Kevin Durant vs Stephen Curry: better career so far?

[No-more-rings]

Who do you have ranked higher all time?

KD's longevity is definitely better, but the majority would agree Curry's peak was better . Honestly you could make the case that every healthy version of Curry from 2015 onward is better/more impactful.

[falcolombardi]

depends on what you value, curry in my opinion peaked higher and has the most impressive achievements

like winning without a broken team (granted it was a weak slate of rivals in 2015), the unnanimous mvp, probably a bigger "legacy" aa far as influencing basketball or being a icon of a franchise

but durant longevity is a lot better so the career value approach is easily him

i usually go with career value approaches so i may prefer durant

[jalengreen]

depends on what you value, curry in my opinion peaked higher and has the most impressive achievements

like winning without a broken team (granted it was a weak slate of rivals in 2015), the unnanimous mvp, probably a bigger "legacy" aa far as influencing basketball or being a icon of a franchise

but durant longevity is a lot better so the career value approach is easily him

i usually go with career value approaches so i may prefer durant

is curry's 2015 run really any more impressive than kd's 2012?

[falcolombardi]

depends on what you value, curry in my opinion peaked higher and has the most impressive achievements

like winning without a broken team (granted it was a weak slate of rivals in 2015), the unnanimous mvp, probably a bigger "legacy" aa far as influencing basketball or being a icon of a franchise

but durant longevity is a lot better so the career value approach is easily him

i usually go with career value approaches so i may prefer durant

is curry's 2015 run really any more impressive than kd's 2012?

not necesarrily, is a bit of winning bias for those who value "proving you can win" highly

your comparision with 2012 is very good considering beating the 12 spurs is probably more impressive than the inured 2015 cavs

[Prokorov]

For me it is KD and the thing that seperates it for me is longevity + finals MVPs.

I know there is alot of talk of "curry won without KD, KD did not win without Curry" and my response that is typically that KD in curry's spot probably still beats a Cavs team without Kyrie. But i dont think a KD-less warriors team beats cleveland twice.

[falcolombardi]

For me it is KD and the thing that seperates it for me is longevity + finals MVPs.

I know there is alot of talk of "curry won without KD, KD did not win without Curry" and my response that is typically that KD in curry's spot probably still beats a Cavs team without Kyrie. But i dont think a KD-less warriors team beats cleveland twice.

probably not without curry either to be fair

[Prokorov]

For me it is KD and the thing that seperates it for me is longevity + finals MVPs.

I know there is alot of talk of "curry won without KD, KD did not win without Curry" and my response that is typically that KD in curry's spot probably still beats a Cavs team without Kyrie. But i dont think a KD-less warriors team beats cleveland twice.

probably not without curry either to be fair

True, but in the case were KD wins in 2015, and curry comes later to win 2 titles its the reverse outcome still KD would have won without steph but not the other way around.

The KD narrative overshadows the reality. going to a 70 win warriors team made it easier for him to win, but the idea that he can only win on a stacked team to me always seemed off.

[Peregrine01]

KD has had more longevity but I think Curry has had the bigger impact on the game.

[jalengreen]

I do think Curry's the more impactful player and I think Durant often gets overrated due to being an all-time great one-on-one scorer which people tend to place more emphasis on.

I just hate the argument that I hear so often about how Curry won without KD. It's an irrelevant point to me because Curry was not particularly impressive in the 2015 playoffs IMO and beat an injured Cavs team. I was more impressed by Durant in 2012.

Curry's playoff resume really just isn't all that impressive to me - the 2015 Finals shouldn't even have gone to six games, the 2016 Finals were a choke from Curry, stacked supporting casts in 2017 & 2018 (outperformed by KD in the Finals imo), was underwhelming at times in the 2019 playoffs (including against Houston)... while KD has also obviously benefited from playing with a couple of the most stacked teams ever, I'd take his playoff resume over Curry's personally

[No-more-rings]

depends on what you value, curry in my opinion peaked higher and has the most impressive achievements

like winning without a broken team (granted it was a weak slate of rivals in 2015), the unnanimous mvp, probably a bigger "legacy" aa far as influencing basketball or being a icon of a franchise

but durant longevity is a lot better so the career value approach is easily him

i usually go with career value approaches so i may prefer durant

Easily Durant?

I think everyone agrees longevity matters to some extent, but in your mind how big does a gap in primes have to be for the longevity to not mean as much?

[falcolombardi]

depends on what you value, curry in my opinion peaked higher and has the most impressive achievements

like winning without a broken team (granted it was a weak slate of rivals in 2015), the unnanimous mvp, probably a bigger "legacy" aa far as influencing basketball or being a icon of a franchise

but durant longevity is a lot better so the career value approach is easily him

i usually go with career value approaches so i may prefer durant

Easily Durant?

