Which player would you rather have for the playoffs? Fully Healthy Stephen Curry or Giannis

[OdomFan]

Well I'll put it like this. Giannis + second option point guard > Curry + second option bigman imo. The league has plenty of decent enough point guards that can do the job of getting the ball to Greek Freak and the rest of the squad. So yeah, I'm running with that option.

[knuckles862]

Steph is starting to get underrated

[SAKURABA216]

When has Curry proven that he is a winner (other than winning against an injured Cleveland team)?

What??? Giannis hasn't even made it to the finals.

[Kobe187]

Excellent question OP, really tough choice.

[VDT]

When has Curry proven that he is a winner (other than winning against an injured Cleveland team)?

What??? Giannis hasn't even made it to the finals.

True, but lets not pretend that Curry is some proven winner.

[Flash Falcon X]

When has Curry proven that he is a winner (other than winning against an injured Cleveland team)?

What??? Giannis hasn't even made it to the finals.

True, but lets not pretend that Curry is some proven winner.

You done with the "winner" baiting? Or do you need to quote my post right now so you can say it a third time?

[Flash Falcon X]

Giannis. We saw Curry this year and it wasn't pretty.

yes, because a whopping 5 total games is really a great sample size.

[SK21209]

I think they're pretty even in terms of ability/impact as a player so it completely depends on what team is around them. I know it's a cop-out but we're talking about two iconic, 2-time MVP players here. Anyone who says its "easy" either way is a fool.

[SF_Warriors]

In a playoff setting, I would want a guy who can dominate on both ends and affect the game physically. That is how I would generally view it so I would choose giannis. If there is any exception to that rule it would be steph though, but I don't think you can fault taking one over the other.

[Whopper_Sr]

Curry was the better player until last season but I'd give the edge to Giannis this year due to his improved defense.

It is still very much dependent on roster construction. However, If we're choosing between the two to build a team around for a PS run and not dropping them on a random team, I would still give the benefit of the doubt to Curry and go with him.

[Flash Falcon X]

Steph has gotten severely underrated. Not a shot at Giannis ( cause clearly) we want him. But I think Steph's gonna remind people.

Last season Steph averaged 27ppg and shot 43% on threes while attempting 11.7 threes per game.

All while having to share the ball with KD (26ppg) and Klay (21ppg.)

People forget Steph can easily be a 35ppg player on high efficiency if he wanted to, while simultaneously making his teammates better by using gravity to draw defenses to get his teammates open looks all the time. It's one of the big reasons why Draymond can average so many assists as a PF, because the defense is so focused on Steph running around that all his teammates get open for easy shots and lobs.

And if people think Draymond is an overrated donkey who's only good when Steph is around, then that just shows how great of an effect Steph has on his team, that he can make some overrated donkey become an All-Star just from Steph being on the court.

Steph also shoots a higher percentage in the paint (0-3 feet) than a lot of elite point guards in the league. He can dominate from outside or inside, but people keep thinking just cause he's a great shooter and he can't jump that his skill set is just limited to just shooting.

[SF_Warriors]

Giannis. We saw Curry this year and it wasn't pretty.

Can someone please, please justify how using a five game regular season sample size for any type of basketball analysis is something a logical person would do? Especially with the first 4 games coming at the beginning of the regular season, and one game coming after a four month layoff?

If you are not quite understanding, let's say you were one of the best workers at your job, and let's say your boss were to give you a terrible yearly performance and based it on 3 weeks of the whole year, after you've come back from a long vacation and being unable to work due to injury, while ignoring excellent performance in the past five years.. That is essentially what you are doing and its beyond ridiculous.

[Egg Nog]

Steph has never been as good as the freak is right now.

You must've missed that unanimous MVP season.

[hege53190]

"Easy" is not exactly true when it comes to exposing Giannis, but if his teammates ain't making 3s, it becomes a bit harder for him.

This is exactly it. If Giannis has two regulars hitting them at a sub 16% clip while a player on the other team hits a high volume at an 87% clip Giannis is in trouble. Then again pretty much any player in the league is in trouble.

