Building Blocks: Curry vs Kawhi vs Harden

[SUPERVILLAIN]

Not about who's the better player. But who's better/easier to build around?

2020-21 regular-season stats:
* Stephen Curry (age 32) - GP 63, MPG 34.2, PPG 32, FG% 48.2, 3P% 42.1, RPG 5.5, APG 5.8, SPG 1.2, BPG 0.1
* Kawhi Leonard (age 29) - GP 52, MPG 34.1, PPG 24.8, FG% 51.2, 3P% 39.8, RPG 6.5, APG 5.2, SPG 1.6, BPG 0.4
* James Harden (age 31) - GP 44, MPG 36.6, PPG 24.6, FG% 46.6, 3P% 36.2, RPG 7.9, APG 10.8, SPG 1.3, BPG 0.8

[Dutchball97]

I think Kawhi and Curry are better than Harden but I do think Harden is the easiest to build around. Having Harden on your team means an instantly good offense, while Curry and Kawhi need a playmaker next to them to get the most out of them. Besides that Curry is 33 and turning 34 during the season, it is a question how much longer he'll be playing at an elite level. Kawhi just turned 30 but he is going to miss time every year as his knees definitely aren't going to get better.

[KGtabake]

Ι always vote for Steph first and i read the OP later. Then i vote again for Steph.

[Lalouie]

harden because he has a broader skillset

kawhi gets hurt

[Strepbacter]

Curry
Kawhi









Harden

[SUPERVILLAIN]

It’s a tight race so far.

[Mogul]

Harden

He has elite G skills in a huge SF sized body.

[Neutral 123]

Kawhi. Best defender, best playoff performer.

[Karate Diop]

It's easiest to build around Harden because of his absolute command of a team's offense and overall durability. Kawhi is the best player of the group but comes in second because of his durability concerns and the fact that you may need someone to help him shoulder the offensive load on a nightly basis. Curry is the clear third, while he's an offensive dynamo like Harden his defense is substantially worse and requires you to fear your entire defense around covering for him.

[SerialChiller]

It's easiest to build around Harden because of his absolute command of a team's offense and overall durability. Kawhi is the best player of the group but comes in second because of his durability concerns and the fact that you may need someone to help him shoulder the offensive load on a nightly basis. Curry is the clear third, while he's an offensive dynamo like Harden his defense is substantially worse and requires you to fear your entire defense around covering for him.

Not really Houston had a hard time because he's sooo ball dominant. It's definitely not easier than Curry that's for sure.

[DCasey91]

Peak Kawhi in 2020 had a cast that would make Lebron salivate. Extremely high peaks but durability a question mark and how he leads his team is apt and rightfully so.

Harden, the jury is well out as the lead guard in pressure playoff situations (though Curry has his faults as well let’s be honest, durability and ballhandling). There’s a long backlog of it too btw.

As a building block I’d take Curry in the end. Harden is very suspect the further you go along, Kawhi has one super duper high peak run, Curry has been to the finals 5 times and performed up to standard overall.

Also I think there just as many ways to build a team around Curry being much better off ball between the three.

[SUPERVILLAIN]

1. Harden
2. Curry
-----
3. Kawhi

Curry might be the better player but Harden is definitely easier to build around. Harden doesn't need a playmaker to be a monster scorer. Meanwhile Curry always has Draymond Green.

[SharpyShuffle]

It's easiest to build around Harden because of his absolute command of a team's offense and overall durability. Kawhi is the best player of the group but comes in second because of his durability concerns and the fact that you may need someone to help him shoulder the offensive load on a nightly basis. Curry is the clear third, while he's an offensive dynamo like Harden his defense is substantially worse and requires you to fear your entire defense around covering for him.

Not really Houston had a hard time because he's sooo ball dominant. It's definitely not easier than Curry that's for sure.

Houston had a hard time because they made bad trades and had a cheap owner.

The main issue though is that for some reason Morey wanted to take the ball out of Harden's hands and not just play him as the sole PG, despite him being an amazing modern PG. I love CP3 but he was not a good fit with Harden (they worked well based on our talent, a la LeBron and Wade, but they weren't a natural fit). Russ was obviously a disaster and an all-time bad trade.