I think everyone agrees longevity matters to some extent, but in your mind how big does a gap in primes have to be for the longevity to not mean as much?

well, look at it this way, before curry had his first great season (2013) durant already had 3 great ones (2010-2012)

curry has 13-19 and 21 (8 seasons)

durant has 10-14, 16-19 and 21 (10 seasons) that is a significant difference . durant missed half of the playoffs in 19. but curry missed them completely in 21

is curry better enough than durant to make up for a 25% longevity gap? he may be for some but even though i thinl curry may be a bit better i would still value durant career more highly (and i am not even high on durant)

generally when i am not sure which player was better (although i lean curry) or thinl the gap is very small i default to the guy who did it for longer

[Jaivl]

Durant has like one more healthy prime season than Curry, he does not have at all a big longevity edge.

[Texas Chuck]

I have this pretty clearly Steph. Durant is a GOAT level individual scorer, but despite that he doesn't elevate his teams' offenses to the degree of the truly elite offensive anchors like a Steph Curry. And it remains a team game.

[Johnny Tomala]

Durant - better international career, more All-NBA teams, more seasons of high level of play.

[falcolombardi]

Durant has like one more healthy prime season than Curry, he does not have at all a big longevity edge.

for my view durant has been a superstar since 2010 until 2021, minus 15 and 19 (10 seasons)

curry has been one since 2013 until 2021, minus 2019 (8 seasons)

normally 2 more prime years wouldnt be a huge Gap either, but when curry has only had 8 prime years is very significative

[Cavsfansince84]

KD's overall longevity still does it for me. The years they played together I see almost as a wash. Steph had a combination of rs+ps success in 15-16 that KD never had but its not enough for me to move him ahead. Last year's Steph season was very similar to KD's 2014. KD also had a run of years from 2010-2013 where he was top 2 in mvp voting 3 times and the finals run.

[Jaivl]

Durant has like one more healthy prime season than Curry, he does not have at all a big longevity edge.

for my view durant has been a superstar since 2010 until 2021, minus 15 and 19 (10 seasons)

curry has been one since 2013 until 2021, minus 2019 (8 seasons)

normally 2 more prime years wouldnt be a huge Gap either, but when curry has only had 8 prime years is very significative

Minus 2020 for KD too, right? It's 9 vs 8 then (and also you MUST mean 2020 for Curry I guess). And 2010 KD's superstardom... eeeeh.

[Ruzious]

I think Durant is the best player in the world, but I give Curry the slight edge for the careers because it was Curry that was the man who made GS a powerhouse - more than anyone else, and Durant joined him - presumably because he couldn't beat him. Still, in another couple of years, Durant may or may not surpass what Curry has accomplished.

[falcolombardi]

Durant has like one more healthy prime season than Curry, he does not have at all a big longevity edge.

for my view durant has been a superstar since 2010 until 2021, minus 15 and 19 (10 seasons)

curry has been one since 2013 until 2021, minus 2019 (8 seasons)

normally 2 more prime years wouldnt be a huge Gap either, but when curry has only had 8 prime years is very significative

Minus 2020 for KD too, right? It's 9 vs 8 then (and also you MUST mean 2020 for Curry I guess). And 2010 KD's superstardom... eeeeh.

i write 2019 where i wanted to write 2020, so still 2 seasons , durant injuries in 2019 playoffs are "neutralized" by curry missing the 2021 playoffs as both are incomplete seasons

and while durant was not quite what he would be later in 2010...he was still a top 10 kind of player, curry in 2013 was not what he would be later yet either

[Odinn21]

Let's see...

As a rookie and a sophomore, Durant was better than Curry. Not huge but not small either. A meaningful edge to Durant.
(Curry basically missed his 3rd season.)
I think of Durant's 2010, 2011 and Curry's 2013, 2014 similarly. The seasons of their coming to the superstardom. Very strong seasons but not all-time material yet. A slight edge to Durant though.
Then it's Durant's 2012-16 vs. Curry's 2015-19. Now, this is where Curry's peak trumps Durant's peak so cleanly. Also Durant basically missed 2015 season, that was more hurtful than Curry's multiple, spread out injuries. A significant edge to Curry.
Then it's Durant's 2017-21 vs. Curry's 2020-21. Both of them missed 2020 season, Durant was injured on at least one occasion in each of those seasons. But he should easily outscale Curry because it's basically his 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 vs. Curry's 2021. A significant edge to Durant.

So, even though Curry is the better player and probably produced more championship equity with that, Durant's longevity (even with involvement of so many injuries) outscales Curry's quality imho.