A rich man's version of Brandon Roy. With two rings. One MVP. A really shortlived peak. Another injury.
Harden. He is doing it on both ends of the court this year. Without Harden Rockets would be .500 team at best. Without Curry GSW would still be OK. #Pursuit
Hard to say, but Bird was certainly above average on defense, especially with positioning and playing the lanes. Agree with Magic, but he was so accomplished (rings, MVPs, length of prime) and incredible on the offensive end and as an allround player, there's no way the defense would spoil it. Curry isn't as versatile, so the mediocre defense (although he's great playing the passing lanes) hurts him a bit more. I wrote the original comment a few weeks back and Curry has been even more ridiculous from then on, so right now I'm leaning towards top 10 being a huge possibility if he keeps this up and wins more rings. His all-time great offense certainly more than makes up for his defense right now.
If they win six or seven championships with him winning four plus MVP no way he is not in the top ten, maybe top five.
Agree, even four or five would be enough imo, if he keeps his output up. I'd struggle to put him as GOAT, Jordan was world-class on both ends. Curry isn't that far ahead of Jordan offensively, but the defensive gap is huge, Jordan was also more versatile.
Yes, the defensive gap is huge, but Curry isn't a defensive liability. And defensive lapses on the perimeter can be mitigated by having a defensive big man in the paint. I think versatility is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how consistently a player can produce. Regarding offense, I think Curry is pretty far ahead of Jordan. Look at it this way. If Jordan and Curry (assume they have identical teams) both faced a team of elite defenders (Payton/Bowen/Pippen/Rodman/Olajuwon), whose team would have a better chance of winning? Jordan's or Curry's?
10 scoring titles. Career regular season average of 30.1ppg. Peaks of 37, 35, 33.6 ppg. Playoff ppg average of 33.4ppg. VS Career average of 22.2ppg with a 66 game peak of 30.4ppg. 25.9ppg playoff avg. Curry pretty far ahead of Jordan. It's all about consistency and Curry is king. GOAT scorer.
You're making it really easy for yourself by only looking at ppg and completely disregarding any context. Really think Curry wouldn't average 37 if he gave a F about that and put up more shots?
Since Lebron himself and other people put Lebron James on the top 5, so my argument is that Curry would be the top 10 without much question in the end. He should be the top 5 in the end unless people remove Lebron from the the top 5 list. Curry likely will have a better career than Lebron. Do not know much any other great players since I was not able to follow them closely. I do not think people can compare Curry to Jordan either, Jordan was just so great.
No. I don't think he could. He still might not even maintain 30 ppg by seasons end. He'd need to be on a weak team for him to get close to even Jordans 5th best scoring average, but he'd be back to being what he was before last season if he were on a weak team. Just another good player with an incredible shot. He played 38.2 and 36.5 mpg back to back for 23.5ppg before last year. Some analysts didn't even have the Warriors in the playoff picture last summer. It was Draymond Green starting over the injured David Lee that catapulted the Warriors into a surprising elite status which they maintain today. He's playing 34mpg this season. People make it seem like he's scoring 30ppg in 20 minutes. He's putting up over 20 attempts per game. Majority of which are 3 point attempts. Jordan averaged 22.9 attempts for his career while taking less than 2 3's per game. So, no. I don't think Curry could average 37 ppg for a full season "if he gave a F about it" as if he doesn't care about scoring by jacking up over 11 3s a game. That's not even considering the stamina and strength for it. It's like Shaq fans who completely ignore stamina issue when comparing Shaq to Wilt. IF SHAQ PLAYED OVER 48 MPG FOR A SEASON, HE'D AVERAGE 100ppg!!!1 Well, he didn't...because he couldn't. Curry will never average 37ppg, because he can't. Just like Kobe couldn't. In fact, all of these ridiculous statements remind me of Kobe's 35ppg season where he was doing things Curry couldn't dream of. Everyone started crowing Kobe GOAT then too. Coaches, Analysts, Former players. What are those guys opinions now? 100% not the same. Time fades away these 1 or 2 season peak levels and then overall career comes into play. Time will fade this Curry craze also. I'm not making it easy by looking at raw stats either. Do you want me to post MJ's advanced stats too? The point is longevity. Curry has a 66 game run of shooting unlike ever before and now he's far ahead of Jordan in scoring? Scoring. Shooting of course. But, people are saying scoring. And no matter how good your advanced stats, no one with a career average of 22, 4 and 7 should be considered top 50 of all time. His career averages will be so low, people in the coming generations will compare it to other legends career averages. That's just the way it works. Curry is 28 years old now with 1 MVP season by default for being on the best team(Harden deserved it last season and I'm not even much of a Harden fan) and this current season which will be a deserved MVP and the best shooting season ever. That's hardly the stuff of legend. He very well could end up playing at this level for another 5 or 6 years which will of course help and be possible due to his team being so good, but for people to make ridiculous statements that put him ahead of players who put in legendary work consistently for 8+ seasons is what creates haters. He COULD end up Larry Bird level if he puts together 10 years of dominance. But, even then, Larry turned the Celtics from a 29 win team to a 61 win ECF team as a rookie with virtually the same 29 win roster. Champions by Larrys 2nd season and 10 straight years of dominance and top 2 or 3 team status while doing all around more dominance on the court than Curry. Curry would 37 by doing a near decades worth of Bird level resume. I highly doubt he can be a top 10 player. Who the hell do you drop out of the top 10 for a Sniper with good handles and not much else? I'm a big fan. I'd trade Dwight and Harden and several 1st round picks to have Curry in a Rocket uniform. I daydreamed of Curry in a Rockets uniform when I watched Davidson in the tourney, but I will always defend past legends when people start to get short term memory and only live in the moment of a "what has he done for me lately?" world.
Jordan's 5th best scoring average was 32.5 ppg. Right now, Curry only averages 34 mpg. If he prioritized scoring, he could very easily surpass 33 ppg by playing a few more minutes and taking a few more shots per game. What's your point? The 90's Bulls didn't become a powerhouse until Scottie Pippen became a star. And who cares what he did two years ago? This thread and its projections are based on what he's doing now. He's playing 34 mpg with a team-first mentality. Do you really think he lacks the stamina and strength to shoot 5 more times per game? That's ridiculous. Perimeter shooting requires a lot less stamina/strength than constantly attacking the basket. When Jordan averaged 37 ppg, he was shooting 32% the Bulls' total FGA and 43% of the Bulls' total FTA. Curry has already proven that his efficiency won't substantially decrease with increased usage. You've yet to provide a single valid reason to support your opinion. Nobody cared about Kobe's 35 ppg season b/c they barely made the playoffs and were eliminated in the first round. Curry just won an MVP, led his team to the title, is about to win another MVP, and could possibly lead his team to the best regular season record ever. Do you see the difference between Kobe's 35 ppg season and what Curry's doing this season? Also, Kobe and Curry aren't comparable players. Kobe was an inefficient volume shooter. Curry is a highly efficient player with an unprecedented shooting range. Curry will never average 37ppg b/c he's a team-first player. It's not in the best interest of his team for him to score that much. Absolutely wrong. This thread is about Curry's projected career based on this season. Longevity is assumed. Yes, scoring. I think Curry is ahead of Jordan in terms of scoring ability. A sniper with a quick release, unlimited range, great ball-handling skills, great court vision, and is already the greatest shooter of all time? Everyone. He has the potential to surpass everyone. He's the most unguardable player I've ever seen. Even if you handpicked defenders from any era and used any rules, could you come up with a defensive scheme that could stop him? Do you think hand-checking could've stopped him? I don't. Not when he's 35 feet away from the basket.
