You still didn't answer the question - would you have objected to someone claiming Steph was better than Durant post-'16 WCF (immediately)?
Michael Jordan states that Kevin Durant will go down as the best player of this generation
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xXMASHERXx
Superstar
Jordan's my goat but he's wildin. Im taking Bron over Durant every time.
Depends on what you mean by better.
I think Curry's offensive impact (greater than any player in history) makes up for other areas where he's limited in, and therefore, has a valid argument for being better than Durant, in that sense. I also think when it's all said and done, Curry will be ranked higher on an all-time list.
His gravity makes him a better player than Durant?
It was evident from watching that series that Kevin Durant was hands down the best player on the court. One bad game and Klay bailing out the Warriors in Game 6 doesn't change that.
It's not as simple as that, although, yes, that's the gist of it, combined with his skillset. There's a reason why teams' primary focus is to stop/limit Curry before Durant. That's why you can't just look at Durant's #s or how he performed in a vacuum when he isn't seeing the same type of defensive pressure as Steph.
This is why a lot of folks (speaking in general terms - not specifically you) don't understand how to evaluate Curry's performance/impact properly.
I agree that Durant was the best performer over the entirety of that series (particularly on defense), but again, it's not as simple as that: Curry was still getting readjusted after coming back from injury, and the Thunder were getting away with murder when defending him, he had a much bigger hill to climb than anyone else did. And yet despite all that, he still ended up outperforming Durant in the backend of that series, when the stakes were at their highest.
But that wasn't really why I brought that point up - if someone wasn't objecting to Steph being better than Durant after that series, what has changed since then?
See -
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I see it like this - Curry, Durant and LeBron are on another level to everyone else in the league, and while all three of them have arguments of being better than each other, there's no definitive mark where any of them are conclusively better than one another. Although that will probably change as LeBron declines.
Preach Jackson
All Star
It’s not far fetched
bball IQ? Leadership? Finishing?
If Durant was so clearly better, why is it that LeBron has so many more defining playoff games? Why has he won so much more often, both in terms of titles and head-to-head? Why is it that the GMs rate LeBron higher on damn near every metric? Why does LeBron finish higher in the MVP voting every damn year and have twice as many 1st-team All-NBA selections? Why is it LeBron and not Durant that fellow NBA players say they secretly wish they could play with?
Durant is a better all-around player than Curry. But Curry, not Durant, is the focus of the Warriors' offense. He is clearly still the player their offense is built around and the player opposing defenses are most concerned about. And so long as we're using the "list the skills" method of rating players, Curry is a better shooter than Durant, a better passer than Durant, a better ballhandler than Durant, has a high bball IQ than Durant, is a better leader than Durant, and is a damn good finisher too even though Durant's height still gives him the edge there.
I would still rank Durant higher than Curry overall due to large edges in defense and rebounding, and because his size is such an asset. But he's the kind of player where you still want someone else to take the lead on both ends of the court, which might in some ways make him a more difficult player to build around despite his incredible skill set.
Suleiman Bey
Banned
At no poinr in time have I ever considered Steph Curry better than Durant