RealGM

What do you think? The only player that has an argument is Jerry West imo

Is there any argument against it?

I think it's pretty clearly Curry, with guys like West and Oscar being the runner ups.

Magic was a guy that was putting up ultra efficient 20-22 PPG as well.

I wouldn't reject West as the candidate. Remember that Jerry is among best playoffs scorers in NVA history and his PS career is much more impressive than Curry's. He's the only one who has the case though, Oscar was more passing-minded and doesn't have as many playoffs games.

Oscar?

Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Joey Wheeler wrote:Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

70sFan wrote:

Joey Wheeler wrote:Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

Yeah, I was thinking post-merger. If we include pre-merger years, then West not only has a great case but he's almost definitely the answer, his scoring numbers are clearly above Curry's. Though I guess we'd need to adjust for pace to get a clearer picture.

Jerry West isn't a PG to me but he would be over Curry and Oscar is clearly over Steph IMO.

Joey Wheeler wrote:

70sFan wrote:

Joey Wheeler wrote:Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

Yeah, I was thinking post-merger. If we include pre-merger years, then West not only has a great case but he's almost definitely the answer, his scoring numbers are clearly above Curry's. Though I guess we'd need to adjust for pace to get a clearer picture.

Not they aren't. West played 40 minutes a game at an absurd pace. We can ignore the pace and just look at per 36 scoring. Career 24.8 West vs 24.0 for Curry. Peak 31.7 Curry vs 27.7 for West. This isn't accounting for pace. I can see a case for Oscar or West here, but neither is clearly above Curry.

70sFan wrote:

Joey Wheeler wrote:Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

Harden's peak scoring per minute is higher despite likely a slower pace.

Harden this year is over 31 points per 36 on a team playing at a 98.2 pace. West peaked at 27.7 on a team with a pace of 121.2.

I'm sure you can make a good case for West here, but harden deserves his due.

What do you mean by Greatest scorer? Points per game? Does efficiency matter? Curry could score more if he would be selfish.

I guess World B Free and Iverson should be mentioned. Longevity lovers could say Curry has not played enough seasons.

Then there is West and Robertson.

I think Curry probably qualifies as the greatest scorer

dhsilv2 wrote:

70sFan wrote:

Joey Wheeler wrote:Yes, I think so. His closest competition might actually be Harden if you consider him a PG. Westbrook did win 2 scoring titles and has the volume numbers to match or even surpass Curry, but he's not very efficient, his strengths lie elsewhere.

I don't see any other competition, point guards being go-to scorers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, bigs and especially wings have been the best scorers.

Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

Harden's peak scoring per minute is higher despite likely a slower pace.

Harden this year is over 31 points per 36 on a team playing at a 98.2 pace. West peaked at 27.7 on a team with a pace of 121.2.

I'm sure you can make a good case for West here, but harden deserves his due.

I don't care about pace adjustements to be honest. It's proven that superstars shoot at nearly the same volume regadless of pace. Scoring leaders generally average around 28-32 ppg in any era and there are only few exceptions.

Besides, I'm not talking about raw volume here. West is much more consistent scorer against any type of defense. Harden is terribly inconsistent in playoffs and West is probably top 5 the best scorer in playoffs history. To this point, Harden didn't accomplish anything to touch West and I don't care about RS adjusted to pace numbers.

70sFan wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:

70sFan wrote:
Jerry West has much stronger case than Harden.

Harden's peak scoring per minute is higher despite likely a slower pace.

Harden this year is over 31 points per 36 on a team playing at a 98.2 pace. West peaked at 27.7 on a team with a pace of 121.2.

I'm sure you can make a good case for West here, but harden deserves his due.

I don't care about pace adjustements to be honest. It's proven that superstars shoot at nearly the same volume regadless of pace. Scoring leaders generally average around 28-32 ppg in any era and there are only few exceptions.

Besides, I'm not talking about raw volume here. West is much more consistent scorer against any type of defense. Harden is terribly inconsistent in playoffs and West is probably top 5 the best scorer in playoffs history. To this point, Harden didn't accomplish anything to touch West and I don't care about RS adjusted to pace numbers.

I didn't adjust to pace in what I said. If you want to argue Harden is less consistent, that's a fair case. It isn't "Much stronger" and harden does score more than west every did currently.

dhsilv2 wrote:

70sFan wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:
Harden's peak scoring per minute is higher despite likely a slower pace.

Harden this year is over 31 points per 36 on a team playing at a 98.2 pace. West peaked at 27.7 on a team with a pace of 121.2.

I'm sure you can make a good case for West here, but harden deserves his due.

