G35 wrote:TaylorTRoom wrote:In 2016, Cleveland gave us the blueprint for Curry- double him, switch into him, and wear him down. His 2016 TS% in the regular season was .669. In the playoffs it was .603. In the 2017 and 2018 playoffs, playing with Durant (meaning teams couldn’t focus on Curry to the same extent), Curry’s TS was .659, .590 and .626. Playoffs Life is easier for Curry when playing with Durant.
I don't think Curry is better than Durant. I think Durant is better in a wider variety of circumstances, while Steph is better in the Warriors scenario.
Its obvious that winning G6 vs the Rockets and G1 vs the Blazers is boosting Curry right now. But if you had asked what the perception of Steph was at halftime of that G6 vs the Rockets, it would be a lot fewer people on that bandwagon.
Now Steph did step up and carry the Warriors to the win and he did in dominating fashion so you have to give him that credit. But the G1 of the Blazers was not a very challenging game imo. The Blazers did not play with the intensity you have to play with if you want to beat the champs. The one thing we have all been saying about Curry in the playoffs is that he does not play well through contact and physicality. I don't think the Blazers were physical with him at all. I don't think they have anyone on the Blazers that is that type of defender.
A Bruce Bowen, Tony Allen, Patrick Beverly, PJ Tucker type that is going to drag you into the dirt. The Blazers are similar to the Warriors in that they are led by their guards but the difference is Draymond. Dray is the most physical player on the floor and the Blazers are going to have to push back if they want to make it a competitive series.
Honestly, what they need is for McCollum to morph into Joe Dumars and put the Curry rules on him. Otherwise, if the Blazers try and just play straight up, they are going to lose easily. The Warriors two best players are better than the Blazers two best players. If Kanter can somehow become a dominating force maybe they can force some mismatches but I don't see that happening. The Warriors are going to push the Blazers around imo.
If this is going to be a battle of who can shoot the 3ball better, we might as well move the Warriors on to the next round because Blazers do not have the firepower to keep up.
TL;DR Curry is not going to be challenged by the Blazers and it will create a perception. The Bucks provide a much stiffer test to Curry's dominance
Excellent post, and I agree with it.
A few good games seems to have turned this board around from Steph is out of the top 10 to Steph is the best player in the league. I think the truth lies closer to a midpoint between these two opinions.
The knee jerk reactions on this board are getting tiresome. I’m not usually a Steph fan (my own personal bias), but I was actually defending him because some of the hot takes going around earlier in the playoffs that he was outside of the top 10. As I said above, now a few good games have put him over Durant, who was earlier being touted as having one of the greatest playoff runs ever. So Curry, too, is having one of the greatest playoff runs?
I guess you guys could be saying that he isn’t, but that he’s a better overall basketball player than Durant, which is a fair argument to make.
Personally, my opinion of “best basketball player” is if you can take a random NBA team and insert the player—how would they do? I feel like Durant is more flexible in this argument, since he is better at defense, and although his offense might not peak quite as high as Steph’s, it’s still pretty damn close. That, combined with better health and availability (yes, I am aware of the irony of saying this as he’s currently out with a calf sprain, but you get my point) and more consistent playoff success (Steph is the better RS player, but I value POs more) put Durant over Steph for me.
They’re certainly comparable, though. I still have Steph in my Tier 2 currently (until this past year or two he was top 3 and Tier 1), but maybe I’ll bump him back up to Tier 1 if he keeps playing well throughout the playoffs (a Finals MVP would be nice, but good play either way will help him).