Peak Bird or Prime Curry?

[GoatBoy]

Will be a more fair question to ask when it's peak curry vs. peak bird. Curry is just entering into his prime, and with his play style, will be destroying the league for the next 7-8 years

[fpliii]

Will be a more fair question to ask when it's peak curry vs. peak bird. Curry is just entering into his prime, and with his play style, will be destroying the league for the next 7-8 years

I think Curry is an absolute monster, but the bolded is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Dude will be 28 in the playoffs. Not just about him, we saw the same thing before LeBron went to Miami, and we still see it for KD.

People seem to view a guy's prime as a much tighter window than it really is, and IMO are mixing up guys' extended prime years with their peaks.

It's all semantics I guess, but guys are for the most part already in their primes by their mid 20s.

[DMAVS41]

I think Curry is an absolute monster, but the bolded is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Dude will be 28 in the playoffs. Not just about him, we saw the same thing before LeBron went to Miami, and we still see it for KD.

People seem to view a guy's prime as a much tighter window than it really is, and IMO are mixing up guys' extended prime years with their peaks.

It's all semantics I guess, but guys are for the most part already in their primes by their mid 20s.

Yep.

[Elosha]

I'm sorry, but 12 games into the season does not a "peak" make. Let's see Curry keep this up all year long before we start anointing him as the "next" whoever. Clearly, he's having an absolute monster start to the season, but this is a guy who's traditionally been a very good, but not all time great scorer. 21.3 points per game for his career. Averaging 33+ is an extremely high statistical aberration for him. Maybe he can keep it up for a whole season, or maybe he'll end up averaging 25-27.

He's had one of the most dominant, efficient and successful (12-0) runs I've ever seen. It should be applauded but not overstated. It's way too early to realistically be talking about "peaks."

[SugarHill]

I think Curry is an absolute monster, but the bolded is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Dude will be 28 in the playoffs. Not just about him, we saw the same thing before LeBron went to Miami, and we still see it for KD.

People seem to view a guy's prime as a much tighter window than it really is, and IMO are mixing up guys' extended prime years with their peaks.

It's all semantics I guess, but guys are for the most part already in their primes by their mid 20s.

people just mixup prime and peak

[FreezingTsmoove]

I can only imagine a peak Bird having an offense run through his post game in todays era.

Ill take Bird

His post up game creates a bigger matchup nightmare than Currys range

[plowking]

I think Curry is an absolute monster, but the bolded is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Dude will be 28 in the playoffs. Not just about him, we saw the same thing before LeBron went to Miami, and we still see it for KD.

People seem to view a guy's prime as a much tighter window than it really is, and IMO are mixing up guys' extended prime years with their peaks.

It's all semantics I guess, but guys are for the most part already in their primes by their mid 20s.

Bron's best years were in Miami though, and probably from ages 27-29.

[plowking]

I can only imagine a peak Bird having an offense run through his post game in todays era.

Ill take Bird

His post up game creates a bigger matchup nightmare than Currys range

Never has a post up game created a bigger matchup than Curry's shooting outside of Shaq.

[FKAri]

Never has a post up game created a bigger matchup than Curry's shooting outside of Shaq.

I think this is overblown. You're basically saying Curry right now is a top 2 offensive threat ever. I'd put the breaks on that. It's very difficult to determine how much the system and a great team are helping with that. What would Curry look like on a bottom table team? Would he really help them more offensively than peak Larry Bird?

[3ball]

Bird is a 6'9" Curry, who rebounds twice as much, passes better, and can score inside and out equally.

**** all the handles - that doesn't help a team - handles are merely the method Curry uses to elude defenders, just like Bird's size, strength and moves allowed him to score.

Curry isn't comparable to Bird - Bird was multi-dimensional, while Curry is a one-dimensional gunner...

(Albeit a high efficiency gunner due to the existence of the 3-point line... Whereas Bird would still be efficient without the 3-point line, due to his vastly superior 2-point shot-making)
.

[salwan]

curry will inevitably cool down a bit. let's not forget that it's been a stretch of 12games.

[plowking]

I think this is overblown. You're basically saying Curry right now is a top 2 offensive threat ever. I'd put the breaks on that. It's very difficult to determine how much the system and a great team are helping with that. What would Curry look like on a bottom table team? Would he really help them more offensively than peak Larry Bird?

We've seen Curry on a worse team; when the Warriors sucked. He was still shooting lights out, but now he is a better player, and the team followed suit.

To be honest, I think he is better than his 24/8 stats suggest. People tend to forget he plays low minutes too. Last season was honestly probably more equivalent to a 27/9 type season, but we don't see it with him due to how well managed the team is now.

I think his numbers right now are slightly on the higher side due to some of the team struggling offensively, and even defensively, so he really has to pick up the load. But I do think he is a 27-29ppg scorer, and great passer on top of that. Not to mention, take a look at his handles. He went from someone you couldn't always trust with the ball to having the best handles in the league in terms of both security and flash. Paul individually probably has him on security, and Kyrie probably has him on flash, but a merger of the two, and it is definitely him.

He is one of, if not the best shooter ever, and one of, if not the best ball handlers ever. He is a huge mismatch. Even if after this season he goes back to averaging 18ppg and never wins another game in his life, doesn't take away what he is done these last 120 games, which is play some of the best basketball ever seen.

[J Shuttlesworth]

Didn't Bird average 50-40-90 over the span of a few seasons?

[Marchesk]

He is one of, if not the best shooter ever, and one of, if not the best ball handlers ever. He is a huge mismatch. Even if after this season he goes back to averaging 18ppg and never wins another game in his life, doesn't take away what he is done these last 120 games, which is play some of the best basketball ever seen.

But what you're saying is that current Curry's offense > ABA Dr J, peak Wilt, peak Baylor, West, Shaq, Oscar, Jordan, Bird, Magic, Hakeem, Kareem, Kobe, Lebron, Barkley, etc.

That's crazy. You can argue for him being up there with those guys, but better than all but one of them?

[TheMilkyBarKid]

Bird all damn day.

People overlook that when Bird came into the league the 3 pointer was viewed as a novelty, not a legitimate strategy like it is today.

Allow Bird to play in an era where 3 pointers are encouraged, stretch 4's are more common and bigs are not as big and he could very well be hands down the best PF ever.