Thinking Basketball: Steph Curry & Draymond Green are an all-time duo

Cornershooter

Banned
Joined
Mar 11, 2022
Messages
2,412
Reputation
860
Daps
23,961
Zero ego?

He said he was a more impactful player Charles Barkley :mjlol:

When Steph got hurt all of draymonds “all time impact” went out the window and everyone was clowning him

Take away Steph and draymond is Royce white with a podcast :hubie:
I’m talking about on court ego . He doesn’t need the ball the whole game doing iso and bullshyt with it
 

Houston911

Super Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
46,828
Reputation
13,776
Daps
198,389
I’m talking about on court ego . He doesn’t need the ball the whole game doing iso and bullshyt with it

Are we gonna give him credit for something he can’t do? :dahell:

Teams run AWAY from him on defense and he was still shooting 30%

He’s not capable of having the ball all game doing iso bullshyt

Bruh was averaging more fouls than points :dead:
 

010101

C L O N E*0690//////
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
82,386
Reputation
18,945
Daps
221,624
Reppin
uptXwn***///***///
So you finally changed your tune on Steph being the goat floor raiser and not a true #1 leading a team to a chip? You know I ain’t forget playa :mjgrin:
i got my confirmation already

gsw's bounce back was all about the pieces being put back in place

:mjgrin:

start with straight shots & then pop bottles..........

*
 

KidJSoul

Veteran
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
18,040
Reputation
3,296
Daps
78,753
I was just discussing this with the homie after Game 6, that a lot of the pushback to Steph's and Dray's greatness is there's no prototype for either of them.

A lot of the hate comes from a place of not understanding how to scale their impact.

We've all been conditioned by great players monopolizing the ball, their style of play and the volume of box score stats that come naturally with that, so when a player like Steph comes along and has all this success playing without needing to be all up in the videos with the ball in his hands, it's hard for folks to contextualize that. Which only leads them to falling into the trap of believing that it must not be because of him, which is only magnified by the fact he's a undersized guard who's not ultra-athletic (conventional wisdom is wings/bigs are the ones who have the most impact on the game).

Same goes for Draymond. His lack of an offensive skillset has always been at the forefront when discussing his game, but I put it down to folks resorting to jokes about it to cover up not knowing why he's historically great, even when he's not a scoring threat. We've all been conditioned by great defensive players in 1v1 situations; ISO has predominately been the main source of offense since the inception of the sport. It's only in recent times where the NBA has been a positionless state where defending your matchup isn't the be-all and end-all. Now, with the freedom that players have, Draymond doesn't just defend his opposite, but he defends 1-5, he defends all PnR actions, he defends multiple players in the same possession (some times multiple players at once), he directs traffic telling his teammates where to be, he protects the rim while simultaneously defending the perimeter, he'll snuff out actions before a team even has a chance to execute them. Every single imaginable act on defense - Draymond can do it. But because nobody in NBA history has done that before, folks don't understand how to measure his impact, which like Steph, is only magnified by the fact he's an undersized big who's not ultra-athletic.

They've both broken the scale on how we judge players. It's why the arguments against them are more reflective of a lack of understanding on how two undersized, lesser-athletic players, who have no predecessor, can be this successful.

"The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes" -- Marcel Proust

Point being, we have to look at basketball with new eyes and once we do, we gain a bigger appreciation of the game and its players. As you've stated, we've been conditioned to view the game a certain way and judge everything within that paradigm or archetype or context. I'm not even sure what the right word is to use. It's an outdated model nonetheless.

But you're right. Unfortunately the world moves slowly. Media doesn't help further things along with their insistence on narratives and drumming up silly controversies (something Draymond actually directly referenced in his post-game interview/podcast the other night when talking about Kendrick Perkins and others).

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that when someone does try to explain or post evidence for why players like Curry and Draymond and others are so good and undervalued, the public simply refuses to look at it.

This thread has maybe 11 comments on it? A couple hundred views compared to the thousands for something like Skip Bayless/SAS capping.

I'm not saying everyone needs to agree with the Thinking Basketball page (although it is great). They can find several other Youtube pages, Twitter accounts, websites and more to understand what is happening on a deeper level than just PPG/RPG/APG and Rings/Accolades.

I try not to be too pontificating about this sort of thing because even a few years ago I was highly ignorant to a lot of the subtleties of the modern NBA. (though admittedly it is fun to troll now and then)
Excellent posts

It's part of why many want to heavily scrutinize the Warriors and diminish their accomplishments.

It's why fools still say they think KD is better than Steph even after the 4th ring.

They can't fathom that being an amazing iso scorer with pull up hesi jimbos or rven being a 5 out triple double king like Harden, Luka, etc. Isn't really all that great or worth it
 
Top