Stephen Curry Should Be the ROY

[PosImpos]

I wasn't really sure whether I thought Tyreke or Steph Curry should win the award until I read this article:

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2010/4/15/1423388/2009-2010-nba-rookie-of-the-year

I'm convinced.  The fact that he absolutely owned for my fantasy team (helping me win my fantasy league) certainly helps, too.

[Donoghus]

Yeah, I had Curry on my fantasy team also and followed him pretty closely. 

He really seemed to turn it on the 2nd half of the season and has developed into a very steady ballplayer. 

He's probably gets my vote for ROY, also.

(Too bad Dell's vote for the award got stripped this year)

[Rondo_is_better]

Stephen Curry, definitely.

I had a feeling he'd be able to make the transition to the NBA pretty easily, despite what some people said. He was routinely being guarded by bigger men -- 2's and 3's -- in college. Getting his shot off wasn't an issue with those 6'4 guys covering him, and it isn't now.

Evans reminds me of Corey Maggette.

[jdpapa3]

That GSW pace and style of basketball definitely inflates the hell out of statistics. D Leaguer Reggie Williams put up 16, 5, and 3 there on 50% shooting.

BUT, with that said, Curry is a special player when you watch him. He doesn't take the typical GSW forced shots. He finds great looks within the offense and drains them with great efficiency(57% TS). He's turned into a great pg over the course of the season.

I'd have co-ROYS with Evans and Curry. That article posted has some terrible arguments.

Could Tyreke Evans, who failed in an entire season to attain any chemistry with his established high-draft-pick big men

Really? Hawes and Thompson are established? And where you are drafted simply doesn't matter and that is something this guy should know after the POB era. He's had Landry for a few months and I haven't exactly flipped over to many Kings games since the trade deadline so I can't give a good evaluation of their play together.

Reasons against:

1) He's not a point guard.

I don't think this is something that should be used against him. Do we use this against Wade or Lebron? Can't we just admit that he is a sg who dominates the ball out of necessity?

[Donoghus]

That GSW pace and style of basketball definitely inflates the hell out of statistics. D Leaguer Reggie Williams put up 16, 5, and 3 there on 50% shooting.

BUT, with that said, Curry is a special player when you watch him. He doesn't take the typical GSW forced shots. He finds great looks within the offense and drains them with great efficiency(57% TS). He's turned into a great pg over the course of the season.

I'd have co-ROYS with Evans and Curry. That article posted has some terrible arguments.

Could Tyreke Evans, who failed in an entire season to attain any chemistry with his established high-draft-pick big men

Really? Hawes and Thompson are established? And where you are drafted simply doesn't matter and that is something this guy should know after the POB era. He's had Landry for a few months and I haven't exactly flipped over to many Kings games since the trade deadline so I can't give a good evaluation of their play together.

Reasons against:

1) He's not a point guard.

I don't think this is something that should be used against him. Do we use this against Wade or Lebron? Can't we just admit that he is a sg who dominates the ball out of necessity?

Oh, that article is definitely bias and pushing a certain agenda. 

I don't think voters should hold the positional thing against Evans at all. 

[marseye]

 

[PosImpos]

That GSW pace and style of basketball definitely inflates the hell out of statistics. D Leaguer Reggie Williams put up 16, 5, and 3 there on 50% shooting.

BUT, with that said, Curry is a special player when you watch him. He doesn't take the typical GSW forced shots. He finds great looks within the offense and drains them with great efficiency(57% TS). He's turned into a great pg over the course of the season.

I'd have co-ROYS with Evans and Curry. That article posted has some terrible arguments.

Could Tyreke Evans, who failed in an entire season to attain any chemistry with his established high-draft-pick big men

Really? Hawes and Thompson are established? And where you are drafted simply doesn't matter and that is something this guy should know after the POB era. He's had Landry for a few months and I haven't exactly flipped over to many Kings games since the trade deadline so I can't give a good evaluation of their play together.

Reasons against:

1) He's not a point guard.

I don't think this is something that should be used against him. Do we use this against Wade or Lebron? Can't we just admit that he is a sg who dominates the ball out of necessity?

Oh, that article is definitely bias and pushing a certain agenda. 

I don't think voters should hold the positional thing against Evans at all. 

I think they make a good point though, Curry makes the other players around him better, whereas Tyreke doesn't seem to do that at all.

[Who]

Tyreke Evans should be the rookie of the year. He was a game changing force with his (1) scoring (2) rebounding (3) passing, and, (4) defense.

There are only a handful of players in this league who can dominate a game in so many different areas.

[Who]

I think they make a good point though, Curry makes the other players around him better, whereas Tyreke doesn't seem to do that at all.

This is true -- Tyreke Evans doesn't know how to play alongside talented players yet. He needs to be the guy who makes the play. Put him alongside four role players and he'll be successful. Put him alongside two ball hungry stars and two role players and his team will be disjointed.

I think it's a problem that he'll grow out of as he matures. As he gains more experience. Tyreke is a good level headed young man. He wants to win and he wants to be a team player. In time, he'll learn how to do that.

