncan being vastly superior to KG

KG is (personally) the Greatest Power Forward of All Time. There's an argument to be made between Duncan and KG, but with KG and Duncan basically equals on offense and KG being a more versatile and better defender, I have long believed that KG is better. However, with the two of them retiring in the same offseason, there have been a lot of articles comparing the two, and claiming that Duncan is, without doubt, the superior. I'm going to look at many of the arguments that they give, and try my best to debunk them one by one

1. Longevity

One main argument they give is that Duncan played in peak form for longer than KG. The only season TD averaged less than 10 points per game was his final, age 39 season, while KG was a shell of himself, averaging less than 10, in his time with Brooklyn and Minnesota at age 37-39. But what they fail to realize is that KG entered the league earlier and subsequently played more seasons than TD. Since we now know that basketball mileage is more important than age(*cough* Amir Johnson *cough*), lets compare the two players by seasons, not age. If you look at their first 18 seasons in the league:

Duncan- age 21-38, 1331 games with 34.4 minutes per game

Garnett-age 19-36, 1323 games with 36.1 minutes per game

the two played basically the same amount of minutes, KG slightly more with the 2 minute difference in a 1000+ game span. If you look at their average stats:

Duncan-19.5pts 11reb 3.1ast 0.7stl 2.2blk

Garnett 19.1pts 10.5reb 3.9ast 1.3stl 1.5blk

can't definitively say TD was better than KG. It wasn't a case of "more shots on a bad team" either. Their Usages Rates are almost identical, a shade under 30%. Their 18th season's stats look similar as well with Garnett averaging more points rebounds and steals and TD more assists and blocks in 29 minutes. And both declined in their 19th seasons. Myth Debunked

2. Efficiency

People say Duncan was more efficient than KG in his career. So I looked up the same stats, through their first 18 seasons. If you look at Efficient Field Goal percentage, which values 3 pointers 1.5 times higher for the extra point: TD-50.7% KG-50.4%. It's a 0.4% difference! And this doesn't even factor in the fact that KG shot 79% from the free throw line in that period while Duncan shot 69%. To my eyes, the difference in efficiency between the two is non-existant. Myth Debunked

3. More Rings

I can't really debunk this because it is a fact. TD did win more rings. But I am a believer that the number of rings shouldn't matter as long as you have won at least 1 ring as the main player of your team, because it means you had the ability to lead your team to the top. Luck just didn't follow. If you look at Garnett, he wasn't an empty numbers guy, he had so much regular season success and won it all with the Celtics in 08. But he didn't have the team to compete with the 2000s Lakers with Kobe and Shaq, or the Spurs with David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Greg Popovich. Since he did lead a team to a championship eventually, I don't think the difference in the number of rings should be the difference in who's the better player, but rather who played with the better team/organization.

4. More Accolades

The awards that Duncan has more than KG are:

1 MVP, 3 Finals MVPs, 6 All-NBA selections

The awards that KG has more than Duncan are:

1 Defensive player of the year, 1 all-defensive first team selection, 4 NBA rebounding titles

People say that Garnett won the rebounding titles because he was putting up numbers on a bad team. But why don't they say Duncan won All-nba selections because he was putting up numbers on a good team? The two were putting up almost identical numbers with identical usage rates, the only difference being that Duncan was on a strong team and KG wasn't. Teammates became the tie breaker in the nba selections, not individual skill. Another tie between the two.

I might be a bit biased in my support of KG, but I'd like to think that I based most of my opinions on stats and facts. KG is just as good offensively as TD and better defensively because he could guard perimeter players as well as protect the rim, something Duncan couldn't do as well. Hopefully, people who read this article give more thought to KG vs. TD rather than concluding that TD was better without doubt.

FanPosts are fan-created content and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CelticsBlog. Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.