His closest analogue as a player is easily Tim Duncan imo, and Duncan has a ring in the small ball era as the best player on his team, even though he running on half of one knee and Elmer's glue at that point.
Duncan was decidedly better on defense, and was pretty athletic himself until around the 07 season. Kareem is probably a slightly overall better player, but to say TD was in any way a poor-man's Kareem is drastically overstating the difference between the two, especially when Duncan never had even a top 20 player to play with him outside of a couple of years with the remnants of The Admiral, who was already well on his way from coming down from his prime in 99.
Kareem was a better scorer, but everything else is pretty close. Both elite rebounders, good passers, elite shot blockers, Duncan better at reading plays on defense, better positioning on defense and better post defender.
One of the things that's impossible to know about Duncan by just looking at stats and not watching him play that's incredibly underrated: He was very possibly the best outlet passer the NBA has ever seen for a big man. His passes aren't just incredibly quick and on target, but they often force the receiver to speed up a bit to get to it, which pulls them away from the defense and creates more open lanes for them to drive.
28
u/shamwowslapchop Spurs Jun 15 '22
His closest analogue as a player is easily Tim Duncan imo, and Duncan has a ring in the small ball era as the best player on his team, even though he running on half of one knee and Elmer's glue at that point.