The eye test lies to you. For example, take LeBron James and Stephen Curry. The former is a physical specimen with a demonstrative game while the latter looks like a ball boy playing an And1-mixtape brand of basketball more for artistic-impression points than points in the standings. Yet, while LeBron remains the best athlete playing basketball, he’s no longer the best basketball player—Curry has the crown now.
I didn’t need his 37 points and nine assists versus the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night to convince me. The Golden State Warriors‘ leading man has been affirming it all year. The numbers don’t lie. There are very few things that LeBron does better than Curry right now, and in those cases it is by a minuscule amount. On the flip side Curry is currently doing several things better than the pride of Akron by a wide margin; he’s obliterating the record book with offensive efficiency that defies logic.
Curry is superior in points, threes, fast-break points, second-chance points, points off turnovers, threes, steals, field-goal percentage, three-point percentage, free-throw percentage, and every advanced rating (offensive rating, PIE, PER, Win Shares—you name it) on the books.
That’s because in the early days of this NBA season Curry has been considerably better than he was when he won MVP a year ago.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | |
|---|---|---|
| PTS | 23.8 | 33.4 |
| FG% | 48.7 | 51.7 |
| 3PT% | 44.3 | 45.2 |
| REB | 4.3 | 6.5 |
Last year Russell Westbrook led the NBA with four 20-point quarters—Curry already has four this season. He’s already scored 40 or more in a game three times.
This offensive output is just part of the reason why Kevin Garnett, who is not known for effusive praise or hyperbole, recently uttered Curry’s name alongside Michael Jordan’s.
In an age where the three-ball is king, Curry is clearly the king of the three-ball. He has broken the league record for three-pointers made in a season in each of the last two years, and is on pace to smash it again this year by a jaw-dropping 137 makes. For perspective, only 23 players made 137 triples in 2014–15. Steph’s 62 threes are more than two teams have made all season and just two fewer than the Spurs’ 64.
It’s not just the amount of three-pointers, but the type. Curry taking and making so many deep threes is breaking normal defensive rules. Bigs are taught not to chase guards too far away from the paint when they get caught switching on the pick-and-roll. The problem with that strategy against Curry is that his comfortable shooting range extends to about 30 feet.
Step too far away from your comfort zone as a large defender and Curry will blow by you off the dribble, finds a teammate who can now score at the rim without the rim protection the big covering Curry would provide. Don’t come out far enough and he’ll just shoot over your reach. Pick your poison.
These are defensive dilemmas LeBron simply doesn’t create. Curry’s ability to get in the lane is why he’s got 8.7 points in the paint per game and is drawing 5.1 personal fouls per game. (Also, a fun fact: In 13 seasons, James has piled up an impressive 1,271 threes, putting him 35th on the all-time list. Curry is just 18 makes behind him, and he’s played six fewer years.)
Perhaps most amazing about his early-season run is Curry hasn’t sacrificed efficiency in service of getting his points. Curry has a mind-blowing 64.1-percent effective field goal percentage. That number is higher than any other starting point guard in the NBA and eighth among players who play at least 20 minutes per game. He’s also shooting over five-percent better than last season on floaters, driving shots, runners and lay ups.
Often great shooters are of the catch-and-shoot variety, but Curry has been impossible to stop off the dribble. He has more points on pull-up shots than anyone in the NBA, and he’s hit 60.6 percent of his pull-up attempts. This coincides with his league-high 72 possessions in transition, in which he’s scored 1.51 points per possession. To put that in perspective, James is averaging 1.12.
Far from just a scorer, Curry is also one of the best in the league at finding potential shooters in rhythm and on target. Golden State hit 56.2 percent of its attempts off passes from Curry in 2014–15 and 55.2 percent the year prior. Based on SportVU data, he’s averaging three secondary assists (the basketball equivalent of the hockey assist), which is 0.4 more per game than Jarrett Jack who is second in the league.
Curry has also evolved into a better defender than LeBron. Last year he set a new personal high-water mark defensively with two swipes per contest, and he’s raised that to 2.5 so far this season—good for third in the league. That intense defence is a big reason Curry is averaging 7.3 points off turnovers and 8.3 fast-break points per game.
Another big part of his defensive value is chipping in on the boards. Although he doesn’t get credit for it, Curry is one of the five best rebounders at his position and continues to get better every year. Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, TJ McConnell and Jarrett Jack are the only lead guards grabbing more uncontested rebounds per game than Curry’s 4.1.
So why is Curry-versus-LeBron a discussion? Lack of true appreciation and respect. Last year in their inaugural awards the players voted for James Harden as MVP—not chef Steph. In this year’s annual NBA GM survey only 7.1 percent of GMs thought he’d by MVP this season and zero GMs said he’d be their first choice if they were starting a franchise from scratch and could pick any player in the league. Curry is just 27 years old, yet LeBron was ahead of him on both lists.
At the end of the day, we are biased to what we’ve seen in the past and we’ve seen James be so good for so long (he’s already played more minutes than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson) that those are the default memories we chose to access. But watch them now—or, better yet, look at the data—and it is clear Curry has the conch.
Forget basketball—is there a single player in sports more exciting to watch compete? Curry is the main draw that has blessed the Warriors with 141 straight sellouts. While he may not look the part of the league’s top dog the same way LeBron did, he’s still become must-see TV.
The Warriors won 67 games last year and had the eighth-best point differential ever. They are considerably better this year and it’s because Curry is the best player in the sport.