[PosImpos]

Tyreke Evans should be the rookie of the year. He was a game changing force with his (1) scoring (2) rebounding (3) passing, and, (4) defense.

There are only a handful of players in this league who can dominate a game in so many different areas.

Number 4 is questionable considering how bad his team was; Curry averages .4 more steals per game in fewer minutes, and Tyreke barely averages more blocks (.36 vs .25), if you want to go by stats.  The first three can all be attributed to Stephen Curry as well, perhaps even more so.  Curry is close to the rebounder that Tyreke is even though he's 3 inches shorter, and he had a higher TS% and overall FG% even though he took a lot more 3's than Evans.

They are rather close in stats, though, so I think as the article implies you have to look at how his play affected his teammates.  Lots of young, inexperienced, and largely undrafted players flourished around Curry this season - especially when ballhog Monta Ellis wasn't playing - whereas Tyreke's teammates, a few of which are former lottery picks, stagnated.  


You want to see a player dominating the game, check out Curry's stats for the last 5 games of the season:

27 pts, 14 assists, 8 rebounds, 3-5 from deep.
29 points, 4 assists, 9 rebounds, 5-10 from deep.
25 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 3-6 from deep.
17 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1-4 from deep.
42 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds, 4-6 from deep. (12-12 FTs)

That last ridiculous line came against Portland, a very solid defensive team.  Curry also had, I believe, at least a couple of triple doubles this season, including one game that was close to a quadruple double.

Remember that Curry does all this even though he is 3 inches shorter and about 40 lbs lighter than Tyreke.

[Who]

I think it's a similar situation as two years ago with Kevin Durant and Al Horford. Horford was a guy who did more to help his team win but Durant showed more ability and talent.

I backed Durant for the RoY that season and likewise Tyreke this season.

[Who]

I thought Tyreke Evans' man-to-man defense was above average against shooting guards (also solid team D) and that his team defense was very good at the point (but man-to-man D was poor).

Sacramento played very well defensively, on the perimeter, when they put Evans at the point alongside three long quick forwards and switched everything off the ball. It made it very difficult for the opposing team to get a mismatch on the perimeter. No easy matchups to exploit.

[PosImpos]

I think it's a similar situation as two years ago with Kevin Durant and Al Horford. Horford was a guy who did more to help his team win but Durant showed more ability and talent.

I backed Durant for the RoY that season and likewise Tyreke this season.

I'm just not sure I really agree with the idea that Tyreke showed more ability and talent.  Tyreke was in a situation from the beginning where the ball was put in his hands, and he's easily the biggest "PG" in the league which gives him an acute physical advantage.  If Curry had been put in a situation where he was the man from the beginning, he could very well have put up the same kind of numbers the Tyreke put up, only with better shooting percentages.

Tyreke has some incredible moves cutting to the basket, and he has a knack for getting to the free throw line - all of this despite the fact that he's not an incredible athlete like LeBron or Dwyane Wade (though he's very strong and agile).  

Still, in my mind Curry's incredible shooting touch is at least on the same level if not more impressive.  If Curry maintains or improves his current shooting he'll be one of the greatest shooters ever (and historically great shooters tend to improve steadily with age until their mid-30's).

If Curry were just a great shooter, I'd agree with you, but he's also one of the best ballhawks in the NBA this season and he's also a very good rebounder for his size and position (slightly better than Rondo) while still being a talented passer with a good feel for the game.  The only rookie that showed a greater knack for creating looks for teammates this season was probably Darren Collison, and he was a turnover machine.

[Who]

On the rebounding, Tyreke Evans has a rebounding rate of 8.1% while Curry has a rebounding rate of 6.8%. It is a large advantage for Evans.

Also, Curry's rebounding increased hugely in the second half of the season largely because Golden State had no other rebounders in the lineup due to injuries. The Warriors were by far the worst rebounding team in the league (a negative rebounding differential of 9.7 on the season) with a lot of that damage being done towards the end of the year.

Can Curry repeat his good board work from the second half of next season? Would his rebounding numbers be as a good if he played on a respectable rebounding team? I doubt it.

Curry is above average (solid-to-good) as a rebounder for a point guard but Evans is a game changing rebounding point guard + an excellent rebounding two guard.

[PosImpos]

The Kings' roster isn't exactly full of great rebounders, either; nobody on the team averages more than ~8 rebounds a game, and they played Spencer Hawes and Omri Casspi a lot in the front court, neither of whom are very good rebounders.

Tyreke's advantage in rebounding comes mainly on the offensive glass (the difference in their defensive rebounding rates is slightly over 1%), which makes sense because he's taking more than a quarter of the King's shots, many of them inside at the basket.

That Curry is more of an outside shooting player but still gathered so many rebounds speaks to his rebounding ability. 

Bottom line is I feel like Tyreke gets more attention for his accomplishments because he plays at PG instead of SG.  But I don't believe he's a PG, and I think his team won't be truly successful until they start playing him as a SG in a Dwyane Wade-ish role instead of having him at the point trying to run the offense all the time. 

His size and inside scoring ability give him a lot of advantages at the point guard position, but his inability to really function as a point guard brings almost as many disadvantages.