As a person who loves Dragonball, I will say this:
Dragonball Z got me (and a ton of other people) into anime as a kid.
The characters were very close to my heart and it was a cool alternative to comic superheros.
However, Dragonball is not up to the level of sophistication in Naruto. Dragonball Z had a formula (Bad guy shows up, Goku is weaker than it, becomes stronger, Dragonballs undo any serious damage). Of course that is a generalization, but, having watched the entire series, I know that I am not far off.
Naruto gets into political struggles, romance, questions of loyalty/ancestry, deception, and the strongest does not always win.
The battles in Naruto are about a million times more creative. It is not just different kinds/colors of energy that blow up or slice different amounts of area. Ninjutsu allows for TRULY creative attacks that are completely different in their effect (Shikamaru's Shadow Bind compared to Mangekyo Sharrigan compared to Rasengan are COMPLETELY different, for example).
Another good thing about this set up, is that it allows for team work to be an interesting and effective strategy. It is not, "Alright, Krillin, you cannot even do any damage to this guy. So go hide behind a rock." Neither is it, "Piccolo, you did so well against Cell! Unfortunately, it was his first form and did not matter at all." In Naruto, it is, "Alright, Sakura, you kind of suck. But! Use medical jutsu in the mean time, and let's make an opening so that you can punch somebody's head off."
In closing, Dragonball was great. In many ways, due to the impact it had and how early on it was, it was the greatest. However, Naruto takes anything good about Dragonball and goes farther with it and avoids the repetitiveness.