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It is 2016 -- everything is the same except that Steph Curry is his 2022 version.

How do the Warriors do: better, worse, or same?

How is Steph's effectiveness: better, worse, or same?

He was a better player in 2016, so I don’t see what transporting a worse version of him does.

Worse.

I mean he was a bit better on defense this year but he was better when he was 28 than 34. His offensive # s don’t look as good

Does he still get injured in the playoffs?

If he does my vote is he doesn't return from injury as fast and the Thunder eliminate the Warriors whenever they meet up.

If he doesn't I think his steadier play gets them the title.

Worse in the regular season (Spurs 1 seed perhaps?) for sure. Playoffs are harder to predict, I could see them winning it all given the tight margins of the 2016 postseason, or failing to reach the Finals.

Less dynamic on offense, a little better on D (especially in terms of adapting to being targeted in the playoffs).

For the regular season the time missed could easily drop GS to the 2 seed. If he suffers the same playoff injury, then GS goes out in the 2nd round to OKC.

If he's just teleported to the finals with the same good health as this year then GS could easily win, as Curry wasn't still dealing with the lingering injury issues (which hurt most on defense), is generally better on D, and has more experience dealing with the type of offense designed to attack him that Cleveland ran.

The real question is does this version get injured like the 2016 version? If you don't remember the dude got injured his ankle in game 1 against the Rockets, comes back in game 4 injures his knee. Missed game 5 against the Rockets and misses the first 3 games of thr Portland series. Then he comes back and reagrevated his knee against OKC.

Skip Bayless (Who has ironically become Steph's biggest detractor) prior to the finals said that Steph's knee was at most "50%". But we've been transported to this weird reality where the only thing people remember is GS losing lol.

Purch wrote:Skip Bayless (Who has ironically become Steph's biggest detractor) prior to the finals said that Steph's knee was at most "50%". But we've been transported to this weird reality where the only thing people remember is GS losing lol.

People bring up Steph's injury everytime 2016 is mentioned. In fact, it was mentioned by commenters in this thread twice before you. I'm not sure who came up with this narrative that Steph being injured is some unknown truth that no one ever talks about.

Worse in regular season, but better in playoffs I guess

There is no tangible sign of him being injured in 2016 finals in my opinion instead of just having a 2011 Lebron finals where he's struggling with the defense. It's not like he's going to the bench and having people work on his legs or laying on his back.

Curry incinerated Cleveland when LeBron was off-court in the 16 finals, Down to the game 7.

He was brutal with him on-court.

I don’t want to say the injury did or didn’t have its affect, but the idea Curry was bound to self-destruct doesn’t track with how he played from the Portland series up until Lue adjustments by game 4.

All indications are Curry would’ve dominated a weaker defense without LeBron to stall pick and rolls and run them off the line.

ShotCreator wrote:Curry incinerated Cleveland when LeBron was off-court in the 16 finals, Down to the game 7.

He was brutal with him on-court.

That's actually really interesting. Do you have the source on that lying around anywhere?

Let me add a little bit more of my reasoning. There's a couple of reasons I asked this question. I think most of us agree his defense is better in 2022, but are there some reasons to think his offense is closer than we might first think?

The first is Draymond's comments about Steph's becoming stronger and a better scorer:

“The reality is is we got to a point where we needed to be able to give someone the ball that can just go get a bucket, and Kevin was already there. I don’t think Steph was there yet. So it gets us through those two years, we get those two championships, but while we’re doing that Steph is continuing to work and evolve, and most importantly, becoming the strongest dude on our team. And to this day, he’s the strongest guy on the team. And that allowed him to score whenever he wanted because you can no longer bump his off his path…That’s where Steph turned a corner and he became unstoppable, and now we’re able to continue wining championships because he’s unstoppable.”

This holds true when you look at Steph's isolation scoring in 2022. He isolated slightly less in 2022 (1.8 times per game versus 2.5 times per game), but had a higher points per possession when he attempted to score from isolations (1.197 versus 1.075). I think Curry was more effective driving and with his midrange in 2022 than his younger self.

So, even though you could reasonably argue that 2016 Curry was quicker and perhaps even "better" at some of the other play types, the improved isolation scoring and strength might be more valuable in the playoffs. He also showed some strong pick and roll creation, which he did in 2022 more than his peak years.

The second question that I see affecting the answer is about shooting: Is Steph's lower shooting efficiency in 2022 a sign of decline or a shooting slump that we can expect might regress to the mean at some point, perhaps even during the playoffs?

