Originally Posted by BadBaronRudigor

In what way was Barkley better than Karl Malone .

And, Malone's numbers are similar, so the defense, leadership, and ironman qualities establish a clear superiority.

Originally Posted by nbanoitall

Its like look at the 95-96 Sonics for instance. Think about Tim Duncan going up against Shawn Kemp.

Kemp was averaging 19.6 points per game 11.40 rebounds 2.2 assists 1.61 blocks 1.18 steals.

I think if nba fans could even see a match up like that it would really put things in perspective.

Originally Posted by tsherkin

I'm on the "Duncan is a center" train.

He was technically a PF when he hit the league on account of Robinson but Robinson was basically a 7'1 PF by style of play and Duncan is pretty clearly a classic center.

He's nearly 7 feet tall, he's built strong (260 lbs or so), he plays primarily in the post, etc. He has 20-foot range on that wing bank shot and he's constantly involved in pick-and-rolls but the bread-and-butter of his offensive game is still mixing it up in and around the key within 10 feet of the rim. The backdown-to-jumphook is still his most effective move and he is still used in low/mid block post ups to get the floor spacing right for everyone else.

Moreover, his defensive style is also that of the typically-envisioned center: he roams around the paint, defending low post bigs and bringing weakside help.

Even Popovich says Duncan is a center; he says that Duncan plays center to end every game and always has.

It's a bit subjective because Duncan doesn't actually play 100% of his time at either position but he plays enough at center that he cannot be considered a PF in a capacity sufficient to call him the "greatest PF of all time," because he's not. If he were exclusively a PF or even primarily a PF, it'd be true but that's not the case.

I'd put it to you that he's one of the best centers of all-time; I'd rather have Duncan as my center than anyone aside from Dream, Wilt, Kareem and prime Shaq.

Yes, that means I'd prefer him over Bill Russell, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning. Yes, it means I prefer him over Bob McAdoo, Walt Bellamy, Bob Lanier, Willis Reed, etc.

The greatest PFs to play the game have been Pettit, Barkley and Garnett, IMO; choosing among them, it's got to be Pettit. He's the one with the ring (against Russell's Celtics, no less), he was a great rebounder and scorer, a good passer, etc, etc, one of only four guys to record a 20+ rpg season (Wilt and Russ are the only ones to do it more than once but Pettit and Jerry Lucas both had a 20+ rpg season as well)...

Pettit is definitely #1 in my book because Duncan plays too much like a center to be legitimately considered a PF.

Consider the following breakdowns of his play by percentage of team minutes over the last half decade:

1) 02-03 45% PF, 34% C
2) 03-04 36%, 27%
3) 04-05 26%, 28%
4) 05-06 47%, 23%
5) 06-07 19%, 49%

He's played significant chunks of minutes at the 5 every year; in a few of those years (notably in his last three title seasons), Duncan has played a great deal at the 5. This year, he's been very clearly playing most of his time as a center.

Note that the positional data is sometimes skewed because it relies on whom Duncan is guarding and he often doesn't guard the best low post scorer so that he can avoid foul trouble, even if he is still fulfilling the role of a center for his team.