As a Scoring Point Guard, Steph Has No Serious Rival

[JN61]

Off the top of my head is Jerry West (who actually if there was a comp it would be him) era for era. The dude was pretty efficient even by today’s standards let alone for back in the 60’s. Heavy jump shooter like Curry (pretty as heck jump shot).

He’s one I have no doubt would put up big numbers in today’s league (add on the 3 pointer too yeesh).
Mr.West ain’t a small guard either.

Curry is unbelievable though

Yes, It is Jerry West in my opinion also. He is also better playmaker than Curry. But Curry has some all time great 3 point shooting stretches. Curry is no doubt top 5 scoring point guard, he just lacks volume of seasons to qualify for me to be the best.

[70sFan]

I agree that Curry is among the best scorers ever, but I think that Jerry West is his rival at PG spot. West had some ridiculous postseason performances that blows Curry's playoff resume away.

[WarriorGM]

I give Steph credit, it's really good and he enables a unique type of dominance. But neither he nor KD have a 2006 DWade, 2016, 2018 LeBron, 1991-1993 MJ type of playoff run and that's sort of a differentiator. Curry should've won, and you put Harden on that team instead, they also easily win. I don't see it as some crazy accomplishment is all, especially since he failed or came close to failing when talent was on equal terms.

What failures? Losing to a stacked lebron team?

The only reason the talent is close is IF Curry is a top ten all time talent. Prime lebron, kyrie and love is an incredible cast.

Sure, he’s not Mj or lebron but I’m not arguing he’s the goat. Just head and shoulders above harden, lillard etc and banging on the top ten.

2016 Warriors was one of the most stacked teams in the history of this league.. That was all time choke job.

I guess next we're going to hear the 2015 Warriors were even more stacked. I mean the roster didn't change that much except that the Warriors lost former all-star David Lee and gained Anderson Varajao.

2016? Might as well call it an all-time rig job.

[WarriorGM]

I agree that Curry is among the best scorers ever, but I think that Jerry West is his rival at PG spot. West had some ridiculous postseason performances that blows Curry's playoff resume away.

It's true that being awarded the finals MVP while losing the finals is something that blows. So is losing with a superteam consisting of Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as teammates. That 1-8 finals record blows too. All those losses to a team that didn't even have a player that scores as much as Curry! Might even make one wonder if scoring has as much to do with winning as commonly thought.

[DB23]

I give Steph credit, it's really good and he enables a unique type of dominance. But neither he nor KD have a 2006 DWade, 2016, 2018 LeBron, 1991-1993 MJ type of playoff run and that's sort of a differentiator. Curry should've won, and you put Harden on that team instead, they also easily win. I don't see it as some crazy accomplishment is all, especially since he failed or came close to failing when talent was on equal terms.

What failures? Losing to a stacked lebron team?

The only reason the talent is close is IF Curry is a top ten all time talent. Prime lebron, kyrie and love is an incredible cast.

Sure, he’s not Mj or lebron but I’m not arguing he’s the goat. Just head and shoulders above harden, lillard etc and banging on the top ten.

2016 Warriors was one of the most stacked teams in the history of this league.. That was all time choke job.

So stacked that it contained no other top 50 all time players.

Such drivel.

[70sFan]

I agree that Curry is among the best scorers ever, but I think that Jerry West is his rival at PG spot. West had some ridiculous postseason performances that blows Curry's playoff resume away.

It's true that being awarded the finals MVP while losing the finals is something that blows.

Yeah, how could West lost this series while averaging 38/5/7 on +7.5 rTS% against GOAT level defense...

[WarriorGM]

I agree that Curry is among the best scorers ever, but I think that Jerry West is his rival at PG spot. West had some ridiculous postseason performances that blows Curry's playoff resume away.

It's true that being awarded the finals MVP while losing the finals is something that blows.

Yeah, how could West lost this series while averaging 38/5/7 on +7.5 rTS% against GOAT level defense...

Lost again the next year against the New York Knicks—and again after that to the Milwaukee Bucks—while still playing with Baylor and Chamberlain. West seems to have more in common with Harden.

[70sFan]

It's true that being awarded the finals MVP while losing the finals is something that blows.

Yeah, how could West lost this series while averaging 38/5/7 on +7.5 rTS% against GOAT level defense...

