Griffin
Shades of:
Man I feel for Chris Paul, wasting his years at this joke of an organization.
Shades of:
Man I feel for Chris Paul, wasting his years at this joke of an organization.
NBA 2015-2016
- Thread starter Eboue
- Start date
If OKC could actually play some defense I'd really like to see how they'd go against GSW. I thought the Spurs would put up more of a fight but they got destroyed. Healthy Warriors look like absolute certainties.
... and field goal percentage, in addition to points and rebounds.
To be fair, I'd expect Russ to be better in scoring and rebounding, even over a peak CP3. But the other 3 categories? Crazy that he's ahead in those past the halfway point of the regular season.
What's also weird is that Westbrook is ahead in field goal percentage, while shooting less than 30% from 3.
Westbrook has definitely been better than Paul this year (despite turning it over almost twice as much). But to be fair, it is the best year of Westbrook's career and the worst of Paul's since 06/07 and finally Westbrook has overaken Paul which says it all about the two players.
Stellar contribution.
I was laughing cause your post was an archetype of "damning with faint praise". Otherwise your post is spot on.
I didn't intend it to be faint. Westbrook is legitimately a top 3-5 point guard in the league and has been for a long time. He just plays in the best point guard era ever and alongside another all time great. When I say he wasn't as good as Paul for so many years, it's not an insult. Ronaldo hasn't been as good as Messi for so many years but he's still a great player. And now when Westbrook finally outdoes Paul, Steph Curry steps up and destroys everyone.
What a crazy game at Philadelphia.
Curry is in a league of his own - that's just ridiculous when you look at it.
51 points on 28 shots (11-16 from 3). Insane.
Crazy night, so many great nights for so many players.
His shooting % is just insane. Certainly the best in my lifetime.
@Eboue, or anyone else, what does usage measure? I presume efficiency is shots made?
It measures possessions used. Each possession in basketball is valuable, each one that player A uses is one that player B cannot. So there are some players who have high usage but low efficiency (like nick young) and some who have high efficiency but low usage (like Kyle Korver). Nick Young or whoever (just going off the top of my head) can average 15 points per game but use 18 possessions to do it. While Kyle Korver could average 12 points per game but only use 11 possessions per game. So in this therotical example, Korver leaves 7 possessions available to his teammates and all they have to do to match Young is get 3 points on 7 possessions, which is very easy to do, thus making Korver the more valuable offensive contribution despite scoring less points.
Usage rate is a percentage stat so if everyone was equally used each player would have a 20% usage rate. (There are 5 teammates on the floor and if they divide 100% of the possessions equally they each get 20% to use). Now obviously some players are more ball dominant and some are just spot up shooters or guys who score on offensive rebounds.
There are guys who help their team by being high usage (Steph Curry) because they are efficient and guys who hurt their teams by using so many possessions when they can't do it efficiently (Rusy Gay). Same with low efficiency guys, Anthony Morrow is an efficient player because he's a good spot up shooter so he helps his team when he takes corner threes. But he can't dribble drive or create his own shot so even though he is efficient, he can't really increase his usage rate without taking bad shots and lowering his efficiency. Then you've got guys like Tony Allen who are on the floor for their defense or Ricky Rubio for passing. These guys are bad offensive players and their efficiency is low but at least they are smart enough players to understand it and limit their possessions used (thus low usage, los efficiency).
Thanks. Fascinating stuff. So how does Steph compare to the all time greats - for a basketball layman like me it's basically how does he stack up to Jordan? His numbers seem remarkable but I guess they're in different positions?
Very bad shot selection.
I have always liked Stephen Curry. I thought he was underrated coming out of college. After a few seasons in the league I thought he would end up on the level of Steve Nash with more scoring and less passing. But, I never thought he would become this good heck Dell Curry probably did not expect him to be this good. In NBA history the greatest players ever were usually physical freaks. Wilt, Russell, Oscar Kareem, Magic, Hakeem, Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, LeBron, etc were all physical freaks in some way. But, while Curry is an exceptional athlete(you have to be to play in the NBA) his speed, leaping ability and wingspan are pretty average compared to most guards in the NBA. With all that said this season Curry has been able to reach the level of the legends I named earlier. Right now he is having a better offensive season than Kobe ever had and arguably better than even some of Jordan and LeBron's best seasons. Durant seems like the next in line for the throne after LeBron finished and then Anthony Davis looked like the player to take over after but, it is Curry's league now. He is the ideal player to succeed in this pace and space era of the NBA.
I just hope defensive coaches around the league put in extra hours during the summer coming up with new schemes to disrupt Golden State.
