2015-17 Steph Curry vs. 2021-23 Nikola Jokic

[PhiEaglesfan712]

Who is the better player: Peak Curry or Peak Jokic?

[TheGOATRises007]

I think Jokic is the better player and he's got a durability edge in this comparison too.

He has 3 RS consecutively that are arguably on par with 16 Curry. His playoff run this season trumps Curry's from 2017 IMO.

His worst playoff series vs the Suns is still better than Curry's performance vs the Cavaliers IMO.

[eminence]

I think Jokic is the better player and he's got a durability edge in this comparison too.

He has 3 RS consecutively that are arguably on par with 16 Curry. His playoff run this season trumps Curry's from 2017 IMO.

His worst playoff series vs the Suns is still better than Curry's performance vs the Cavaliers IMO.

I generally agree on Jokic well over Curry for durability, but it's not true in these time periods.

Games played/team games played RS+PO
Jokic 250/271 (92.3)
Curry 294/308 (95.5)

I wouldn't hold that kind of difference against either of them.

[MyUniBroDavis]

I think vs an average team I’d pick Curry but I prefer Jokic’s reseliency offensively

Defensively Jokic has shown that he can be a pretty good defender (and was great vs Miami to be clear) with his size and positioning. He’s better in space than he was, but still feel that athletic slasher types are a bad matchup there, whereas Curry struggled with switchy defenses that are more common

Over the three year stretch I pick Curry, 23 Jokic vs 17 Curry I think pick Jokic probably in the sense that I think 17 Curry wouldn’t have done better vs the 18 rockets than other versions had. Maybe there’s a parallel there next year but untill we see it is how I like to approach it

2016 Curry was a monster but the playoff injury + his performance after that means no shot it’s his peak for me even though it kinda was lol

[No-more-rings]

When factoring in playoff resiliency, I find it hard to see Curry’s case.

[eminence]

Overall I'd go Curry here.

PO runs:
'23 Jokic (faced more relative challenge to win out over '17 Curry)
'17 Curry (good teams got flattened, tricky to judge just how far above the rest the Warriors were)
'15 Curry (bit more challenging run than '23 Jokic, but I think Curry/the Warriors did struggle just a bit more in their first deep run than the Nuggets did in '23 - not enough for serious docking, but enough to lose a relatively close comp)
'22 Jokic (likely could've done more, but didn't and looked rough vs Curry/Poole on D)
'21 Jokic (even worse on D, marginally better than JaMychal Green isn't winning any points either)
'16 Curry (wound up at solidly the bottom with missed games, I think you can argue the OKC series over either of the best series from '21/'22 Jokic)

RSs:
'16 Curry (the only season I have as serious contention with '09 LeBron for GOAT RS)
'17 Curry (foot not fully on the pedal, but Curry from '16-'18 when not injured was comparable to any guard play I've seen, Warriors damn near effortlessly cruising to 70 win pace)
'15 Curry (unexpected to most, but the Warriors rolled that season)
'23 Jokic (least durable RS on the list, Nuggets for sure took the foot off the gas down the stretch)
'22 Jokic (great carry job, but I'm generally a bit less impressed by seasons carrying bad teams to mediocrity)
'21 Jokic (this one a solid bit back on the above 5, weaker MVP, I'd give it to Gobert, stepped up when Murray went down)

Full Seasons:
'23 Jokic
'17 Curry
'15 Curry
'22 Jokic
'16 Curry
'21 Jokic

[One_and_Done]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

[eminence]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

C'mon, I've got Curry here too, but folks need to lay off dismissing reasonable comps.

Jokic won two MVPs and almost had the 3rd while leading his team to their first title. It's fine to comp him to anybody in NBA history.

[NbaAllDay]

Jokic due to the playoff resilience others have stated.

I think it's definitely close and could probably sway either way. I'd need to look into it more.

[Peregrine01]

I think high variance really hurts when it’s the playoffs. Sure when Curry goes off, his team wins by 20. But a win is still just a win. Consistency matters way more in small sample sizes which is why I prefer current Jokic over even the best version of Curry.

[MyUniBroDavis]

I don’t necessarily think it’s that Curry isn’t reselient as much as he’s not nearly as dominant in non advantaged isolation relative to other facets of his game, he’s still elite but it’s not other worldly like quite literally every other aspect of his game

So like very specifically switchy defenses kinda hurt him, and when it comes to switches the tactical ways to beat that aren’t really the same as in other areas

A huge part of the 2016 finals was that he couldn’t score on TT on switches iirc, he was hurt of course but still

The tough thing is that switches are really hard to beat tactically outside of attacking mismatches, and Curry is the type of player who I think you aren’t super confident in, in one on one situations vs elite defenders. Jokic otoh is a guy where there a handful of guys able to even slow him down in the nba today one on one

Outside of those situations I’d probably lean Curry, but being resilient is important so I think I’d pick Jokic. Him “struggling” is basically the Lakers series once the Rui adjustment happened and he was still absolutely dominant

Curry better over the stretch though, but Jokic peaked higher

[iggymcfrack]

Playoff stats over the 3 year span:

Jokic: 31.0 PER on .621 TS%, .258 WS/48, 11.5 BPM
Curry: 24.6 PER on .621 TS%, .218 WS/48, 8.5 BPM

[Mavrelous]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

No one in NBA history can claim he's not close to 2021-2023 Jokic, 2 times MVP and finals MVP while shattering every advanced metric record.

[One_and_Done]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

No one in NBA history can claim he's not close to 2021-2023 Jokic, 2 times MVP and finals MVP while shattering every advanced metric record.

I don't really care about advanced metrics, and yes alot of players were much better than Jokic ever has or will be.

[Mavrelous]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

No one in NBA history can claim he's not close to 2021-2023 Jokic, 2 times MVP and finals MVP while shattering every advanced metric record.

I don't really care about objective truths, I make up empty blank statements.

FTFY...

[TheLand13]

It's Curry and it's not even that close.

No one in NBA history can claim he's not close to 2021-2023 Jokic, 2 times MVP and finals MVP while shattering every advanced metric record.

I don't really care about advanced metrics, and yes alot of players were much better than Jokic ever has or will be.

You can think Curry was better if you want but your massive underrating of Jokic right now is pretty weird. I don't know what you don't like about his game but I don't see how anyone can make a claim that there have been peaks out there much better than what we're seeing from Jokic.

[One_and_Done]

Jokic is a great player. There are people on here declaring him the GOAT based on advanced stats. You can't just go off advanced stats to rate people.

[AEnigma]

Anything legitimately “advanced” does not have him at a GOAT level. Just because PER, WS/48, and BPM are all in an “advanced” section of basketball-reference does not mean they legitimately qualify. His RAPM is no sort of historical standout (admittedly a function of league relativity, but still), and it is much worse in the postseason. If people have access to AuPM records, they can cite those, but there too I am skeptical he is a true historical standout (and I know he is again not in the postseason). In DARKO he has not reached the same heights as Steph and would need to continue at this level for a few years to conceivably do so.

The discourse with Jokic has been fascinating if nothing else than as a confirmation that people ultimately just want the biggest possible box production and a minimum competency at defence (even if that minimum competency qualifies as a positional weakness).

[1993Playoffs]

I completely fail to see how anyone is “much better on offense” than Jokic. Hell it’s getting hard to argue “better” most offensive GOATS have some sort of weakness. It’s tough to think of any for Jokic ….on offense

[rand]

Curry is my second favorite player to have watched behind only Jordan but Jokic is a better player than Curry even just offensively. Curry is a more dangerous scoring threat by not by much and Jokic is multiple levels above as a playmaker and a much more physical presence on the game.