I don't think people properly appreciate the buzz saw that the Bucks saw in games 3-6 last season. It wasn't Kawhi man handled Giannis. It was more Fred Van Vleet crushed, tombstoned and defecated on Bledsoe and Nikola Mirotic's grave. Any one of those three players play more to their career averages and it is a completely different series. Hell that series led to Mirotic looking like he was getting a 3 year/$45 million deal to out of the rotation/league.

Apply the same argument in regard to Harrison Barnes and Curry would have 4 more titles than Giannis as it stands just now.

Apply the same argument to one player. Players have terrible series. It took multiple players having historically crappy shooting spells on one team compounded by one of the most historic multi game heaters on the other team.

We are not talking one player being off. We are talking 3 players having wtf is happening performances for the Raptors to win.

It happened. The Raptors were better in that series.

Also Harrison Barnes shot 9-29 from 3 in the series they lost. That is 30% They won the other series. He was gone the next year. Replaced by Kevin Durant. Hell he only spent 4 seasons in GS. Winning a title. How would steph have won 4 more if Harrison Barnes didn’t choke shooting only 30%?

[RodyTur10]

I'm going with Stephen Curry. His impact on the game when he's fully healthy is just extraordinary. That 15/16 unanimous MVP season before Durant signed with the Warriors was the most special season I have seen, however we don't really know if Curry can still approach that level. He willingly sacrificed his numbers to accommadate Durant, but can Curry still lead a team like he did back then?

So if people rather take Giannis Antetokounmpo, who's more of a sure thing, I can understand. Don't have any issue with people calling Antetokounmpo the undisputed best basketball player in the world right now.

That Curry is leading the poll so far just shows how amazing he has been. In the end Curry will go down as a top 10 player in history and Antetokounmpo is probably following him on that path.

[bon]

This is easily Curry unless I'm missing something? Why would anyone choose Giannis here for playoff performance? I'm curious

[hege53190]

This is easily Curry unless I'm missing something? Why would anyone choose Giannis here for playoff performance? I'm curious

Ummmm because he is the most dominant offensive and defensive player in the game today?

He anchors what some consider the most dominant defense ever and averages 30 points in 30 minutes.

That doesn’t include the fact he is one of the best rebounders in the game or that he is probably the best 6’11” ball handler and passer of all time.

Why would anyone take that to build their team around?

[Packbuckman]

This year and going forward it’s Giannis he hasn’t even come close to his ceiling yet. These playoffs will give you a glimpse of what he’s capable in the future which in my opinion is a top 5 player all time if he stays healthy which Curry is not.

[bon]

This is easily Curry unless I'm missing something? Why would anyone choose Giannis here for playoff performance? I'm curious

Ummmm because he is the most dominant offensive and defensive player in the game today?

Most dominant offensive player? Based on the regular season? We're looking at the playoffs.

Fact is he keeps getting shut down in the 4th quarter of playoff games. I had this same argument before last season's playoffs and this time was supposed to be different. "New coach, MVP level now, better team". Conference Finals pass and... yeah.

Blaming the shooters doesn't discount the fact he has an inherent weakness to his game that limits him in key moments against good teams. The "most dominant"-anything isn't blaming anyone for coming up short in the aspect of the game that they're responsible for.

[Packbuckman]

This is easily Curry unless I'm missing something? Why would anyone choose Giannis here for playoff performance? I'm curious

Ummmm because he is the most dominant offensive and defensive player in the game today?

Most dominant offensive player? Based on the regular season? We're looking at the playoffs.

Fact is he keeps getting shut down in the 4th quarter of playoff games. I had this same argument before last season's playoffs and this time was supposed to be different. "New coach, MVP level now, better team". Conference Finals pass and... yeah.

Blaming the shooters doesn't discount the fact he has an inherent weakness to his game that limits him in key moments against good teams. The "most dominant"-anything isn't blaming anyone for coming up short in the aspect of the game that they're responsible for.

What as a 24 year old still learning the game he did have a bad series against the raptors. But play that same defense this year see if you get the same results I am betting against it just on Giannis improvement and experience. And our coaching staff to counter it by using Giannis size by posting him up with Leonard on him not him dribbling from up top. And also posting up Lopez brothers we have way more size this year. Giannis is the better player now.