Lost again the next year against the New York Knicks—and again after that to the Milwaukee Bucks—while still playing with Baylor and Chamberlain. West seems to have more in common with Harden.

You don't even know that West and Baylor didn't play against the Bucks...

[DCasey91]

fwiw Curry has played with another Goat lvl off ball shooter, The best glue guy/defender this past decade whose a DPOY, an All time scorer, another All NBA wing defender in the one team at the same time.

Harden’s best player was an out of prime ATG PG that as clockwork got injured.

As Scoring Point Guards go, you can argue for Harden/West/Curry

I get it it’s very hard to win with such a ball dominant low value off ball player such as Harden. Whereas Curry’s off ball value is the best ever.

But as scoring goes as the the thread suggests? Harden has already shown he can solo a RS and bring of bunch of G leaguers to the WCF’s.

I mean his 2018 season he was doing things in that season that hasn’t been seen scoring wise since Wilt. Then next season he casually averages 34 like it was a normal thing.

Efficiency - Curry
Volume - Harden
Original prototype - West

Oh and btw not many teams in NBA history has any chance against a Pistons 04 team on steroids for over a decade, that was the Celtics. Stacked at every position not just Bill Russell

[DB23]

fwiw Curry has played with another Goat lvl off ball shooter, The best glue guy/defender this past decade whose a DPOY, an All time scorer, another All NBA wing defender in the one team at the same time.

Harden’s best player was an out of prime ATG PG that as clockwork got injured.

As Scoring Point Guards go, you can argue for Harden/West/Curry

I get it it’s very hard to win with such a ball dominant low value off ball player such as Harden. Whereas Curry’s off ball value is the best ever.

But as scoring goes as the the thread suggests? Harden has already shown he can solo a RS and bring of bunch of G leaguers to the WCF’s.

I mean his 2018 season he was doing things in that season that hasn’t been seen scoring wise since Wilt. Then next season he casually averages 34 like it was a normal thing.

Efficiency - Curry
Volume - Harden
Original prototype - West

Oh and btw not many teams in NBA history has any chance against a Pistons 04 team on steroids for over a decade, that was the Celtics. Stacked at every position not just Bill Russell

And fwiw harden has played with a top 4 pg all time, one of a handful of multiple DPOY winners and one of two players to have multiple triple double seasons.

I think most would rank Paul, Dwight and Russ over klay, dray and iggy.

I can’t comment on west cause I just haven’t seen him play really but harden doesn’t belong in any curry conversation.

[WarriorGM]

Yeah, how could West lost this series while averaging 38/5/7 on +7.5 rTS% against GOAT level defense...

Lost again the next year against the New York Knicks—and again after that to the Milwaukee Bucks—while still playing with Baylor and Chamberlain. West seems to have more in common with Harden.

You don't even know that West and Baylor didn't play against the Bucks...

Doesn't really affect the main point. I'm sure by that time some would be arguing Goodrich was an improvement over Baylor. West still lost on a stacked team.

[DCasey91]

fwiw Curry has played with another Goat lvl off ball shooter, The best glue guy/defender this past decade whose a DPOY, an All time scorer, another All NBA wing defender in the one team at the same time.

Harden’s best player was an out of prime ATG PG that as clockwork got injured.

As Scoring Point Guards go, you can argue for Harden/West/Curry

I get it it’s very hard to win with such a ball dominant low value off ball player such as Harden. Whereas Curry’s off ball value is the best ever.

But as scoring goes as the the thread suggests? Harden has already shown he can solo a RS and bring of bunch of G leaguers to the WCF’s.

I mean his 2018 season he was doing things in that season that hasn’t been seen scoring wise since Wilt. Then next season he casually averages 34 like it was a normal thing.

Efficiency - Curry
Volume - Harden
Original prototype - West

Oh and btw not many teams in NBA history has any chance against a Pistons 04 team on steroids for over a decade, that was the Celtics. Stacked at every position not just Bill Russell

And fwiw harden has played with a top 4 pg all time, one of a handful of multiple DPOY winners and one of two players to have multiple triple double seasons.

I think most would rank Paul, Dwight and Russ over klay, dray and iggy.

I can’t comment on west cause I just haven’t seen him play really but harden doesn’t belong in any curry conversation.

As scoring goes he definitely does belong in the conversation. Also he never played with any of them all on the same team at the one time.

