Curious what your take on this thread is since I know you're a big fan of both:
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/prime-kobe-or-prime-curry.3774377/
I think the answer is Curry.
Obviously, Kobe is the better athlete, and this gives him his two greatest strengths over Curry.
1. The ability to lock someone down one on one defensively, I understand the advanced metrics don't give Kobe much credit on the defensive end, but a Prime Kobe came up big shutting people down late in games all the time.
2. Kobe could get his shot off whenever he wanted, and that had it's drawbacks (because he took tons of shitty shots) but it also allowed his team to always have available buckets when the game got tight. Other teams didn't have that. I also realize Kobe is probably the most inflated "clutch" player of all time because of how much he missed game winning shots. But he did his most deadly work in the last 3 minutes, icing games before that last shot was needed.
You covered a lot of what makes Curry better, far more efficient, far better shooter, better play maker, and no player on the planet has a more chaotic impact on the game, and that's because if you aren't suffocating him all game he fucking kills you in 3 minutes.
But imagine this, imagine Curry on those early 00s Lakers teams. Any doubt at all that they aren't BETTER? I don't think so, Curry being the better shooter and play maker makes that team simply too much to handle. Add in that Curry is likely also a better teammate and you have a guy that probably doesn't clash with Shaq and also doesn't end up blowing up the team with off the court drama.
Obviously you need decent players on your team to win championships... and both have had them. In fact Pau was the better player in the 2010 season run, and had a claim to that finals MVP award as he was the more efficient of the two, Kobe shot 40% for the series and had twice the turnovers. But I feel like Curry is an easier fit in more systems. He just adds too much without taking anything away.
I know it’s not a popular opinion, and that’s no surprise, Kobe is Kobe after all. But you just can’t mess up taking the guy with 68% TS from 25ft from the hoop.
