81 Kareem or Current Curry?

1993Playoffs · Post #1 » by **1993Playoffs** » Tue May 17, 2022 4:26 am

Who would you say is better?

I’d say both experienced some dips in play but Curry’s defense is actually better than it’s used to be nowadays

70sFan · Post #2 » by **70sFan** » Tue May 17, 2022 6:38 am

We have to wait for Curry in tougher moments, so far he wasn't forced throughout the season.

Kareem lost Magic for most of the season and had to carry Lakers to the playoffs. He also played on even terms against prime Moses.

Let's wait for the rest of the playoffs, but for now Kareem is confortably ahead for me.

asindc · Post #3 » by **asindc** » Tue May 17, 2022 2:07 pm

KAJ’s defense was still better than Curry’s current defense and 1981 KAJ was a more consistent scorer than current Curry. No doubt KAJ.

eminence · Post #4 » by **eminence** » Tue May 17, 2022 2:30 pm

Actually quite a few parallels for the two. Two stars on the back halves of their primes, lose their 2nd star for about half the season, but take their team to the 3 seed surrounded by decent role players (Lakers a higher top end, Warriors deeper).

Lakers get upset in the first round by the Rockets/Moses while the Warriors are in the WCF across from Luka.

I think Moses pretty cleanly outplayed Kareem in that series. Not that the margin was huge, but I think you gotta go with Moses. All the normal caveats for 3 game series of course.

Hard to say for now, if the Mavs put the Warriors down with Luka cleanly outplaying Steph then I'll have it as a tossup. If the Warriors advance without serious sweating, Steph's gonna win the comp for me.

70sFan · Post #5 » by **70sFan** » Tue May 17, 2022 2:41 pm

eminence wrote:I think Moses pretty cleanly outplayed Kareem in that series. Not that the margin was huge, but I think you gotta go with Moses. All the normal caveats for 3 game series of course.

I think you can make convincing case that Moses outplayed Kareem in only one game.

eminence · Post #6 » by **eminence** » Tue May 17, 2022 2:56 pm

70sFan wrote:
eminence wrote:I think Moses pretty cleanly outplayed Kareem in that series. Not that the margin was huge, but I think you gotta go with Moses. All the normal caveats for 3 game series of course.

I think you can make convincing case that Moses outplayed Kareem in only one game.

I've got Moses outplaying Kareem for both games 1 and 2.

Magic laying an egg in game 3 getting the Rockets the win.

70sFan · Post #7 » by **70sFan** » Tue May 17, 2022 3:06 pm

eminence wrote:
70sFan wrote:
eminence wrote:I think Moses pretty cleanly outplayed Kareem in that series. Not that the margin was huge, but I think you gotta go with Moses. All the normal caveats for 3 game series of course.

I think you can make convincing case that Moses outplayed Kareem in only one game.

I've got Moses outplaying Kareem for both games 1 and 2.

Magic laying an egg in game 3 getting the Rockets the win.

It's fair, I just say that it's not clear. Kareem played very well in game 2.

eminence · Post #8 » by **eminence** » Tue May 17, 2022 3:19 pm

70sFan wrote:
eminence wrote:
70sFan wrote:I think you can make convincing case that Moses outplayed Kareem in only one game.

I've got Moses outplaying Kareem for both games 1 and 2.

Magic laying an egg in game 3 getting the Rockets the win.

It's fair, I just say that it's not clear. Kareem played very well in game 2.

I do think Game 2 is pretty clear in Moses favor, it's very very difficult to overcome that kind scoring efficiency gap in a 1 game sample (6 more points on ~5 fewer shooting possessions).

Cavsfansince84 · Post #9 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Wed May 18, 2022 6:50 pm

I think 81 Kareem was still very close to being the best player in the league. I don't see Curry as all that close right now.

1993Playoffs · Post #10 » by **1993Playoffs** » Wed May 18, 2022 8:57 pm

Cavsfansince84 wrote:I think 81 Kareem was still very close to being the best player in the league. I don't see Curry as all that close right now.

Would you say that has more to do with the overall strength of the league ?

70sFan · Post #11 » by **70sFan** » Wed May 18, 2022 9:21 pm

1993Playoffs wrote:
Cavsfansince84 wrote:I think 81 Kareem was still very close to being the best player in the league. I don't see Curry as all that close right now.

Would you say that has more to do with the overall strength of the league ?

The question wasn't asked to me, by I will try to answer.

When we look at the best players in the league, the list would look roughly this way:

2022 MVP voting results:

Jokic
Embiid
Giannis
Booker -> Curry
Doncic
Tatum

1981 MVP voting results:

Julius
Bird
Kareem
Moses
Gervin
Marques

If we exclude poor voting results (Booker) and place Curry instead, I think we get a decent comparison. I don't think anyone peaked as high in 1981 as Jokic this year. The rest are quite comparable to me though.

I'd take 1981 Moses over 2022 Embiid personally. Julius vs Doncic is an interesting debate, depending on how well Luka finishes his postseason run. Giannis vs Kareem also sounds close, might give small edge to the Freak. Marques vs Tatum is also a great comparison in my opinion, don't sleep on Johnson's talent. I'd say Bird had a better season than Curry.

Then we also have stars who missed significant parts of the season (Magic vs Durant). The league is deeper now with lower level stars, but I don't think the top is much superior - except Jokic of course.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #12 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Wed May 18, 2022 9:26 pm

1993Playoffs wrote:
Cavsfansince84 wrote:I think 81 Kareem was still very close to being the best player in the league. I don't see Curry as all that close right now.

Would you say that has more to do with the overall strength of the league ?

Not so much that as I think Curry had his weakest rs since like 2013. Both him and his team sort of fell off a cliff in Jan then sort of got going towards the end of the season but I don't think Steph was top 5 this year and a clear step down from those top guys. Kareem otoh I think was clear top 3-4.