Steph is one of my favorite players ever and he is playing out of his mind right now. However, I can’t in good faith put him as a Top 5 of all time, even though I want to.

Curry’s next mountain to climb is an all defensive team. That’s the only thing missing from putting him in the same conversation as MJ, Bron, Kobe, Kareem, & Duncan imho. They were all top of the league two way players. Steph is no longer a defensive liability, but is it unrealistic to expect modern players to be All NBA and All Defense if they want to be considered all-time greats?

Maybe I’m trying to force a player into a conversation that they don’t belong…

  • rogozh1n@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Steph is the best at what he does, and he is one of the few players who fundamentlly changed the game. He had a greater impact on the sport than even MJ, in my opinion.

    Top 10 or even top 15 rankings are subjective.

    That being said, you’d have to be elite defensively to be in my top 5 because that is what I love about basketball.

  • Steko@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Steph’s career defensive impact numbers are actually better than Kobe’s. Neither should be in the top 5 for “greatest careers”. For “best peaks of all time” Steph has a stronger case than most of the other common candidates. For “best peaks by position” he’s probably the best PG.

  • _Meece_@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    There’s two main factors that hurt Curry for top 10 right now.

    Longevity, only 8 maybe 9 years of being a top dog. With 1 of those lost to injury.

    The KD years, I think Curry would be well clear of top 10 right now if KD never came. I can’t say for sure that the Warriors would repeat, but they’d pick up at least 2 more between 2017-2023 with just the Klay-Step-Dray-Kerr combo IMO. That is the greatest team of all time pre KD, they just choked an easy finals win.

    But yeah his lack of all D selections and him being the main factor in a historical choke do also hurt him case for top 10.

    BUT, Curry’s career is not done yet and there’s plenty more to go. I think by the end of it, he will have a great argument for top 10.

    Really we are at the point of top 15 being talked about like we do top 10. Because once you list any top 15, it’s hard to say this is an absolute order. So many players can be argued for any position between 4-15.

    It’s only Top 3 that is absolute in this league IMO. Not worth talking all time stuff with anyone who doesn’t see MJ-Lebron-Kareem as the top 3, in any order btw, they’re just not nerdy enough.

  • Ragnar_OK@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Duncan was a world beater at what a PF is supposed to do. Curry changed what it means to do a point guard job. Curry changed the game.

    Curry > Duncan purely from the standpoint of influence on the game, what Curry accomplished with his gravity in 2016 alone makes him a top 5 candidate. Winning 73 games, scoring 400 3s in a season, winning the only ever unanimous MVP, being an entire offensive engine unto himself are just things that have never been accomplished before and will never be accomplished again (probably)