jeff1624 wrote:therealbig3 wrote:Bro Johnson wrote:At this point in time Curry is the better player, and it's unlikely that ends up changing.
Don't get me wrong, Deron prior to the ankle injuries was much better than Curry, and while only a fool believes that he won't rebound from last year's dismal performance - it would also be equally as foolish to deny the fact that injuries have taken their toll on Deron Williams' ability to consistently play at an elite level.
There's really no evidence that Deron was better than Curry even when he was at the peak of his career, let alone much better. At best, it's highly debatable, but I actually feel like Curry is clearly better than Deron ever was.
I disagree. While I wouldn't say Deron was MUCH better, I do think his peak was higher than Current Steph. While Steph is the better scorer, Deron was a much better distributor and took care of the ball better while doing so. He was also solid/good defensively while Steph is pretty terrible on that end and is routinely hidden behind Igoudala and Thompsons ability to defend top tier PG's. Deron actually got to the western Conference finals with Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kirilenko. All good players, but not better than what Curry is working with.
I don't see the evidence that Curry is worse defensively (Deron was never considered all that great of a defender himself), nor do I see the evidence that Curry was a worse distributor. Deron was pretty TO-prone himself.
If you compare 2014 Curry to 2010 Deron (his last year in Utah) on a per 36 basis:
Curry: 23.7 ppg, 8.4 apg, 3.7 TOpg, 61.0% TS, 117 ORating, 24.1 PER
Deron: 18.2 ppg, 10.3 apg, 3.2 TOpg, 57.4% TS, 116 ORating, 20.6 PER
And in terms of on/off, Deron was +7.3 in 2010...Curry in 2014 was +14.9. Okur, Boozer, and Kirilenko were all All-Star caliber players in Utah as well. AND, Deron also had Millsap off the bench. I don't think Curry had as good of a team, especially since instead of Jerry Sloan as a coach, he had Mark Jackson. The on/off shows that the Warriors depended more on Curry than the Jazz did on Deron, and Sloan is a WAY better coach than Jackson.
Curry is just a clearly better offensive player than peak Deron, as there's negligible difference in their passing or court vision (and Sloan's system inflates assists), and he's a much better scorer, whose shooting ability allows him to put far more pressure on a defense than Deron. Defensively, even if Deron had the edge...it's a negligible advantage, because Deron was never that good of a defender, and his overall impact on defense was very small in general.