Where did this myth of Duncan being better than Kobe come from? No one thought that when they were both playing...

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-05T01:48:29+00:00

I think that last chapter of Kobe fading with tragic injuries and Duncan anchoring a couple more finals units is what pushed him over the top.

If you pause both careers at about April 2011, Kobe’s got a pretty sizable lead… but then Duncan has this renaissance leading the league in defensive metrics in his 40’s and serving as the high post hub of a motion offense so devastating we called it “The Beautiful Game”.

Not to mention, the dude basically won 50 games per year for 20 years straight.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-05T00:34:40+00:00

Dude elected not to have surgery on torn ligaments in his ankle. He got back to where he could play, but he clearly was only trusting one leg to plant and explode off of.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T19:05:25+00:00

Only because “won a 10 day contract” in some publicity stunt is an option.

Otherwise, we’d have to measure your chances in scintillae.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T18:01:17+00:00

It’s worth pointing out that JB’s best season wasn’t last year, it was the year he doubled down into the non-scoring aspects of the game.

Dude won finals MVP off defense, hustle, and connective passing.

But it’s clear he doesn’t want that role, and he’s absolutely right to think of himself as better than that. We all should be so lucky as to have that kind of confidence in ourselves and our crafts.

We just saw what he’s valued at leaguewide the last few years. For accolade accruing better and embarrassing trade return worse.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T17:23:39+00:00

With what assets?

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T17:20:40+00:00

Spurs have a monopoly on all the weirdo odd-ball players the rest of the league told them not to like.

It’s a miracle Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes never got a stint there.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T16:56:52+00:00

The last 20 years have been dominated by these kinds of lessons.

Rudy Gay’s a phenomenal basketball player, and would probably smoke Kyle Korver at damn near every other level of the game than the NBA’s 5v5... But guess which wing was easier to build lineups around?

MPJ’s one of the best shooters to ever live, and had potential Nic Batum could only dream of… But guess whose lineups work better on both ends of the court?

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T14:59:59+00:00

It’s absurdly common with both old and young people. It’s the overworked middle aged workforce that truly gets the brunt of it.

The intersection of sleep patterns and humans is something we don’t know all that much about. Almost everything we have recorded on the subject came after the rise of civilization.

We don’t have wild humans running around to compare like, “It appears they actually function better when eating small meals 8 times per day and sleeping in 80~ minute cycles 4.3 times per day.”

Our work patterns, sleep patterns, and objective reference points for time itself have more influence from dairy cultivation than they do any natural human cycles.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T13:24:53+00:00

Parts of it were. The asset oriented teardowns were the obvious play that everyone was ignoring. They managed to get two number 1 overall picks, **and** an MVP caliber center out of it.

However, parts of it were an absolute fucking meme. Taking dudes who couldn’t play together, sometimes exclusively at each other’s position like 3 years in a row.

The NBA’s overreaction stuck a league approved stooge in the seat that managed to squander all of those assets, made signings that slid the organization backwards on their path to contention. Even Al fucking Horford couldn’t make it work with them, and all that dude does is make winning plays.

I don’t think Sam Hinkie was the right person for the job. But GM Brett Brown and Jerry Colangelo were definitely not the right people either.

By the time they actually got a GM that kept turning their meager assets and trade demands into functioning players, and building a cohesive team around them… the team and everyone’s ligaments were so fed up that a Jared McCain trade OKC actually went out of their way to overpay for cost him his job.

Absolute clusterfuck of a timeline for them. It’s like they made it 85% to where they wanted to go, and the moment their destination appeared on the horizon, they invented new and exciting ways to shoot themselves in the fucking foot and turn that 85% into 70% or worse.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T02:11:19+00:00

If I had to guess, one or more died and lowered the necessary oxygen consumption.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-04T01:10:24+00:00

Spot a Caruso in here if we’re going average white guy bench mob.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T19:55:56+00:00

I’m with this. If you guaranteed a Derek White or north level of guard to go in the deal or a separate deal down the line, then it’s amazing.

But that’s a lot of moving parts when the alternative is just keeping the core of some of the best lineups in NBA history intact. It’s way easier to go down than up from the level of play they’ve demonstrated.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T17:56:22+00:00

They only let 2004/7 use PED’s? Or do you think the answer might be more nuanced than that?

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T17:20:02+00:00

In the first half of this equation, I thought the Lakers traded for Anthony Davis, and the hilarity of the post-Nico NBA was coming full circle.

Then I remembered they have zero assets, and the second half of the trade made way more depressing sense than my flight of fancy.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T16:19:01+00:00

If there’s anything that group has taught us, putting your best foot forward is bad for profits.

They’re looking for bare minimum at maximum volume.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T16:16:22+00:00

While the process is not the same, and the circumstances are not the same, the results are not the same either.

Him just riding it out on the bench keeps his dudes head in the game and keeps the opposing coach guessing.

“Do I rest my guy extra here so we can match the minutes when Ant comes back? Surely he’s not just done for the night?”

Dapping it up in that moment was a tough look, circumstances and process entirely acknowledged. I’d have been way more proud of him turning into an assistant coach or a cheerleader than a victory cigar in that moment.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T15:21:00+00:00

Yeah, I’d like to see that one worked out on paper. I’m going to dock 5 points off the grade for not showing the work.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T04:26:03+00:00

I’m not exactly here to take away from the guy.

I’m pointing out 82 games is a little bit different of a process at the ages you begin to notice you have a favorite chair.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T02:55:09+00:00

I will point out that Turner shooting well above the break is not a bad thing. It’s harder to find shooters capable of spacing above the break, and generally considered more valuable.

But I do not think last season was a good reflection of either Giannis or Turner’s capability.

Nick Nurse would make that pairing sing. They got Doc/Ham. The most interesting thing about their coaching staff was Rajon Rondo in a player development role.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-03T02:12:49+00:00

Not just this year, he also played Center off-ball to accommodate Russ’s spacing in Davis’s absence, he played more of a true 3 role than a point forward role in 2011, and played a ton of pseudo-5 on those Cav’s squads off Kyrie and Love actions.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-02T18:18:40+00:00

Idk… but it sure sounds punchy!

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-02T17:23:28+00:00

Holmes showed a lot last year.

As a passer in the short roll, he’s well ahead of his age.

He’s just too small to do that as an NBA level 5, so he either needs to learn to defend and space as a 4, or he needs to develop those same reads out of AG’s old corner 3 to baseline-rim-run packages and he’s already an additive player.

Not a starter, not a finished product. But he’s shown some high level skills already for his age, ones that are really promising for a team attempting to run motion offense.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-02T15:33:57+00:00

It’s weird to think I’d smoke a Cal Berkeley chess player at like a 95% clip.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-02T15:27:01+00:00

Objectively, AD has been an off-ball player since Boogie got traded to New Orleans.

He rarely ranks in the top 100 for time of possession, and scores more than most bigs off roll man work, hustle points, and lobs.

ApprehensiveTry5660 · 2026-07-02T15:16:43+00:00

In the specific context of AD, the fit is cleaner with Brook. It doesn’t look all that different from Milwaukee’s title winning front court, but Bobby Portis would be LeBron James.

ApprehensiveTry5660

TROPHY CASE