the next hakeem?

[magius]

I mentioned this before, but I thought I'd just bring it up again just for fun, and since another season's gone by:

hakeem through first 7 seasons:

524 gp, 23.02 ppg, 12.59 rpg, 3.45 bgp, 1.99spg, .51fg%, 0.69th%, 2.19apg, 36.6 mpg

duncan trhough frist 7 seasons:

520 gp, 22.8 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 2.5 bpg, 0.8 spg, .,509 fg%, .694fth%, 3.2 apg, 38.9 mpg

the numbers are somewhat similar. My question isnt who is better, my question is do you think duncan has hit his prime, or is his prime yet to come in the next 2 or 3 years when he hits his 30s akin to hakeem. I think it is a possibilty, but I really don't know. I know what it comes down to is wait and see, but oh well, its the offseason, whaddya expect.

other interesting stats for both trhough first 7:

hakeem:

all nba first team (87, 88, 89), all nba second team (86, 90), third team (91), all defense first (87, 88, 89, 90), all defense second (91), 50 playoff games played

duncan:

all nba first team (98,99,00,01,02,03,04), all defense first (99,00,01,02,03), all defense second (98, 04), nba mvp (02,03), nba champion (99,03), nba finals mvp (99,03), 82 playoff games played, roy

[j.23]

it hasn't really hit me how amazing duncan has been for the 7 years in the league until you said this:

duncan:

all nba first team (98,99,00,01,02,03,04), all defense first (99,00,01,02,03), all defense second (98, 04), nba mvp (02,03), nba champion (99,03), nba finals mvp (99,03), 82 playoff games played, roy

all i can say is

[Fresh8]

Duncan.. IMO hasn't hit his prime yet. But Thats only if he's supposed to get really psyco and rule the league.

But if you think about it... Hakeem didnt win ROY because of MJ (lol), Dream hasnt made many All-NBA teams maybe because of the fact that he had so many more big men top compete with and TD is deffinately far superior to most big men in the current NBA.

Duncan powered two Spurs teams to rings BEFORE hitting 30. Dream won 2 rings when he hit 31 and 32... only when MJ left for a brief time. However, the compettition was still tough.

So maybe Duncan is a better player than Dream with similar stats... or he's the next Dream but dominates in a worse NBA than the 90's NBA...

[Matt]

i say Dream is better. He steam rolled Ewing, Shaq, D Robinson (after D Rob won MVP), Mutombo

[Matthew]

Mudumbo? When did Hakeem take him out?
But for the rest of your post matt, i agree. What puts hakeem over the top was his utter domination of other centers, great centres. Ewing in the finals in 94 was such a showdown. Look at the rosters and they are dead even and thats why the battle between ewing and hakeem was so critical. Hakeem stood up. Then against the then mvp david robinson. Think back to how shaq destroyed the spurs in 2001, then times it by 10 becuase as good as clyde was in 95, he's no kobe bryant. Then against shaq in the finals, although shaq put up decent stats, hakeem just destroyed the magics confidence by outplaying the "outplayable". Shaq.. everyone views him as the most dominant since wilt, but hakeem dominated him.

[Matt]

um, regular season games got my facts wrong

[fgrep15]

Well Duncan's defense isn't as good as Hakeem's, and though he has some moves, it really doesn't compare, Hakeem always outplayed the other big men when they had playoff matchups, and by a good margin.

[VlaDiv]

Duncan hit prime in 2002-03 with MVP and championship. He did not repeat either in 2003-04. He will continue to be a good player for a while, but his true peak was 2001-03 when he was MVP.

[Sauru]

i am glad to see vladiv answer the question, where everyone else went with what he said the question was not lol. anyway i dont think he has peaked. i think duncan can still get better. now i could be wrong, he might not have the drive to actually get better but i think if he puts the effort into it he can.

[Andrew]

The only way I really see Duncan getting any better or showing us something new is to boost his scoring and bring his free throw percentage up around the 71-72% mark - I suppose those two things would go hand in hand. His game is also well-rounded and most of his skills are refined. I think Duncan will continue to show the same consistency overall though his points per game average might rise a couple of points and hover around the 26/27 per game mark.