For example, during the regular season, Steph had an eFG of 42.9% on guarded catch and shoots, but in the playoffs that went up to 61.3%. That's slightly better than how he shot on guarded looks in the 2016 playoffs (58.1%). Same thing with jump shots off the dribble - 56.6% in the 2016 playoffs and 57.1% in the 2022 playoffs.

So, if you think that Steph's shooting in this past year was just a slump he was bound to break out of, is there a chance this version of Steph could be as good as his peak self?

eminence wrote:Does he still get injured in the playoffs?

If he does my vote is he doesn't return from injury as fast and the Thunder eliminate the Warriors whenever they meet up.

If he doesn't I think his steadier play gets them the title.

I'm not sure how to handle the injury -- I think you could dock 2022 if you think he's as likely to get injured that year as in 2016. But I'm also curious how people think these versions compare on average, including versions where they get injured and ones where they don't.

Steph did get hurt in the 2022 run with a foot sprain, but that's obviously different from a right knee sprain.

I have to imagine he'd have an easier time dealing with defenses, just by nature of how much more experience he'd have

letskissbro wrote:

ShotCreator wrote:Curry incinerated Cleveland when LeBron was off-court in the 16 finals, Down to the game 7.

He was brutal with him on-court.

That's actually really interesting. Do you have the source on that lying around anywhere?

https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/#!?PlayerID=201939&VsPlayerID=2544&Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Playoffs&PerMode=Per36

The sample size is small but also really extreme.

I’m pretty sure the game tilt LeBron had was like Embiid in the 19 ECSF.

Whether he’s on the court determined a blowout one direction or another, and determined if Kawhi(Curry) is lighting it up.

dontcalltimeout wrote:Let me add a little bit more of my reasoning. There's a couple of reasons I asked this question. I think most of us agree his defense is better in 2022, but are there some reasons to think his offense is closer than we might first think?

The first is Draymond's comments about Steph's becoming stronger and a better scorer:

“The reality is is we got to a point where we needed to be able to give someone the ball that can just go get a bucket, and Kevin was already there. I don’t think Steph was there yet. So it gets us through those two years, we get those two championships, but while we’re doing that Steph is continuing to work and evolve, and most importantly, becoming the strongest dude on our team. And to this day, he’s the strongest guy on the team. And that allowed him to score whenever he wanted because you can no longer bump his off his path…That’s where Steph turned a corner and he became unstoppable, and now we’re able to continue wining championships because he’s unstoppable.”

This holds true when you look at Steph's isolation scoring in 2022. He isolated slightly less in 2022 (1.8 times per game versus 2.5 times per game), but had a higher points per possession when he attempted to score from isolations (1.197 versus 1.075). I think Curry was more effective driving and with his midrange in 2022 than his younger self.

So, even though you could reasonably argue that 2016 Curry was quicker and perhaps even "better" at some of the other play types, the improved isolation scoring and strength might be more valuable in the playoffs. He also showed some strong pick and roll creation, which he did in 2022 more than his peak years.

The second question that I see affecting the answer is about shooting: Is Steph's lower shooting efficiency in 2022 a sign of decline or a shooting slump that we can expect might regress to the mean at some point, perhaps even during the playoffs?

For example, during the regular season, Steph had an eFG of 42.9% on guarded catch and shoots, but in the playoffs that went up to 61.3%. That's slightly better than how he shot on guarded looks in the 2016 playoffs (58.1%). Same thing with jump shots off the dribble - 56.6% in the 2016 playoffs and 57.1% in the 2022 playoffs.

So, if you think that Steph's shooting in this past year was just a slump he was bound to break out of, is there a chance this version of Steph could be as good as his peak self?

Curry was unstoppable against the Mavs and Celtics, 2 of the best defenses that could switch everything, and the type of defense that has hurt the younger warriors. So I could definitely see this year being a better year than 2016. Especially when you include that Curry was never really healthy throughout those playoffs.

In the regular season, way worse than his 2016 self. GS probably wins closer to 55 games than they do 73, imagine they'd be behind both OKC and SAS in the standings. No amount of experience is worth that much of a drop-off in production/health.

In the playoffs, that might be a different story, I don't think 2022 Curry throws a behind the back pass out of bounds in the closing minutes of G7 or completely disappears in the second half of G5 like he did, nor would he be exploited as much defensively. Not sure if they make it that far without HCA, but certainly he'd be better in the Finals in a situation where the margin are razor thin it would make a big difference.