Duncan's "consistency" is partly directly related to him being teamed up with Robinson, Manu, and Parker all his career. Like I said before, He has never been on a trash team yet he has consistently failed to defeat real serious opponents except for 2003. You could argue that those Laker teams were already on a downwards spiral though. I remember how he was praised for the '99 ring and then the same spurs team was destroyed in 2001 and 2002. The only time he was able to dominate was in 2003 when he was just unstoppable.
In 2004 his team basically gave up after fisher's shot
. In 2005 the best competition they had was the 1 hit wonders Pistons. 2006 they choked against dallas who were known as a choking team. They basically had no competition in 2007. In 2008 they lose to a Laker team that did not even have Bynum. He was not able to stop Gasol
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Are people going to overlook the 2009, 2010,2011 and 2012 NBA playoffs? Consistently eliminated out of the playoffs despite still having a prime Parker and a better than average SG in Manu. Not to mention all those good role players.
Yeah he is a great player but he has benefited from having a solid cast around him probably more than any superstar in the last 14 years.
The first time Garnett had a decent team around him he won a championship
. Shaq was a better big man than him for at least 3 years and Garnett was clearly better than him in 2004 despite being on a mediocre team compared to the Spurs. Garnett and the Wolves had that WCF stolen from them by the refs. He should have at least gone to the finals against the Pistons that year. It is a myth that he has been the best big man during all of his career or that he has been consistently great. Maybe in the regular season
I put him in the top 15 right now but not top 10. For all we know, the Heat will just sweep the Spurs