Ainge: Curry the greatest shooter over Bird

[Endless Paradise]

I would wager that's EP being sarcastic.

I hope you put money on that.

[D.o.s.]

A bit of emotional currency.

[Celtics4ever]

I think Curry needs to prove a little longer to be up there in all honesty.

[Moranis]

I would wager that's EP being sarcastic.

Heck if you take last year out when Lebron was incredibly inefficient he has a better career 3PT% in the playoffs than Bird.  I get that we all love Bird on here, but his career playoff shooting percentage from 3 is just 32.1%.  He has more seasons under 17% than he has over 40% in the playoffs.

To put that into perspective, though, Bird only took ~250 playoff threes... while being a three time three point contest winner. I would not put my money on James in something as comparatively low stakes as a three point contest, so the comparison here seems a little silly (and I'm someone who thinks James comes up positive in most aspects of his career in comparison to LL).

Also, in regards to your "but if you take out last year" comment, I'm reminded of Beavis and Butthead:
"uh… huh huh… well, huh huh… if nothing sucked, and like, everything was cool all the time, then it’s like, how would you know it was cool? huh huh…"

Gotta take the good with the bad.

Even with last year, James is only slightly lower (32.1 vs. 31..  I just think that last year was an exception.  Though, that said last year James shot 22.7% from three in the playoffs, which is 3% lower than his previous career low.  Bird had 3 seasons lower than that.  Bird and James' best seasons in the playoffs (to date with James anyway) was the year they were aged 29.  James is comparable from three, but almost 9% better from two.  Bird was an incredible all around player, one of the best players ever, but this notion that he was this all time great shooter is just silly. 

Curry, on the other hand, is an all time great shooter.  Right there with Ray Allen as one of the best ever. 

[fairweatherfan]

Bird was a great shooter for his era, though it's tough for people who have great memories of watching him to add the qualifier.  He was really the first superstar to use the 3 as a consistent weapon, even though his volume was drastically lower than today's players.

Although being a great shooter isn't exclusively about hitting 3s either, especially in older eras. 


Here's an interesting question for any long-timers: who's the greatest shooter ever from the pre-3 pt era?  Seems very difficult to quantify.

[Tr1boy]

What? