eminence wrote:LukaTheGOAT wrote:ChartFiction wrote:He already is.
The only argument I see for Magic is awards. Of which I believe Curry has been robbed of multiple anyway. Curry more than any player is suffering from being ahead of his time where basketball analytics is still a decade behind his value. There doesn't exist within current basketball milieu a single metric which captures a Stephen Curry convincingly. I would go as far as to say the current state of player assessment is orthogonal to a Stephen Curry player value.
What is clear is that Curry has lead the franchise during the era of superteams that is a cut above the rest. What is clear is that he has the most RS wins in the history of the NBA. and what is clear is Curry will have half of the championships since his first one in 2015. And to me at least, what is clear is that the Warriors would plummet off of a cliff if Curry were to retire now and I think no one would be surprised after the fact despite not acknowledging it now. And that I know if any other player were making a difference of that magnitude from a championship team to a bottom-feeder would instantly propel them to best player in the league, while Curry is still being undervalued, is only further demonstrating to me how much the current state of basketball analysis is hurting his valuation. It's not a failure of Curry that the state of basketball analysis sucks.
If current basketball analytics can't measure Curry's impact in the PS with pure adjusted plus-minus numbers (literally how your team does with you on vs off the floor), then I do question if Curry is as otherworldly as suggested. The only thing I believe that could be missing in this formula, is that we consistently see Curry with the GSW and not with other teams, therefore it is hard to see how he could impact other groups if given a chance. But I don't see any reason to believe, that what we have can't measure his value to the Warriors.
Theoretically there could be some 'culture' value type arguments where Curry makes his teammates better when not on the floor than they would be on other teams (another coach on the bench, going against him in practice, just generally being pleasant and getting the best from his fellow coworkers - Duncan another we see get some points for this).
But basically impossible to quantify as best I can tell.
Yeah, this is a great point. But even at that, people will complain about any leadership style (even if it is successful). Like Jordan won 6 rings, however people still complain that his style likely would not translate across various team situations and some question if he could alter his leadership style if forced too.