This.

I'd probably first pick Curry tbh, because I'm a complete sucker for punishment who never learns and I'm going to go ahead and predict a slight decline from LeBron this coming season (like I have for the past about 3, it has to happen eventually FFS)

LOL.

Again, if your eyes are telling you something like ad isn’t a top 14 player, get your eyes checked bro.

Sixers promote Elton Brand to GM.

lol Elton Brand

I think Steph is better than KD.

Steph is really the best of the true unicorns, and is one of the two players in the league that truly"makes his teammates better". We say this a lot about Lebron/John Wall/Harden and other high-assist guys, but I don't think that's the case. What those guys do is get their teammates better shots, which isn't the same thing imo. You can argue that those guys actually make guys worse as they get more and more talented.

It shows up in Steph's on/offs, which are >>> KD's.

Brett Brown is a coach in the league.

This is a great post.

Yea so much this. Curry's work off the ball and all the little things he does that don't show up on the stat sheet is basically unheard of for a star. Not to mention his ridiculous "gravity".

Thinking about it more I take back what I said. Curry wouldn't be my first pick in like a single season draft or something, in a world where there a bunch of even teams he's not the best... Curry + 4 scrubs is probably not THAT good of a team. But in today's NBA, with the concentration of talent in so few teams and the level required to get championship equity is so high, Curry is close to best (I'd have him first, again, stupidly predicting a bit of a decline from LeBron). Don't think anyone gives a higher ceiling than him.

What does "make his teammates better" mean iyo?

Hard to imagine Klove shutting down KD in a high leverage moment in a playoff game.

KD >> Steph all day.

I got KD > Steph too but both are tremendous players.

Steph can be game planned to an extent.

GL stopping Durant.

Durant > Steph

In my opinion it means empowerment. Steph truly makes players better taking up soooo much attention that his teammates get easier opportunities to make plays for themselves and others. For example in this UCLA cut play Steph has the ball maybe 3 dribbles, but it's his screen and his attention that leads to two players making a play that wouldn't have been there otherwise. That's a stark contrast to your John Wall/Russ/Harden types who pound the ball and call for a PnR. Watch Russ (especially), Lebron to a degree, Wall... Their value greatly diminishes as soon as they give up the ball. Hell Russ basically puts his hands his knees and stops playing until he receives another pass. Those guys get their teammates better looks, but I really feel that they do so at the expense of said teammates' ability to make plays on their own. That's GREAT when you're team is full of finishers, but when paired with other creators I think there is some diminishing returns. Steph isn't like that, as soon as he gives up the ball, which is almost every play, he goes on a journey of screen-setting and space-eating until usually something breaks open. The whole time this is happening every defensive player has a set amount of attention directed toward him, which opens up things for other guys without ever touching the ball. When things break down (or when they are going well), you still have that player who can turn into Superman and be the star scorer/playmaker that the other guys are, but unlike the others he doesn't need to be that guy in order to drastically help the guys around him. Steph is imo the kind of player that's unique in that I don't think there's a star in the league who's skillset he wouldn't enhance to a great degree... can't say the same for others, even the GOAT.

This isn't an exact science, but in the last two years per CTG:

Steph on KD off -

2016-17 - +13.5
2017-18 - +16.1


KD on Steph off -

2016-17 - +4.6
2017-18 - +.7 (lol)

Steph rang once and likely came within a nut-punch and a Lithuanian sweat-spot away from commandeering the greatest team of all time. KD made it to the finals once in that stretch despite two more years of playing.

What Steph does just does't show up in anything but the +- sheets, where's he's ranked (RPM):

3rd, 3rd, 4th, and 1st in the last four years vs KD's 24th, 11th, 8th, and 24th (only 27 games) in the same time frame.

RPM underrates KD to an extent, but I don't think you can deny it's effectiveness when dealing with multi-year sample sizes.

Someone has every season he's played without Curry...

Seadood makin some great posts. I will say that with Steph there is some degree of uncertainty regarding how elite he would have became off the ball had Kerr not come along. I mean, his shooting always would have made him good to some degree (like Korver), but he did a lot of what Dood says Russ does with MJax coaching. Definitely not as stagnant, but his off ball movement was definitely more in the seeking of his own shot way and not the elite screener we see today. Of course we'll never know so it's largely irrelevant, my only point is that LeBron/Durant would be Lebron & Durant regardless of circumstance. There's value in that.

OTOH a certain Raptors fan makin some awful posts and pattin himself on the back. I especially enjoyed the talking up his eyetest while simultaneously saying Davis is a bad rim protector bit. Impressive stuff.

TZ doesn't change I suppose.

Damn. This is a nice summary of Seadood's poast.

But yeah seadood goin ****ing hard this offseason. He's TZ's MVP.

At this point KD is basically just the world's greatest role player and is completely replaceable in that system so his on-off/RPM numbers don't really do him justice.

KD's last two healthy seasons in OKC (13-14 and 15-16) he finished 4th/8th in RPM vs. 11th/24th in RPM in his first two seasons with GS which is not surprising considering in OKC the system was built around him and Westbrook whereas in GS his backup (Iguodala) could start in his place and they still win 65+ games.

Sick context.

I'm McLovin' it!

I think it's completely irrelevant what sort of player Curry would be if Kerr never came along. Just likes it irrelevant how good a player he'd be if drafted by Wolves, or went to a different college, or had a different 2nd grade teacher. We're talking about how good he is. Unless you're saying you think he'd revert to old ways without Kerr? That would be relevant but I'd def disagree. He's learned the good way to play now (whether from Kerr or just his own evolution as a player) and I think he'll play that way as long as his body lets him.

The “Lebron makes teammates better” is the most misused statement in the NBA. Sure, if you have average guys or scrubs, I guess Lebron “makes them better” by pounding the ball and getting them some open looks. But Lebron does not make good to great players better bc they become almost strictly a spot up shooter. Steph on the other hand truly makes players better for all the reasons listed in seadood’s posts.

If you have 4 scrubs, then I agree the team is probably better with Lebron. If you have a team of good/great players, Steph is the much better choice and is by far the best choice in the league.

Besides the playoffs this is a large chunk of the sample size I have of watching him play, with quite a few those being games I witnessed live.
https://www.basketball-reference.com...2&order_by=pts

Maybe you should increase your sample beyond raptors games.

Using a 7 game sample size over 6 seasons seems like a solid strat...