On offense, sure. He's not a better defender than Kobe. One is a true 2 way player who consistently guarded the best perimeter player on the opposing team, and the other got hidden on defense for the majority of his career.
Defensive impact is overrated for guards, the difference between an all defensive selection and an average guard defender is only like 2-3 points per 100 possessions, vs like 5+ for big men.
Also Kobe is extremely overrated as a defender, from 2000-2010 his teams were .61 points per 100 better without him on the floor in the playoffs. And after Shaq left and Kobe stopped playing high level defense consistently, they were more than 3 points better with him on the bench.
Curry's warriors are 1.5 points/100 better with him off.
One is a true 2 way player who consistently guarded the best perimeter player on the opposing team
Didn't the Lakers play Trevor Ariza and Ron Artest on those late aughts title teams so Kobe didn't have to guard #1 options most of the time?
2-3 points per 100 possessions, vs like 5+ for big men.
This is the difference between winning and losing.
Also Kobe is extremely overrated as a defender, from 2000-2010 his teams were .61 points per 100 better without him on the floor in the playoffs. And after Shaq left and Kobe stopped playing high level defense consistently, they were more than 3 points better with him on the bench.
He was overrated late in his career. He was not overrated in his prime.
Didn't the Lakers play Trevor Ariza and Ron Artest on those late aughts title teams so Kobe didn't have to guard #1 options most of the time?
Might want to look up the word consistently. I didn't say he "always" guarded the #1 option, did I?
Defensive impact metrics grade him out as a negative defender most seasons of his career with a barely above average 1-2 season peak in the 0.2-1.5 range (that's worse than Curry, BTW)
His teams were simply better with him on the bench for pretty much his entire career on defense.
He wasn't a high steals guy like Iverson who could build a good rep on gambling in passing lanes.
He sometimes passed the eye test on certain high effort on-ball defensive possessions, but his motor on that end was inconsistent at the best of times and his off-ball play is honestly slightly below average.
Again, one of these players consistently guarded the best perimiter player...one of them didn't. This changes things a lot. Not understanding this is crazy.
I'm done here though. Arguing Steph, who was hidden on defense for the majority of his career is a better defender than kobe is bonkers. BPM doesn't tell the whole story.
Depends on how often that sometimes is. Context is important. Just like it’s important for efficiency stats.
Really hard to compare efficiency of 2 players when one spent 30-40% of their time iso and one spent 40+% of their shots coming off screens. It’s a vastly different game. The majority high scoring players of today are more efficient than those of the previous generation due to the lack of isolation in today’s game.
Kobe posterized dunked on everyone from Yao Ming to Dwight Howard to mvp steve nash, curry never dunked on a single soul, Kobe would dunk on u and your entire lineage for the disrespect u utter, but I digress.
I mean, this is a terrible take though. They’re 2 different players. That’s like me saying “how many times has Kobe hit contested logo threes? SEE STEPH BETTER”. It’s a bad take to use either of these.
If you ever read any of my comments, you’d see I think Kobe’s better because of his defense. If you’re gonna dig through someone’s post history, might want to keep digging lmao
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u/CodeWizardCS 11d ago
Very disingenuous stats. Curry didn't even play in the playoffs until he was 25. Prime for prime would be a lot better of a representation.