This season, Stephen Curry has been in red-hot form as he has led the Golden State Warriors to the best record in the league. On top of that, he recently broke the NBA record for the most 3-pointers made. It is safe to say that Steph is making a case for himself to win the third regular-season MVP award of his career.
While Steph is tearing through the Western Conference, his former teammate, Kevin Durant, has been dominating the Eastern Conference. KD and the Brooklyn Nets have the best record in their conference. Moreover, Durant hasn’t had a lot of support from his teammates, with Kyrie sidelined and Harden not playing like himself.
All things considered, it has further boosted KD’s case of winning his second regular-season MVP award. The point remains that Durant and Curry are competing neck-to-neck for bagging the prestigious award. But if we were to pick one player from the two, who would it be? Well, NBA analysts Stephen A. Smith and Jay Williams debated about this recently.
What was meant to be a normal discussion turned into a heated debate between the two. While Smith chose Curry as his favorite, Williams picked Durant and both analysts had their reasons for making the respective choice.
“We see the kind of season that the Golden State Warriors are having, that doesn’t mean that the Brooklyn Nets have fallen off the wagon,” Stephen A. Smith said. “We understand that’s not the case… I think it’s neck and neck in terms of league MVP honors. I’m not trying to act like Steph has it with ease, J, or by a mile, I’m certainly not implying that. But I think that when you combine his greatness, combined with the Golden State Warriors and what they have been doing in this season.And fantasies that we have about them ultimately winning a chip, then I compare that to KD and here’s what I come up with.
“A sensational dude, a professional scorer, an individual while Steph Curry might be the greatest shooter in the history of basketball, KD might go down as the greatest scorer in the history of the game before all is said and done… If the Brooklyn Nets don’t win the chip, but Golden State does, Kevin Durant is on the verge of being more recognized for the guy who left Steph Curry to join forces with Kyrie Irving than a guy who won two championships and two Finals MVPs.”
Jay Williams replied, “The race is neck and neck, but I don’t understand what you are talking about. When you start going through the list of teams that they lost. Who has the better conference in the NBA right now? Is the Eastern Conference better than the Western Conference? That’s number one… So they play in the better conference. They lead the NBA in scoring. They are shooting a better true shooting% and effective field goal% from the field. How could you have Steph with a slight advantage over Kevin Durant?”
Looking at the stats, a case can be made that KD is definitely having a better season than Curry. But if we also include the team’s success then Steph might have the upper hand.
Regardless of the current stats, there is still more than half of the season left to be played. As the season progresses, we will get a clearer picture of which player is better than the other.
Once again, that is far into the future, and as of now, at least Steph and Durant don’t seem to embrace this rivalry between themselves. After Steph broke the all-time 3-point record, he was seen partying all night with Kevin Durant in New York.
Fans will be hoping to see the two superstars and their teams against one another in the NBA Finals, which seems like the ultimate matchup for this season.
