Erick Blasco Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 (edited) 1. Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves/Boston Celtics (195.8 WARP) 9900 0001 0102 0203 0304 0405 0506 0607 0708 0809 0910 Total-----------------------------------------------------------------------12.5 18.9 19.9 24.3 27.4 24.9 21.6 18.1 16.1 8.2 3.8 195.8 2. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs (191.9 WARP) 9900 0001 0102 0203 0304 0405 0506 0607 0708 0809 0910 Total-----------------------------------------------------------------------10.8 19.3 24.9 24.3 19.4 16.8 17.1 19.9 17.2 15.9 6.5 191.9 To me, there are just two candidates for the honor of "Player of the Decade." Both of them play power forward and they spent the early part of the decade battling each other in the Midwest Division. The numbers are extraordinarily close, but they ever so slightly favor Garnett over rival Tim Duncan. The case for Duncan is obvious. He won two MVPs to Garnett's one, led three title teams to Garnett's one and generally played on much more successful teams. Garnett's advantage is in terms of versatility. He was the superior passer by a significant margin and capable of defending more positions than Duncan. Two things tip the scales in favor of Duncan in my opinion. First, while I don't want to make too much of it, I think Garnett's issues late in close games are legitimate. Creating his own shot was never his strength, and Garnett has been best when he had teammates capable of taking on that role--Sam Cassell in 2003-04 and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen with the Celtics. Duncan had the benefit of playing with two creators in Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker most of the decade, but the 2003 championship team was much more Duncan-oriented. When he needed to, Duncan was better at creating a midrange look on his own than Garnett. Second, while the success Garnett has enjoyed since being traded to Boston has quieted the silly talk that he isn't a winner, I do find it somewhat hard to believe that the best player of the decade played on teams that went 33-49 in 2005-06 and 32-50 in 2006-07. Garnett was rated as worth nearly 40 Wins Above Replacement Player in those two seasons, which suggests his teammates were a combined five Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP assumes a replacement team would win 10 games in a season). Though they were bad, I'm not sure the rest of the Timberwolves were quite so epically awful. Take away a win or two from Garnett those seasons and the gap between him and Duncan is essentially nonexistent. Either way, it is difficult to go wrong between Garnett and Duncan. They are arguably the two greatest defensive power forwards of all time, anchoring some of the best defenses in modern history, and were capable at the offensive end of the floor. If you want one more point for Duncan, the 2003 NBA Finals might have been the best stretch of individual basketball in the decade. How does 23.8 ppg, 17.0 rpg, 5.3 apg and 5.3 bpg strike you? http://www.basketbal...p?articleid=841 Edited December 31, 2009 by Erick Blasco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xx. Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 I stopped reading after I saw... 1. Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves/Boston Celtics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MainEv3nt Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 im surprise dirk is top 5 lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWaLL Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Elton Brand in the top 10...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfish Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Ha this dude wants attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick Blasco Posted December 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Elton Brand in the top 10...? People forget just how good Brand was on the Clippers. He rebounded, was a dominant scorer, and played good defense. If he played the way he did on LA's other team, he would have a lot more recognition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick Blasco Posted December 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 I stopped reading after I saw... 1. Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves/Boston Celtics Why? He's contributed a ton to making teams better. Those T-Wolves teams were only winning games because of him, plus he's been terrific for generating wins on the Celtics. Who do you want as number 1? Kobe was a question mark at the beginning of the decade and hardly did anything for mediocre Lakers defenses in the middle of the decade. Shaq hasn't been Shaq for five years. LeBron is missing the first three years of the decade. And for the record, while the numbers are close, Pelton says in his second paragraph that he tips the scale to Duncan over KG making Duncan 1 and KG 2. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick Blasco Posted December 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 im surprise dirk is top 5 lol. He's had great stats and a lot of impact on very good teams the entire decade. He's been one of the most consistent forces of the decade, especially when you only factor in regular season like this article does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWaLL Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 People forget just how good Brand was on the Clippers. He rebounded, was a dominant scorer, and played good defense. If he played the way he did on LA's other team, he would have a lot more recognition.Yes, but to rank him higher than other players such as Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, and Ben Wallace is just absurd. And to rank Shawn Marion over all of the ones I just mentioned is also ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick Blasco Posted December 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Yes, but to rank him higher than other players such as Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, and Ben Wallace is just absurd. And to rank Shawn Marion over all of the ones I just mentioned is also ridiculous. No statistical (and few objective/subjective) analysis will rank Carter and Iverson over Brand. They were never efficient enough, plus Iverson was abhorrent defensively. Brand was 20/11 nearly his entire career while shooting over 50% from the field. He blocked shots. He led the league in offensive rebounding rate in 01-02. His offensive and defensive ratings were sterling. Brand was a stud. The NBA hype-machine doesn't ride him as hard as other stars in other markets, but Brand was legit, especially considering the nobodies he played with once he became a veteran. Wallace is acknowledged as the best defensive player of the decade but he didn't do enough offensively to be in the top 10. Pierce is surprising. I'm a bit surprised the numbers aren't as high for him. Maybe because he's shared the spotlight with his best Celtic teams and was a part of some horrible Celtic teams that didn't win a whole lot? During Marion's heyday with the Suns, he was also putting up 20/10 with 2 assists, 2 steals, 1.5 blocks, and he's 8th in active defensive rating while shooting around 50%. Go find some of Iverson's shooting percentages. They're awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poe Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Seeing how it's based off of regular season performances, I'd say it's a good list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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