Now Harden is on the Nets and they've just said "James is the PG" and that's that. He's going to kill it this season with everyone healthy.

None of the 3 stars Houston paired with Harden were a good fit, but that's not Harden's fault
The two stars Morey TRIED to pair with Harden - Pau and Bosh- would have been a much better fit. Put Harden with a skilled big man instead of a second PG or a half-washed traditional C.

[clyde21]

1. Harden
2. Curry
-----
3. Kawhi

Curry might be the better player but Harden is definitely easier to build around. Harden doesn't need a playmaker to be a monster scorer. Meanwhile Curry always has Draymond Green.

weird take -- Steph's literally the easiest player we've ever seen to build around...and the notion that Steph 'needs a playmaker' to be a monster scorer is not based on reality at all.

[Jables]

If Harden were easy to build around we wouldn't have seen a bunch of sideways moves for like a decade, despite getting a bunch of different players. I guess it's easy in that regard, but you build to win.

You look at what was actually around him for the first ring and Curry didn't need playmakers (he had good passers, he was always the best playmaker), Harden doesn't do **** to direct traffic offball and he's some untouchable playmaker? When the Rockets had their best playoff run with Chris Paul? What reality are we living in?

[DCasey91]

It's easiest to build around Harden because of his absolute command of a team's offense and overall durability. Kawhi is the best player of the group but comes in second because of his durability concerns and the fact that you may need someone to help him shoulder the offensive load on a nightly basis. Curry is the clear third, while he's an offensive dynamo like Harden his defense is substantially worse and requires you to fear your entire defense around covering for him.

Not really Houston had a hard time because he's sooo ball dominant. It's definitely not easier than Curry that's for sure.

Houston had a hard time because they made bad trades and had a cheap owner.

The main issue though is that for some reason Morey wanted to take the ball out of Harden's hands and not just play him as the sole PG, despite him being an amazing modern PG. I love CP3 but he was not a good fit with Harden (they worked well based on our talent, a la LeBron and Wade, but they weren't a natural fit). Russ was obviously a disaster and an all-time bad trade.

Now Harden is on the Nets and they've just said "James is the PG" and that's that. He's going to kill it this season with everyone healthy.

None of the 3 stars Houston paired with Harden were a good fit, but that's not Harden's fault
The two stars Morey TRIED to pair with Harden - Pau and Bosh- would have been a much better fit. Put Harden with a skilled big man instead of a second PG or a half-washed traditional C.

Not a good fit? They were going to beat the all time Warriors. CP3 was the lynchpin

Morey is smart and very analytical even to his own and the team demise. Capela out for Westbrook was a huge backfire. No center vs the Lakers = death.

Make no mistake that Rockets team was the 04 Pistons just on offense specifically designed to beat the Warriors.

There’s a real reason you want the ball out of Hardens hands when push comes to shove because the literacy and evidence is more than enough now in his whole career. Put simply CP3 is a better ball-handler and decision maker than Harden is and ever will be.

Results based can get in the way of what theory was trying to achieve.

[TwoStarz]

Definitely don’t love me some Harden but I respect his game. Hell of talent.

But it really seems like people forget the dumb decisions this guy makes time and time again with the game/series on the line.

He was a turnover machine down the stretch for the nets and was trying to throw full court passes when all he needed to do was dribble the ball up the court and give it to KD or just run a set. VALUE the ball!

This guy has pulled this **** before too, second half of 2018 wcf, 2017 game 6 against Spurs… he just mentally checks out and it’s like dude…wtf are you doing. He’s a good playmaker, but this board is glossing over his poor decisions that have directly cost him playoff games

[Statlanta]

Even with this injury plagued year Harden has 2 regular seasons worth of production over Curry. The playoff gap isn't enough to overcome that.

If you gave both average GM's over this period and assumed a random top 8 HOF other than LBJ was running the league I doubt either would have championships.

Harden is taller and is more accustomed to playing multiple positions

I'd have to give it to James Harden.

[JN61]

Curry has only been twice in the playoffs withouth multiple all-stars in his team so definitely Harden.