| You can save it, because it's clear you didn't watch any of them play. It's also clear that you took the parts you wanted to talk about from my post and ignored the point. Reggie Miller? Shooting guard. Ray Allen? Shooting guard. So was Jordan, Kobe, Wade, etc. Scoring point guards didn't exist with the exception of Iverson, who is a completely different animal than the step-back 3 point shooters of today. How much of a threat do you think Curry would be if he were asked to take 7 or 8 20-24 foot shots all game long like the PGs of that era? It erases him offensively. Now, you didn't watch Rauf play, so all you have to go on are the stats. I did. I was a huge fan of him in college. He averaged over 30ppg as a freshman (his scoring dipped in year 2 because he had to share the court with Shaq) and had the prettiest stroke I've ever seen. He had some of the best ball handling skills since Maravich. He was a basketball savant. So what happened? He went to the league and was asked to do what point guards did back then: move the ball down the court and pass it away. He was the 3rd overall pick in the draft and was asked to pass the ball to Mutumbo and Antonio McDyess in an offense predicated on scoring a lot of points quickly with a ridiculous pace for the era. He also caught a ton of heat for not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, which ultimately caused him to get blackballed from the association. But don't take my word for it. Go look up abdul-rauf curry on google. Oh, look, there's a tweet by Phil Jackson: "Never seen anything like SCurry? Remind you of Chris Jackson/ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who had a short but brilliant run in NBA?" Yeah, Phil only coached against him. He totally doesn't remember the time that the 72 win Bulls lost to the Nuggets because of Rauf's performance, or the time that Rauf torched Stockton for 51. |
> So what happened?
I mean, mostly what happened is that he got blackballed out of the league for refusing to stand for the national anthem, but also, yes, I don't think Phil's comparison was crazy. I do think Abdul-Rauf, in a modern run and gun/SSOL offense would have been Steph-before-Steph (I also think Nash would have been much the same if he'd hunted for his own shot more).
Oh! Forgot to add, tho, that your initial comment was wack; every player is limited in some way and Steph is probably the best shooter who's ever played and he bends the gravity of the game in a way that basically nobody ever has before, which would be reason enough to put him in the running for MVP even if he wasn't routinely among the leaders in counting and advanced stats.