I don't think he will ever be the greatest player ever, simply because he's just not a defensive force. Most basketball people have acknowledged that he is already the greatest shooter of all time and now he has been the best player for the last two years.
Michael Jordan averaged more than 30 points 8 times, was a fantastic defender, an above average rebounder and passer and did it at fantastic efficiency. Jordan never had a season as good as this one by Curry because Jordan was simply not a good three point shooter. Curry isn't a bad defender but he doesn't guard opposing point guards most of the time. He's not tall enough to rebound exceptionally. He's a good passer but could never put up Chris Paul or even Russell Westbrook numbers. In terms of individual seasons, this has the potential to be the best point guard season ever but even then he is up against 87 Magic, 07/08 Paul, 85 Isiah or 62/63 Robertson.
As amazing as Curry is, the true greatest players of all time can do it all. Michael Jordan could lead the league in steals, Wilt Chamberlain could lead the league in assists as a center, Lebron James could play all five positions, Magic Johnson could play center in the NBA finals as a rookie and put up 42/15/7, Larry Bird could be a 6'9 power forward with meh athleticism and still be a great rebounder and defender, etc. Steph Curry right now is just the greatest shooter of all time. He needs to be come a great passer or great defender if he really wants to get in the conversation with the true elite.
He's awesome to watch though. As a sophmore at a small school he went on one of the most incredible runs in the NCAA tournament. Imagine a 22 year old striker for Malmo almost singlehandedly beating Porto, Atletico Madrid and Juventus before narrowly losing to Barcelona.
If it wasn't for Curry Westbrook would be getting a lot of praise and attention. He's having an absolutely fantastic season, unfortunately at the same time as Curry is having one too.
Up until this season, Curry and Westbrook had very similar career assist averages - Curry 6.9...Westbrook 7.1
Westbrook has really upped his passing game the last couple of seasons and this season is averaging 10 per game, whereas Curry is averaging his lowest in 4 seasons - 6.4.
But, some of it has to do with how much possession Draymond Green handles and how much of the Dubs offense goes through him. In the last three seasons, Green has upped his assists from 1.9 to 3.7 to 7.4 this season.
I still think Curry needs to have a signature NBA Finals. Last year, he was good...but I think it's fair to say, he wasn't at his best.
Westbrook has really upped his passing game the last couple of seasons and this season is averaging 10 per game, whereas Curry is averaging his lowest in 4 seasons - 6.4.
But, some of it has to do with how much possession Draymond Green handles and how much of the Dubs offense goes through him. In the last three seasons, Green has upped his assists from 1.9 to 3.7 to 7.4 this season.
I still think Curry needs to have a signature NBA Finals. Last year, he was good...but I think it's fair to say, he wasn't at his best.
Thunder at Warriors was actually fairly close, imagine how much closer it would be if Thunder's bench was decent.
Didn't play defense in the first-half and the bench sucked badly. But i'm pretty content with a close loss. Of course the Warriors didn't shoot as well as they usually do either. Confident we can challenge them at the very least, provided the defense is improved and the bench gets some consistent output.
Some facts on Curry this season. Some of the stuff is unbelievable:
https://www.facebook.com/hypecrib/v...860524098/?type=2&theater¬if_t=video_reply
https://www.facebook.com/hypecrib/v...860524098/?type=2&theater¬if_t=video_reply
Same, it's seriously on a different level to anyone else. It's mind-blowing.
His release is so quick that you just can't defend it.
Curry and Thompson only made 2, 3 pointers all game. What are the chances of that happening again this season? Not to mention, Thunder worked really hard to get back in the game, for a large portion of the game, they were down 15/16 points.
On the other hand, imagine what the Thunder could do with a deeper bench. The closeness in the score wasn't a fluke, Russ and Durant have the physical tools to contain Steph and Draymond, and they have the out of nowhere scoring ability needed to keep within distance.
All-Star Weekend tipping off!
I still thin he was the Finals MVP, the decision to give it Igoudala was baffling. Curry has a green light that i've never seen before. Perhaps only Kobe matches it. But I noticed when OKC played him tight at the three point line and generally crowded him he just starting picking up assists and ended with 10. He's such a unique player perfect for this era and team.
Obviously Curry was also instrumental in the Finals later on but Iguodala was clearly MVP for me with the crucial plays. Though they could easily have gone with the safe option in Curry.
Skill challenge final was brilliant just now. Loved it how all the big guys were celebrating with Towns
Does anyone have a stream for me?
Great that its the other way around this year, really happy for Klay.
Klay really wanted that
Surprisingly unterrible this year.
3 point contest and the dunk contest...brilliant.