During Golden State’s historic 73-9 season, Stephen Curry was easily considered by many as the best Point Guard in the entire NBA.
The way he shot the ball and got his teammates involved all while being the head of the snake of a juggernaut team like Golden State made it impossible for someone to be better than him in the Point Guard position. That notion however seems to have quieted down with the recent plays of fellow PG’s, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Harden and Westbrook’s statistical dominance have swayed many NBA fans into thinking that Stephen’s throne as the best PG in the league has been taken from the unanimous MVP.
Have players such as Westbrook or Harden taken Curry’s spot as the best PG in the NBA? While those two players have been incredible, they haven’t made as strong a case as Stephen Curry has. The Golden State PG is still the best Point Guard in the League.
Let’s play a game that the NFL network does. Curry, Westbrook, and Harden will be ranked in individual aspects of the game such as scoring, rebounding, assists/playmaking, defense from 1 to 3, one being the best rank etc. The basketball categories will then be added all together and the PG with the lowest numerical value is basically the winner. This game won’t tell the whole story but it’s fun nonetheless.
Scoring (pure ability to score):
Curry – 1
Westbrook – 2
Harden – 3
Rebounding:
Curry – 3
Westbrook – 1
Harden – 2
Assists/Playmaking:
Curry – 3
Westbrook – 2
Harden – 1
Defense
Curry – 1
Westbrook – 3
Harden – 2
Efficiency (Net Rating)
Curry – 1
Westbrook – 3
Harden – 2
Total:
Curry – 9
Westbrook – 11
Harden – 10
Ranking: Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook
In this game, the rankings between the three Point Guards favored Stephen, then Westbrook, then Harden. These rankings were based on Curry, Westbrook, and Harden’s statistics.
The scoring aspect of this game determines the player’s pure ability to score, meaning the PG that is efficient scoring in different ways. Westbrook ranked highest in points off of drives to the paint and points off of pull-ups compared to Curry and Harden. Stephen had the highest points off of catch-and-shoot and paint. Since there is a tie-breaker, the scoring edge goes to Curry because of his supreme accuracy on his jump shot. So the ranking for scoring is Curry (1), Harden (3), Westbrook (2).
Westbrook easily won the rebounding aspect, with a 16.6 rebounding% while Harden and Curry followed with 11.8 and 6.4 respectively.
Harden won the assists/playmaking department with a 28.4 assist ratio followed by Westbrook and Curry with 24.8 and 20.7 respectively.
Curry won the defensive aspect of the game with opponents shooting around 41.5% when he is guarding them. Harden’s opponents shot around 44.9% when he was defending them. While Westbrook let his opponents shoot around 48.8% from the floor.
Curry easily had the highest NET rating with a 17.1 while Harden and Westbrook followed with 6.3 and 6.1 respectively.
Based on the rankings and basketball statistics, Stephen Curry is still the best Point Guard in the NBA, but definitely not by a wide margin. Fellow PG’s Westbrook and Harden are creeping up closer to Steph. These rankings doesn’t take away the fact that both Westbrook and Harden are simply amazing basketball players especially at the PG position. The stats favor Steph, but that won’t stop Harden and Westbrook from giving Steph a run for his money.
Featured Image Credits Photo via Getty Images
Links to the NBA Statistics used:
