Obviously both pairs would create dynasties, but in today’s game, we’ve seen what a 1-4 screen roll game with James and Kyrie can do, and Curry is tiers ahead of Kyrie. Kyrie’s and Love didn’t perform with James off court and the Cavs were a -2.6 per 100 with James off/Kyrie+Love ON, but that wouldn’t be the case with Curry. This might come down to who’s around them, really, but this modern game, I’m taking James+Curry.
jasonxxx102 wrote:Today would be curry Bron no contest.
The game is so wildly different today you can’t just say “oh Jordan would average 50 easily cause you can’t handcheck anymore”. Bad argument.
Players are so much more athletic and with advanced analytics you can much more easily game plan your defense to stop an individual player.
No MJ would not average some absurd amount of points today just because “it’s soft” now.
Look at the guys who average 30+ now, they’re all bombing 8+ 3s a game. Would Jordan have become a prolific shooter? Maybe… maybe not
No chance MJ averages 40+ in todays NBA so let’s just stop with that absurdity.
Birds game translates much more cleanly to today and I see him like a better version of Durant.
Agree with most of this. The “handcheck” argument is absurd given that handchecking exists today and is uncalled. Anyone watching the Finals this year or the Finals in 2016, for example, see defenders’ hands all over the ball handler and other offensive players not much different from a 1989 Bulls vs. Pistons game.
Additionally, the free-throw rate in the 80s and 90s was much higher than it is now, and while people can say it’s because teams used to shoot more two pointers it doesn’t make up for the massive discrepancy since attempts at the rim look to be about equal and there are more drives per game now than ever before. Where were all the free throws coming from? Mostly touch fouls in the post. The 80s and 90s simultaneously had such physical play and such physical fouls but also paradoxically more free throws—where were all these free throws coming from? If players were allowed to be more physical, then why are there so many more free throws? They can’t ALL be free throws from monster fouls because rewatching the games (watch any of them from the ‘80s ans ‘90s) shows that those brutal fouls are few and far between. Logically, these free throws are coming from touch fouls which is corroborated by any viewing of ‘80s and ‘90s series.
The answer lies in watching these games sans emotion. I watch per them when I was young when the viewing was fraught with emotion, but when I go back and watch the series now looking at them analytically, you see an incredible amount of touch fouls and very very few hard fouls outside of the dozen or so highlight hard fouls that everyone associates with the 80s and 90s. Most of the fouls are common touch fouls and when you get 70, 75, 80+ total free throws a game of course they’re going to be of the common touch fouls because there’s simply aren’t enough hard fouls in the game that matches up with the reputation of all the supposed deadly force used in the 80s and 90s.
