Talk About Steph's Defense All You Want But Err Umm....

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Davidson's Bob McKillop shepherded Steph Curry's All-American career in college and remains very close to the best player he has ever coached.

McKillop shared some thoughts on Curry's performance Sunday night, as well as on the Golden State-Houston NBA playoff series and the way Curry is responding to Houston attacking him on defense. Here are some of McKillop's thoughts from our interview Monday.

On Curry's defense

"I thought Steph was sensational on defense Sunday night. You know what drives me crazy? All this talk about his defense. The way Houston is isolating him on every possession, the energy he has to expend on defense is off the charts.

"But why aren't people talking about James Harden's defense? It's a joke. Harden got embarrassed twice on a single possession Sunday night. I think it's just that Steph gets so many accolades that people are trying to find things that are wrong with him. He's still one of the best layup shooters, free-throw shooters and three-point shooters in the league. People say Steph got on track Sunday night? I'm not sure he ever was off track."

 

[MJ Truth]

Lowkey Curry has always been at worst an above average defender. No idea where the narrative that he's trash defensively came from.

The fact that a great team’s full game plan is to isolate him says something different.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

The fact that a great team’s full game plan is to isolate him says something different.

No, it doesn't, it just means he isn't as good of a 1v1 defender as Klay, Iggy, Draymond and Durant.

 

[The_Sheff]

The fact that a great team’s full game plan is to isolate him says something different.

What your post says is you couldn't even do basic analysis, so basic that it simply involves looking at who else is on his team.

 

[mastermind]

The fact that a great team’s full game plan is to isolate him says something different.

Klay, Iggy, Draymond, And Durant being all world defenders is the real reason why.

Curry has never been a bad defender.

 

[The God Poster]

The fact that a great team’s full game plan is to isolate him says something different.

you're shamless

 

[Guile]

He gives effort and understands his teams defensive principles and is big enough to guard most points guards. He gets his ankles broken because he's too aggressive and likes to go for steals.

Harden doesn't give the effort excpected and basically refuses to get into a real defensive stance half the time.

 

[#1 pick]

One of the most underappreciated and undervalued parts of his [unanimous] MVP season was that he was one of the best defenders at the PG position:

Spot up defense - 206 attempts, holding matchups to 33% shooting - 68% percentile

Offscreen defense - 53 attempts, holding matchups to 34% shooting - 74% percentile

#1 in steals in the entire league, and top-5 in deflections in the entire league

He was also a top-10 guard (not just PGs) in Keep-in-front%, and contesting shots

Hes a very high BBIQ defender and while his wingspan isnt 6'7, he understands timing as good as Draymond

 

[#1 pick]

How does it affect individual defensive numbers? They target Steph.

They do a great job of team defense and they wore teams out with their offensive talent but that said, Steph has had good defensive stats for years, even during the Mark Jackson era.

 

[#1 pick]

He gives effort and understands his teams defensive principles and is big enough to guard most points guards. He gets his ankles broken because he's too aggressive and likes to go for steals.

Harden doesn't give the effort excpected and basically refuses to get into a real defensive stance half the time.

Harden actually has great defensive instincts and good lateral quickness. His issue is stamina. He gets tired too fast on defense. His effort wanes due to it.

While Westbrook has elite lateral quickness and poor defensive instincts with elite defensive tools and a relentless nature. Stamina isnt Russ issue. It's his instincts on the defensive end.

It goes to show you just how fluky winning DPOY in college Basketball is in most conferences

 

[ryderldb]

Steph will never be a great defender just because he lacks some of the physical attributes needed but one thing about him is he’ll always put in effort. It’s one of the reasons why he gets into foul trouble and also why he’ll be on highlight videos getting shook, but I’d rather have that then someone that just stands there.

 

[Goatpoacher]

*searches for YouTube videos and/or autistic coli diatribes trying to argue that James Harden is an ELITE defender

*Zero search results

Dudes on this forum were posting pictures of Harden's blocks in the regular season.

Curry tries, gets burned alot. Harden could probably do a decent job if he tried more often.