The Roar
The Roar

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Is Steph Curry one of the NBA's greatest-ever point guards?

17th January, 2016
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The Golden State Warriors are more likely to chase a championship than records this year. (Photo: AP)
Expert
17th January, 2016
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1255 Reads

For the best part of two-and-a-half seasons Wardell Stephen Curry II has rained fire upon the NBA, a long-distance barrage the likes of which has been rarely seen in the history of basketball.

Stretching opposition defences past breaking point with a combination of lethal range and a ball-handling repertoire matched only by Kyrie Irving, the lithe playmaker has helped spark a revolution in offensive philosophy.

He has routinely made shots no other player would even think of attempting, let alone hitting, and made the Golden State Warriors one of the historically great teams at both ends of the court.

To that end, and perhaps suffering a bad case of recency bias, ESPN last week released its top-ten list of the greatest-ever point guards and Curry was ranked a jaw-dropping fourth all-time.

Fourth.

I mean… honestly.

First, a caveat. Obviously, lists like these are extremely subjective, especially ones that span separate eras of athletes. There will almost certainly never be a complete consensus on who should be ranked higher or lower and in some cases it would be almost impossible to prove who was better.

But having said that, to already rank Curry ahead of such luminaries as Isiah Thomas, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd – hell, even Gary Payton, who incredibly didn’t even make the list – seems like a glaring example of being caught in the moment.

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This is in no way meant to denigrate what has already been a stellar career, one that contains a regular season MVP award, two all-NBA nominations and a couple of All-Star game appearances, not to mention the aforementioned highlight reel.

And there is almost no doubt that Curry should, all things being equal, rank highly on that list when his career is done. Russell Westbrook as well for that matter.

But to place Curry above Thomas (even if it’s only one spot higher) in particular seems especially egregious.

In recent years, there seems to have been this notion that somehow Thomas was overrated, specifically by sections of the advanced analytics crowd, who point to numbers that allegedly prove he shot too much, was inefficient and was carried by an unusually deep and talented Pistons team to back-to-back titles in the 1989 and 1990 seasons.

Indeed, Thomas took almost 300 less shots in the Pistons’ first championship season than he did in his sophomore campaign in 1983.

But that speaks more to the absolute incompetence of the roster around him when he arrived in the Motor City, there was almost no-one else on that team you would want shooting the ball.

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And yet somehow Thomas is maligned because he understood he needed to shoot less; that taking more of a playmaking role and encouraging a greater scoring balance would enable Detroit to reach ever greater heights.

So he then becomes overrated for, in effect, doing what shoot-first players like Allen Iverson never really could – embracing the concept of a sum greater than its parts.

We have access to more detailed statistics than ever before; it allows us to examine in almost infinite detail every aspect of what happens on a basketball court.

What they don’t do – especially in someone like Thomas – is measure the impact of courage, of playing under duress, of Thomas’ oft-mentioned angelic smile that belied a ruthless competitive streak borne from the toughest streets of inner-city Chicago.

The late Matt Dobek, who served as Detroit’s PR representative for almost 30 years, once said if Thomas was 6″6″ he would have been Michael Jordan.

Perhaps some myopia in that statement but it nonetheless encapsulated the rage, the unceasing impact of his leadership and the sheer intelligence that dragged a historically bad franchise out of the doldrums and into the light of championship glory.

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Looking at the rest of the PG rankings, there’s no quibbles with the first two players listed – Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. Good luck arguing any other player should be in those spots.

You can argue the relative merits of longevity over brilliance, having John Stockton at number three would appear to value the former over the latter. Never flashy but an almost clinically fundamental playmaker you’ll be hard-pressed to find.

Nash is almost criminally underrated at number seven, especially with Chris Paul one spot higher. Say what you want about whether he deserved his two MVPs but Nash remains the lineal forefather of the way basketball is played today. If you ever wanted to see who Curry is the evolutionary descendant of, the skinny kid from South Africa via Canada is it.

Jason Kidd at number eight seems kinda low as well but there’s almost no room at the inn for him to be any higher despite being one of the best rebounding playmakers of all time. Ditto for Clyde Frazier at number nine, who was the epitome of on-court smooth during his playing career and now spends his days showcasing his incredible sartorial splendour as an announcer for the Knicks.

Bob Cousy was a figurative giant in the early days of the NBA – playing with a heretofore unseen style and flair – and is still the only guard to be named to the All-NBA first team in ten straight seasons. But he never shot more than 39.7 per cent from the field in his career. How do you rank him fairly? Does he even belong on the list?

Meanwhile, leaving Payton off the list altogether is nearly as bad as ranking Curry over Thomas. It’s been 20 years since a guard won the defensive player of the year award. Want to take a guess at the last backcourt player to win it?

Yep, the Glove.

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We could argue these placings forever and a day, but including active players who are smack-bang in the middle of what are amazing, incredible, sublime careers not only cheapens the argument but it also diminishes the accomplishments of those who can no longer add to their personal highlight reels.

Maybe Kevin Durant summed it up best when told of his ranking in ESPN‘s all-time small forward list.

“I’ve always been a firm believer in waiting until guys’ careers are over, but a lot of people nowadays get caught up in the moment, get caught up in what have you done for me lately and forget about the great players,” Durant said.

“I’m not downplaying myself, because I feel like I’m as good as any small forward that’s played, but at this point in my career I don’t think I should be on that list.”

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