If Steph wins MVP, Chip & Finals MVP this year where does he rank ?

[Strepbacter]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

[NRSV]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Kobe was overrated as a defender for the majority of his career. The refs let him get away with everything, as well.

[Strepbacter]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Kobe was overrated as a defender for the majority of his career. The refs let him get away with everything, as well.

Nah. Prime Kobe was one of the best defensive guards in the league. Curry gets away with murder and still can't guard anybody.

[Raonak]

KD might be a better 1v1 player. But Steph is a better 5v5 player. He makes the entire team into an elite offensive weapon. He's one of the most unique players in how he synergies with other players due to his offball movement.

If KD was batman, Steph was superman. Remember Steph has eliminated lebron, KD, harden, dame, AD, cp3.

At the team sport of basketball, Steph is one of the best. A franchise player that turned a garbage organisation into a winning franchise. Goat shooting, goat offball. His level of sustained dominance, and his undisputed level of skill, and his entertainment value makes him one of the basketball goats.

[nfmos]

I find these types of polls interesting in the sense that it requires such a contextual placement of players in history and an eye-ball judgment of what players meant to their teams and their team's success. Take Duncan for example. Could he win all those titles without significant contributions from lots of players? No chance. Could those complimentary players be replaced by others and Duncan would still have won? No doubt. He was the mainstay. As is Curry. He needs the help of others, but there is no doubt to anyone paying attention that Curry is the engine that kept the GSW dynasty going. And it was a dynasty. 5 straight finals, and crushing opponents along the way. Changed the way the game is played. There are some top 10 players right now who cannot claim the same level of influence or success that Curry has on his resume.

To add to that, i mentioned in another post that in a recent interview Draymond said the thing he sees as Stephs greatest attribute is his humility. Its his humility that allows and trusts other players to shine, much to the benefit of his teammates confidence and growth. He doesn't need to be the hero, and he understands a team is better if it can win from multiple points of attacks instead of one player being the hero all the time. I loved playing the Rockets in the playoffs during the championship run because you knew you just had to shut down Harden, since he was basically the head of the snake and the offense stopped if was stopped. And i dont think that was his teammates fault since he didnt help them get better by giving them more touches and trust during the regular season.

Teams like Duncan's spurs or Curry's Warriors and even the 2004 Pistons that smashed the Lakers in the Finals show that the best teams are the ones that there isnt one player who is ball dominant and everyone shares the ball. But you need a certain type of personality from your star to give in to that type of play, or you have to be so amazing and legendary that you can overcome that, like MJ or Lebron. But there are plenty of players that have failed trying.

[nfmos]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

[a8bil]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

Curry's spatial awareness is elite. He is able to anticipate where passes are going to go as the play develops and intercepts them. He's able to see where balls are going to bounce off the rim on a shot and he gets there. I can't think of any player in the league better than him in these areas. Maybe his equal, but not better. So many deflections are caused by Curry, and now his blocks are up as he has focused on following his man through the drive rather than peeling off to get ready for transition. His hands are simply elite.

[Ugalde]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

people are just not being fair. i get why though. if lebron is at the top of the key and hunts down a switch with curry on him it really shouldn't be expected that curry can guard lebron.

at the same time though it is a good trait a guy like lebron has that he can be switched on to anyone and he can still defend well. a lot of elite players can. curry doesn't have this ability. does that make him a bad defender? no. obviously no regular sized PG can guard the bigger wings on the switch. but it is an advantage when comparing great players when the great can handle switches.

[a8bil]

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

people are just not being fair. i get why though. if lebron is at the top of the key and hunts down a switch with curry on him it really shouldn't be expected that curry can guard lebron.

at the same time though it is a good trait a guy like lebron has that he can be switched on to anyone and he can still defend well. a lot of elite players can. curry doesn't have this ability. does that make him a bad defender? no. obviously no regular sized PG can guard the bigger wings on the switch. but it is an advantage when comparing great players when the great can handle switches.

That's fair, but realistically, who amongst guards can effectively defend Lebron? Few forwards can, let along guards. In the same way, how many forwards/bigger wings can guard Curry. He abuses bigs all game long with quick step back or side step moves.

[Impuniti]

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

people are just not being fair. i get why though. if lebron is at the top of the key and hunts down a switch with curry on him it really shouldn't be expected that curry can guard lebron.

at the same time though it is a good trait a guy like lebron has that he can be switched on to anyone and he can still defend well. a lot of elite players can. curry doesn't have this ability. does that make him a bad defender? no. obviously no regular sized PG can guard the bigger wings on the switch. but it is an advantage when comparing great players when the great can handle switches.

This isn't 2016 anymore.

[BoatsNZones]

These threads are the worst. Let it play out and see how it plays out. As is, his stock is rising and many if not most prominent lists already have him in the top 15. Ultimately, these are highly predicated on team dependent questions (all 3, really) in what is an individual rank here. As long as he keeps up his top 3 level play, that is what bears the most fruit in continuing to rise the ranks imo.

[wegotthabeet]

The people saying "zErO FiNaLs MvPs" are so cringe. Curry was clearly the rightful 2015 FMVP and anyone with even the slightest modicum of basketball knowledge should understand that. Iggy winning the award is just proof that the award needs to be chosen through other means. 11 clueless media personalities clearly can't handle the task.

Iggy played well but he was not some iron defender responsible for shutting Bron down. Bron was averaging over 40 a game on 36 FGA in the first three games of the series before Iggy was inserted into the starting lineup. That is simply unsustainable production over a 7 game series against an elite defense while your best teammates are Timofey Mozgov and Matthew Dellavedova.

It's a shame something entirely out of Curry's control will be held against him for years to come. He deserved that 2015 FMVP.

That's fair I guess, but why didn't he win it the other two times? I get he got robbed in 2015. Durant is still clearly the better player.

Durant outplaying Curry against one of the worst defensive teams to ever make the finals in both 2017 and 2018 doesn't make Durant clearly the better player. Before joining the Warriors, KD's playoff resume was very underwhelming. Have we forgotten that KD absolutely **** the bed while blowing a 3-1 lead against Steph's Warriors in 2016?

Durant > Curry on the all time list. He's clearly the better player. I feel Durant's social media presence has hurt his legacy to the point where people don't even realize how good he actually is anymore. It's just pure hate for the man and has nothing to do with his actual talent and skill. Curry is great, but Durant is the much better overall player on both sides of the ball. It isn't that close either honestly. When Durant was injured in the 2019 Finals I knew it was a wrap for Golden State. Curry wasn't going to get it done.

[antonac]

Durant has achieved less than Curry by pretty much every metric you could come up with (beyond the two fMVPs I guess).

I'm not sure why people always want to rate players based on their hypothetical prowess in 1 v 1 hoops when they could just the hundreds and hundreds of hours of actual real basketball to evaluate how good players are at playing real basketball.

[Mavrelous]

I'd rank him behind MJ, LBJ alongside Duncan, Bird, KAJ and Magic.

[Raonak]

That's fair I guess, but why didn't he win it the other two times? I get he got robbed in 2015. Durant is still clearly the better player.

Durant outplaying Curry against one of the worst defensive teams to ever make the finals in both 2017 and 2018 doesn't make Durant clearly the better player. Before joining the Warriors, KD's playoff resume was very underwhelming. Have we forgotten that KD absolutely **** the bed while blowing a 3-1 lead against Steph's Warriors in 2016?

Durant > Curry on the all time list. He's clearly the better player. I feel Durant's social media presence has hurt his legacy to the point where people don't even realize how good he actually is anymore. It's just pure hate for the man and has nothing to do with his actual talent and skill. Curry is great, but Durant is the much better overall player on both sides of the ball. It isn't that close either honestly. When Durant was injured in the 2019 Finals I knew it was a wrap for Golden State. Curry wasn't going to get it done.

Nah. At best KD equal to steph in terms of ingame impact.
It's very much the case of KD being the perfect iso player vs steph being the perfect team player.
In a 1v1 game, KD would beat steph, but in a 5v5, given a decent team, steph would beat KD.

And since basketball is a team sport, I think steph is better than KD at basketball as a team sport.

[Strepbacter]

I can only imagine what Steph’s raw numbers would look like if he played his entire career as brazenly selfish as Kobe.

I can only imagine the type of heat Kobe would have taken if he was as pathetic a defender as Curry is.

Anyone that still thinks Curry is a pathetic defender, their opinion should just be dismissed because its obvious they dont watch the games. His team is the top defensive team in the league and has been near the top much of the time during their championship run, but somehow Curry has such pathetic defense its hurting his team.

He has nothing to do with his team being great on defense and he is pretty pathetic on defense. There's a reason he gets hidden every night.

[Godymas]

he's already the #2 PG of all time. Unfortunately even with this year with a full MVP and FMVP run he might not edge out Magic Johnson.

Now if he does it once more, then it becomes time to start talking about Steph as a top 5 player and better than Magic.

Right now a safe top 10 for me is

Jordan
LeBron
Kareem
Larry Bird
Magic
Wilt
Duncan
Russell
Hakeem
Shaq

Curry sits outside the top 10 and right now it's something like

Kobe
KD
Curry

If Curry wins this year and gets a FMVP he jumps ahead of KD 100%, probably jumps ahead of Kobe at this point and he will knock Shaq out of the top 10.

If Curry does it once more he moves closer to Bird/Magic/Wilt/Duncan tier of all time greatness

[Doctor MJ]

Durant outplaying Curry against one of the worst defensive teams to ever make the finals in both 2017 and 2018 doesn't make Durant clearly the better player. Before joining the Warriors, KD's playoff resume was very underwhelming. Have we forgotten that KD absolutely **** the bed while blowing a 3-1 lead against Steph's Warriors in 2016?

Durant > Curry on the all time list. He's clearly the better player. I feel Durant's social media presence has hurt his legacy to the point where people don't even realize how good he actually is anymore. It's just pure hate for the man and has nothing to do with his actual talent and skill. Curry is great, but Durant is the much better overall player on both sides of the ball. It isn't that close either honestly. When Durant was injured in the 2019 Finals I knew it was a wrap for Golden State. Curry wasn't going to get it done.

Nah. At best KD equal to steph in terms of ingame impact.
It's very much the case of KD being the perfect iso player vs steph being the perfect team player.
In a 1v1 game, KD would beat steph, but in a 5v5, given a decent team, steph would beat KD.

And since basketball is a team sport, I think steph is better than KD at basketball as a team sport.

Definitely this.

Modern (Jordan-era and after) basketball fans have a strong tendency to try to do player evaluation as if they are thinking about 1 v 1, where any of the team-based skills disappear, but the NBA is 5 v 5, and that’s just how it is.

Hence to judge players you can’t ignore off-ball impact generated by dynamic gravity any more than you ignore passing or help defense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Strepbacter]

Durant > Curry on the all time list. He's clearly the better player. I feel Durant's social media presence has hurt his legacy to the point where people don't even realize how good he actually is anymore. It's just pure hate for the man and has nothing to do with his actual talent and skill. Curry is great, but Durant is the much better overall player on both sides of the ball. It isn't that close either honestly. When Durant was injured in the 2019 Finals I knew it was a wrap for Golden State. Curry wasn't going to get it done.

Nah. At best KD equal to steph in terms of ingame impact.
It's very much the case of KD being the perfect iso player vs steph being the perfect team player.
In a 1v1 game, KD would beat steph, but in a 5v5, given a decent team, steph would beat KD.

And since basketball is a team sport, I think steph is better than KD at basketball as a team sport.

Definitely this.

Modern (Jordan-era and after) basketball fans have a strong tendency to try to do player evaluation as if they are thinking about 1 v 1, where any of the team-based skills disappear, but the NBA is 5 v 5, and that’s just how it is.

Hence to judge players you can’t ignore off-ball impact generated by dynamic gravity any more than you ignore passing or help defense.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lol @ this nonsense. Isolation scoring remains paramount in the postseason and that's where Curry falls behind. We've seen the way he's been shut down by switch heavy schemes.

[Zenzibar]

MJ
Lebron
Jabbar
Duncan
Russell
Bird
Steph

Steph would be the best guard all-time for sure.