2018 LeBron James vs. 2022 Steph Curry

[WarriorGM]

2018 LeBron is said by many of his supporters to be one of his greatest years. I have never understood why. Indeed 2022 Steph accomplished more.

Consider:

2018 Cavaliers pre-season championship odds: +515
2022 Warriors pre-season championship odds: +900

2018 Cavaliers record: 50-32
2022 Warriors record: 53-29

2018 Cavaliers faced a young Celtics team in the ECF and were taken to 7 games and almost lost.
2022 Warriors faced a more experienced version of the Celtics team in the finals and beat them in 6 games.

LeBron and Steph were around the same age 33 in the respective years.

In short Steph in 2022 led a less favored team to a better record and a championship against a better version of the team that almost knocked out LeBron in 2018. If LeBron's 2018 is fantastic Steph's 2022 is better and it is not just winning the championship that makes it so.

[Kobe187]

Looney, Green, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole starting 5 for the beginning of the playoffs was pretty good from what I recall with Steph coming off the bench as the 6th man in the 1st round. The Cavs wouldn’t be able to afford to do that with LeBron.

[WarriorGM]

Looney, Green, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole starting 5 for the beginning of the playoffs was pretty darn good from what I recall with Steph coming off the bench as the 6th man in the 1st round. The Cavs would never be able to afford to do that with LeBron, night and day difference.

I remember LeBron's teammates sealing the win in their series against the Pacers when LeBron walked off the court.

[KyRo23]

He’s never going to be as good. Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to

[ceiling raiser]

Looney, Green, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole starting 5 for the beginning of the playoffs was pretty darn good from what I recall with Steph coming off the bench as the 6th man in the 1st round. The Cavs would never be able to afford to do that with LeBron, night and day difference.

Poole is an extremely limited player. Great 3rd guard but not a starter in the playoffs.

[Young gun 6]

Lebron had 1 teammate in playoffs average over 10 points per game....

1.

[Young gun 6]

Teammates in playoffs:

Cavs:
Love 15ppg (39/34/92 splits)
Hill 9ppg (45/31/78 splits)
JR 9ppg (35/37/77 splits)
Korver 8ppg (42/41/86 splits)
Green 8ppg (41/30/72 splits)

No that isn't handpicked either, that's actually the top 5 scorers on the team sans Lebron...

None of the above could even shoot over 45% FG and that's WITH Lebron drawing all of the defensive attention.

No one else in history could win with that roster.

Warriors:
Klay 19ppg (43/39/87 splits)
Poole 17ppg (51/39/92 splits)
Wiggins 17ppg (47/33/65 splits)
Draymond 8ppg (48/21/64 splits)

So Klay & Poole on solid efficiency. Elite defense and 17ppg from all star Wiggins, and Draymond being a top 5 defender in the league.

Yeah you can see why that's no comparison to washed Love, Hill, JR and Korver as your starting teammates.


Lebron also had higher PER, TS%, PPG, RPG, APG, SPG, BPG, OBPM, DBPM, BPM, WS, WS/48, VORP on greater efficiency and better defense than Curry so...... you can see why 2018 and 2022 shouldn't be even mentioned in the same convo together.

[Jazz9]

That '18 Cavs team had no business being in the Finals.
LeBron was insane in the playoffs with 34/9.1/9
Second best player? KLove with 14.9/10.2 on bad effciency
Then George Hill with 9.2/2.2/2.2 etc

Curry (27.4/5.2/5.9) had a lot more help with Klay (19) Poole (17) Wiggins (16.5/7.5 with great D) etc

[ceiling raiser]

So Klay & Poole on solid efficiency, elite defense

Klay's defense and efficiency were terrible last year. What on earth?

[Young gun 6]

So Klay & Poole on solid efficiency, elite defense

Klay's defense and efficiency were terrible last year. What on earth?

That was for the next part not those players mistyped the comma.

Solid Effiency: Klay & Pool both 17+ ppg
Elite Defense & All Star: Wiggins
Elite Defense: Draymond

[Young gun 6]

Looney, Green, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole starting 5 for the beginning of the playoffs was pretty darn good from what I recall with Steph coming off the bench as the 6th man in the 1st round. The Cavs would never be able to afford to do that with LeBron, night and day difference.

Poole is an extremely limited player. Great 3rd guard but not a starter in the playoffs.

This year yes.
Last year in playoffs no, he put up 17 on near on 50/40/90 in the playoffs.

Lebron 2018 would've killed for even 1 of his teammates to get near that.

[One Last Shot]

Replace LeBron with an 82-game healthy Curry and that terrible Cavs team will pick Zion or Ja in the next draft and that's not an exaggeration. There's a reason Steph haven't cracked Top 10 GOAT so far in his career with his weak championships while LeBron is Top 3 GOAT at worst. Steph can't carry those team to Playoffs.

[MrBigShot]

I'm sorry but no iteration of steph in the playoffs is even in the same stratosphere as LeBron during that 2018 playoff run. That was ridiculous. 34/9/9 on 62 TS% while taking a bunch of role players to the finals.

[Pelly24]

this is Lebron and it's not even close. Steph has never been better than LeBron James, not even now.

[FluLikeSymptoms]

It’s LBJ’s last peak season and it was a great run but GSW was ridiculous in 18. Last year’s field was the weakest in years, can’t remember two less-dangerous teams in the same finals. Steph did the thing and that’s how it goes, but If that 2018 LeBron team faces that 22 GSW team I think LBJ shows the 3-phase game that Steph never had, both directions slow and fast, and I think they do it.

[DCasey91]

Check the poster, see the username… oh that makes sense.

Dude give it a rest no version of Curry comes close to several iterations of Lebron

[DCasey91]

It’s LBJ’s last peak season and it was a great run but GSW was ridiculous in 18. Last year’s field was the weakest in years, can’t remember two less-dangerous teams in the same finals. Steph did the thing and that’s how it goes, but If that 2018 LeBron team faces that 22 GSW team I think LBJ shows the 3-phase game that Steph never had, both directions slow and fast, and I think they do it.

2020 Lebron was better than Curry’s 2022 imo.

Dude turned into peak Magic while being the QB tandem with Davis on defence.

Applicable scorer
Elite playmaking
Elite defence

Full package.

[WarriorGM]

I see a lot of people saying Curry doesn't come close blah blah blah. But there's not much to back it up.

Curry leads his teams to more convincing wins. His teammates tend to develop better reputations playing along side of him. Meanwhile LeBron's teammates always seem to end up disparaged and called washed. His most recent former MVP teammate just recently was called a vampire. How many of LeBron's teammates ended up having a better reputation after playing with him? Kyrie? Anyone else notable?

It's rather rich to hear that no version of Curry comes close to LeBron. Who holds the highest average ppg record in a 4-game sweep? LeBronto perhaps? No. Curry had a higher scoring series sweep. Indeed Curry's highest scoring game is higher than LeBron's highest. Maybe LeBron can add that to the list of stat stuffing he needs to change.

[KyRo23]

I long for the day that you finally get tired of posting a thread and having no one agree with you, but claim everyone else is the problem. Do you know my ex girlfriend?

[FluLikeSymptoms]

Steph is awesome but he’s got a case for top-10 all-time and LeBron’s got a case for #1. Steph v Kobe is a better debate.