Was Steph Curry ever one of the 2 best players in the league.

Hroz · Post #1 » by **Hroz** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:17 pm

Steph had 2 MVPs including an unanimous one.

But was he ever one of the 2 best players in the league.
Considering James Durant Kawhi have been in the league during his peak.

MVP & best player obviously are 2 obviously different things.

For example I don't believe Rose Dirk Nash K.Malone were ever the best player in the league.

rzzzzz · Post #2 » by **rzzzzz** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:24 pm

Absolute natural talent that you could see from a mile away. Dragged little Davidson through the NCAA tournament and GSW built around him to get competitive. How much does great shooting help a team?

jlokine · Post #3 » by **jlokine** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:38 pm

curry was must watch in 2016. so yes, he was the best that year.

Golden Knight · Post #4 » by **Golden Knight** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:41 pm

One of the 2 best players?

Anyone really think Curry was just the 3rd best player in 2015-16?

ropjhk · Post #5 » by **ropjhk** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:49 pm

2016 Curry was the 2nd best player in the league that season.

brutalitops · Post #6 » by **brutalitops** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:04 pm

Forgot that the MVP Trophy was for the third best player in the league

SharpyShuffle · Post #7 » by **SharpyShuffle** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:26 pm

brutalitops wrote:Forgot that the MVP Trophy was for the third best player in the league

Lazy response. Probably under 5% of people on this board would consider Jokic a top-2 player right now.

MrPerfect1 · Post #8 » by **MrPerfect1** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:38 pm

Everyone acknowledges that Durant was GS's best player while he was on the team so those years are eliminated from contention.

Prior to Durant joining, in order for Curry to be Top 2 that would have to mean Curry got worse Post Durant or Durant improved after joining. I see no evidence of that.

The most likely conclusion is that Durant was always better but his team's success made others think Curry was better until they joined up and it was obvious Durant was better once they were playing together.

brutalitops · Post #9 » by **brutalitops** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:39 pm

SharpyShuffle wrote:
brutalitops wrote:Forgot that the MVP Trophy was for the third best player in the league

Lazy response. Probably under 5% of people on this board would consider Jokic a top-2 player right now.

Then 95% of people are **** idiots, Jokic was the best player last season

MrPerfect1 · Post #10 » by **MrPerfect1** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:43 pm

brutalitops wrote:
SharpyShuffle wrote:
brutalitops wrote:Forgot that the MVP Trophy was for the third best player in the league

Lazy response. Probably under 5% of people on this board would consider Jokic a top-2 player right now.

Then 95% of people are **** idiots, Jokic was the best player last season

Giannis was the Best player last year. Defense remains very important. Jokic was the most consistent/most reliable last year.

Giannis could have averaged 50/20/20 and wouldn't have won MVP after failing to make the Finals as MVP 2 years in a row.

art_tatum · Post #11 » by **art_tatum** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:50 pm

How do u define best tho? What weighs more?talent? stats? Dominance or getting wins?

You say dirk was never best player.
Im sure most in 2011 would say lebron was the best player, clearly more talented than dirk and. Athletic.
But dirk beat him and other better teams with a WORSE team. So best player seems kinda empty if someone worse than you beat you with a worse team. If you argue lebron for 2011 then u have to argue curry for 2016
curry was the best in the regular season but lebron was better in the 16 playoffs. Regardless of currys injury.

falcolombardi · Post #12 » by **falcolombardi** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:00 am

yes, in 2016 he was 1-2 with lebron depending how you weight playoffs vs regular season, nobody else had an argument. this one is unarguably

he was top 2 in 2015 imo but lebron, chris Paul and maybe harden have cases over him

he has a top 2 case in 2017, 2018,2019,2021 with 2019 being his best shot at #1 aa he arguably was the best player of the playoffs up there with kawhi

art_tatum · Post #13 » by **art_tatum** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:46 am

MrPerfect1 wrote:Everyone acknowledges that Durant was GS's best player while he was on the team so those years are eliminated from contention.

Prior to Durant joining, in order for Curry to be Top 2 that would have to mean Curry got worse Post Durant or Durant improved after joining. I see no evidence of that.

The most likely conclusion is that Durant was always better but his team's success made others think Curry was better until they joined up and it was obvious Durant was better once they were playing together.

Youre gonna have warriors fans disagreeing with you about that one lol.
But it coudl also be the case that curry took a step back to include durant in the offense since curry is more flexible/portable.

I kinda agree with durant being better most their careers,
But curry was slightly better in 2015/2016 than durant.
Durant better before 2015
And durant was better with the dubs due to his improved defense as they made him play 4/5 sometimes. So 2017 to 2019 until durant got injured.
This last season imo they both are really close as well. Steph 3rd in mvp voting but durant showing hes better tham giannis head to head at least.

Salieri · Post #14 » by **Salieri** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:54 am

MrPerfect1 wrote:Everyone acknowledges that Durant was GS's best player while he was on the team so those years are eliminated from contention.

Prior to Durant joining, in order for Curry to be Top 2 that would have to mean Curry got worse Post Durant or Durant improved after joining. I see no evidence of that.

The most likely conclusion is that Durant was always better but his team's success made others think Curry was better until they joined up and it was obvious Durant was better once they were playing together.

Absolutely not.

Durant was never GS's best player. Neither he was GS's most important player. He was the one who benefited the most from GS's system -or in other words, from Curry himself- but he was never the best player. Only the one who scored the most points.

It's been proven time after time: during those years, the Warriors without Curry was a much worse team than the Warriors without Durant.

LeBron has an argument to be above Curry (and a pretty good one, I won't deny it) during those years when the Warriors punched their ticket for the Finals in the preseason. Durant hasn't. Neither does Kawhi or anyone else. Not a single soul can claim to be as valuable as those two. Other players were magnificient pieces of brilliant systems. Those two players were THE system. And they kept meeting in the Finals, which says something about the rest of the systems and their fantastic pieces.

Plossum · Post #15 » by **Plossum** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:31 am

Very subjective but I’d say yes. Certainly for his MVP years in 15 and 16 he has a very strong case. Lebron has been on top for so long and you could easily make a case for guys like Durand, Harden, Kawhi and even Giannis now for that #2 slot in the past decade.

knicksNOTslick · Post #16 » by **knicksNOTslick** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:44 am

Unanimous MVP on the team with the best regular season record in history. Curry was so dominant that year and they didn't even have Durant yet.

It would be dumb for anyone to think he wasn't top 2 that year. His team lost to LeBron's in the Finals in a Game 7.

Bornstellar · Post #17 » by **Bornstellar** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:49 am

Yes, he was the best player in 2016 easily. Not winning a ring doesnt mean he wasnt

nfmos · Post #18 » by **nfmos** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:22 am

Salieri wrote:
MrPerfect1 wrote:Everyone acknowledges that Durant was GS's best player while he was on the team so those years are eliminated from contention.

Prior to Durant joining, in order for Curry to be Top 2 that would have to mean Curry got worse Post Durant or Durant improved after joining. I see no evidence of that.

The most likely conclusion is that Durant was always better but his team's success made others think Curry was better until they joined up and it was obvious Durant was better once they were playing together.

Absolutely not.

Durant was never GS's best player. Neither he was GS's most important player. He was the one who benefited the most from GS's system -or in other words, from Curry himself- but he was never the best player. Only the one who scored the most points.

It's been proven time after time: during those years, the Warriors without Curry was a much worse team than the Warriors without Durant.

LeBron has an argument to be above Curry (and a pretty good one, I won't deny it) during those years when the Warriors punched their ticket for the Finals in the preseason. Durant hasn't. Neither does Kawhi or anyone else. Not a single soul can claim to be as valuable as those two. Other players were magnificient pieces of brilliant systems. Those two players were THE system. And they kept meeting in the Finals, which says something about the rest of the systems and their fantastic pieces.

Thank you. People really mix up these players' 1 on 1 abilities with their value to a team sometimes. Yes, if you need one shot at the end of a game, you go with Durant because of his ability to get off a shot in an iso situation, and yes, if you need one of these two players to lock down an opponent at the end of the game, Durant also gets that because of size and length.

But if you are asking which player is more valuable for a team, its Steph over KD all day. There is so much more to be a valuable player than just iso abilities. Steph won a title without KD and even set a regular season wins record without him, not the other way around. You add KD to a good team that needs a go to scorer, but Steph on a team helps a lot more people get involved and the team get stronger all the way down the roster. So no, a lot of people don't acknowledge that Durant was our best player, because he wasn't.

AbeVigodaLive · Post #19 » by **AbeVigodaLive** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:25 am

A lot of mental gymnastics going on in this thread.

Jadoogar · Post #20 » by **Jadoogar** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:53 am

SharpyShuffle wrote:
brutalitops wrote:Forgot that the MVP Trophy was for the third best player in the league

Lazy response. Probably under 5% of people on this board would consider Jokic a top-2 player right now.

sure but the unanimous mvp? the first ever unanimous MVP?
He was far and away the best player in the league that year.