I don't care about pace adjustements to be honest. It's proven that superstars shoot at nearly the same volume regadless of pace. Scoring leaders generally average around 28-32 ppg in any era and there are only few exceptions.

Besides, I'm not talking about raw volume here. West is much more consistent scorer against any type of defense. Harden is terribly inconsistent in playoffs and West is probably top 5 the best scorer in playoffs history. To this point, Harden didn't accomplish anything to touch West and I don't care about RS adjusted to pace numbers.

I didn't adjust to pace in what I said. If you want to argue Harden is less consistent, that's a fair case. It isn't "Much stronger" and harden does score more than west every did currently.

I don't want to hate Harden, his scoring skillset and abilities are among the very best. What I don't like that even though he's getting better and better he always underperformed in playoffs overall. Some overstate his PS struggles but we are comparing him to Jerry West. The gap in playoffs is so big that I can't consider him now over West, even with better stats in RS.

70sFan wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:

70sFan wrote:
I don't care about pace adjustements to be honest. It's proven that superstars shoot at nearly the same volume regadless of pace. Scoring leaders generally average around 28-32 ppg in any era and there are only few exceptions.

Besides, I'm not talking about raw volume here. West is much more consistent scorer against any type of defense. Harden is terribly inconsistent in playoffs and West is probably top 5 the best scorer in playoffs history. To this point, Harden didn't accomplish anything to touch West and I don't care about RS adjusted to pace numbers.

I didn't adjust to pace in what I said. If you want to argue Harden is less consistent, that's a fair case. It isn't "Much stronger" and harden does score more than west every did currently.

I don't want to hate Harden, his scoring skillset and abilities are among the very best. What I don't like that even though he's getting better and better he always underperformed in playoffs overall. Some overstate his PS struggles but we are comparing him to Jerry West. The gap in playoffs is so big that I can't consider him now over West, even with better stats in RS.

I disagree with placing so much value on playoffs, but if that's your criteria there's a reasonable gap here.

Magic if he wanted to could've averaged around 27 ppg for his career. Iverson, KJ, West who is more like a shooting guard are also great scoring point guards.

Pippen used to play the point guard a lot and if he wanted to could've easily averaged 27 ppg or there abouts. he just put a lot into defense as he knew that is what most wins.

70sFan wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:

70sFan wrote:
I don't care about pace adjustements to be honest. It's proven that superstars shoot at nearly the same volume regadless of pace. Scoring leaders generally average around 28-32 ppg in any era and there are only few exceptions.

Besides, I'm not talking about raw volume here. West is much more consistent scorer against any type of defense. Harden is terribly inconsistent in playoffs and West is probably top 5 the best scorer in playoffs history. To this point, Harden didn't accomplish anything to touch West and I don't care about RS adjusted to pace numbers.

I didn't adjust to pace in what I said. If you want to argue Harden is less consistent, that's a fair case. It isn't "Much stronger" and harden does score more than west every did currently.

I don't want to hate Harden, his scoring skillset and abilities are among the very best. What I don't like that even though he's getting better and better he always underperformed in playoffs overall. Some overstate his PS struggles but we are comparing him to Jerry West. The gap in playoffs is so big that I can't consider him now over West, even with better stats in RS.

hardens stats are inflated. They don't let anyone play defense in the NBA today. Looking at his athleticism and his style he would only average about 19 ppg or there abouts in the 1990's when defense was allowed to be played.

TonyG wrote:

70sFan wrote:

dhsilv2 wrote:
I didn't adjust to pace in what I said. If you want to argue Harden is less consistent, that's a fair case. It isn't "Much stronger" and harden does score more than west every did currently.

I don't want to hate Harden, his scoring skillset and abilities are among the very best. What I don't like that even though he's getting better and better he always underperformed in playoffs overall. Some overstate his PS struggles but we are comparing him to Jerry West. The gap in playoffs is so big that I can't consider him now over West, even with better stats in RS.

hardens stats are inflated. They don't let anyone play defense in the NBA today. Looking at his athleticism and his style he would only average about 19 ppg or there abouts in the 1990's when defense was allowed to be played.

Stop this. Harden is legit superstar and he would be in any era.

No you stop this, He's a good player but he wouldn't be averaging 33 ppg in the 90's. Sorry, He's down around Sprewell who was also a superstar. he's no Drexler. anyone can score if they shoot 15 threes per game and finally make like 4 of them. That is a low ratio.

Prime Gibert Arenas was better than harden. Quicker and a better handle. Arenas coached by Dantoni is 39 ppg today or there abouts. Always have to throw in the there abouts or all you pokemon kids would cry about that.