Curry did.

[70sFan]

Lost again the next year against the New York Knicks—and again after that to the Milwaukee Bucks—while still playing with Baylor and Chamberlain. West seems to have more in common with Harden.

You don't even know that West and Baylor didn't play against the Bucks...

Doesn't really affect the main point. I'm sure by that point some would be arguing Goodrich was an improvement over Baylor. West still lost on a stacked team.

How can you held Bucks loss against West when he didn't play a single minute in 1971 playoffs?

[70sFan]

Also, before you start calling West a choker, here are Lakers playoffs offense stats during his prime:

1962: +4.7
1963: +8.6
1964: +3.0
1965: +6.9
1966: +7.8
1968: +4.1
1969: +0.6
1970: +5.1

Average of +5.1 in 71 games.

That's almost as good as Curry's results and West didn't have as good teams as Curry on average (+6.1 in 2015-19 period).

[The-Power]

Also, before you start calling West a choker, here are Lakers playoffs offense stats during his prime:

1962: +4.7
1963: +8.6
1964: +3.0
1965: +6.9
1966: +7.8
1968: +4.1
1969: +0.6
1970: +5.1

Average of +7.6 in 71 games.

Either the yearly numbers or your calculation must be off to get to +7.6 on average.

[DCasey91]

Lost again the next year against the New York Knicks—and again after that to the Milwaukee Bucks—while still playing with Baylor and Chamberlain. West seems to have more in common with Harden.

You don't even know that West and Baylor didn't play against the Bucks...

Doesn't really affect the main point. I'm sure by that time some would be arguing Goodrich was an improvement over Baylor. West still lost on a stacked team.

What was it 7 hall of famers in the one team in his first finals appearance that’s the team he was up against us?

You can argue for 69’ but outside of that Celtics always had the better team basically from 57-69 excluding some years with historic Wilt team’s etc.

Hence why I rate Pettit right up there (along with Baylor in comparison to West by all reports there wasn’t a 20 or ranking gap as all time standing’s would suggest.)

[WarriorGM]

You don't even know that West and Baylor didn't play against the Bucks...

Doesn't really affect the main point. I'm sure by that point some would be arguing Goodrich was an improvement over Baylor. West still lost on a stacked team.

How can you held Bucks loss against West when he didn't play a single minute in 1971 playoffs?

It appears you are right with the Bucks. But losing to the Knicks—another team without a prolific scorer—still meant he lost to not just the greatest of all-time defense you attribute to the Celtics.

[70sFan]

Also, before you start calling West a choker, here are Lakers playoffs offense stats during his prime:

1962: +4.7
1963: +8.6
1964: +3.0
1965: +6.9
1966: +7.8
1968: +4.1
1969: +0.6
1970: +5.1

Average of +7.6 in 71 games.

Either the yearly numbers or your calculation must be off to get to +7.6 on average.

My bad, I copied wrong value, I edited it in my original post - it's +5.0 on average.

[70sFan]

Doesn't really affect the main point. I'm sure by that point some would be arguing Goodrich was an improvement over Baylor. West still lost on a stacked team.

How can you held Bucks loss against West when he didn't play a single minute in 1971 playoffs?

It appears you are right with the Bucks. But losing to the Knicks—another team without a prolific scorer—still meant he lost to not just the greatest of all-time defense you attribute to the Celtics.

Knicks themselves were among the best defensive teams ever with -6.0 rDRtg and with Frazier/DeBusschere/Reed trio anchoring the defense.

Why do you focus on "profilic scorer" thing? Curry lost against 2013 Spurs and 2014 Clippers, neither team had a "profilic scorer" either. How could he lost to them...? Maybe because there are more things in basketball than comparing the best scorers from each teams.

At least West lost in his prime while averaging staggering numbers and leading excellent offenses, not like Curry in 2013 when he averaged 22.5 ppg on -1.9 rTS%...

[California Gold]

I can’t believe we have posters in here saying Currys only rival here in this category is Jordan.

Haha.

Curry is nowhere near Jordan as a scorer. Jordan does have a real rival there though and his name is Kobe Bryant. You can argue Harden somewhat as well given all the scoring titles he has.

The audacity some people have to just eclipse Curry up there with the greatest scorer because of one or two seasons is laughable.