Stephen Curry proved a point over the last season as the best player in the NBA, standing tall at the end of the season with his 4th championship and his 1st Finals MVP. Despite recent rankings underrating Curry to be as low as the 5th best player in the NBA, it is hard to say that a player of Steph’s caliber off of everything he achieved last year can be any lower than 2nd in the league.
The NBA GM survey reflects the high opinion that Curry has amongst the top decision-makers in the league. Among a host of categories where Curry was the best, one to stand out was how 55% of the GMs want him to take a game-winning shot.
Curry got the most votes in that category, ahead of Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard. While players like Luka Doncic, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Jokic, and Kawhi Leonard also received votes, Lakers star LeBron James received 0 votes.
per the NBA GM survey, Steph Curry:
• Best player at his position
• Best pure shooter
• Best off-ball player
• Preferred player to take the last shot
• Most commonly forces opposing coaches to make adjustments
Sounds like the best player in the NBA to me pic.twitter.com/5z3LchHyuu
— Jay💎 (@DubsFanJay) October 4, 2022
Curry being the most coveted player in a game-winning situation is not surprising, especially with his shooting ability. What is surprising is that a league full of GMs that have seen LeBron hit game-winners over many teams, even with his shooting skills, believe he can’t be picked in a last-shot situation.
Are The GMs Correct?
The annual NBA GM Survey is something many fans look forward to as it is an official measure of what some of the most important people in basketball think. All GMs are evaluating rival teams and often shower star players from different teams with a lot of praise.
Picking Curry No. 1 is not an issue and never would be an issue. Not picking LeBron at all in a game-winning shot situation is surprising considering his proven track record of hitting those shots. It does make sense when one evaluates the season the Lakers are coming off and LeBron going 0-7 in his preseason debut, so maybe it was the right call.
