Rank these players in order of pure passing ability.

[jasonxxx102]

Do you think that Curry is a better passer than Thomas or Manu? I wouldn't agree with that.

Yes because of his offensive gravity. Him being such an offensive threat allowed him to generate significantly better looks for his teammates than either of those guys.

Raw passer? Maybe not

I think that's a different conversation. Curry draws more attention which gives him more opportunities to find an open look, but it doesn't mean that he's more capable of delivering the ball to open teammate.

More extreme example is Shaq - he also created more open looks than Manu, but I don't think you'd call him a better passer

I think it's all part of the picture. You don't have to make a bunch of fancy passes to be a great passer. Ball handling it a part of it, offensive gravity is a part of it... etc

If you got bonus points for how fancy the pass was LaMelo would be on this list. Plus all those small euro guards who carved out careers in the NBA are great raw passers.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Yes because of his offensive gravity. Him being such an offensive threat allowed him to generate significantly better looks for his teammates than either of those guys.

Raw passer? Maybe not

I think that's a different conversation. Curry draws more attention which gives him more opportunities to find an open look, but it doesn't mean that he's more capable of delivering the ball to open teammate.

More extreme example is Shaq - he also created more open looks than Manu, but I don't think you'd call him a better passer

I think it's all part of the picture. You don't have to make a bunch of fancy passes to be a great passer. Ball handling it a part of it, offensive gravity is a part of it... etc

If you got bonus points for how fancy the pass was LaMelo would be on this list. Plus all those small euro guards who carved out careers in the NBA are great raw passers.

Curry has great handles and great gravity and that can create assists but I would not call that part of pure passing. Curry racked up a lot of assists when he was on the ball under Mark Jackson and using all the picks that Mark Jackson wanted to compensate for not having the speed to get separation from defenders despite his great handles. If I am going to call gravity creating open men passing then I have to upgrade my rank of LeBron and give him credit for drawing help defenders on his drives. I don't think that is "pure" passing.

Draymond is a great passer and it is Draymond's assists numbers that benefit from Curry's off ball gravity.

The only factors in my version of "pure" passing are the court vision and visual processing to see your teamates and defenders and know if your teamates are open, smartly chosing the best guy to pass to and what kind of pass to throw, any fakes to disguise the pass, and then physically throwing the correct pass correctly. Fore instance make the bounce pass bounce correctly, don't be off target with your behind the back passes.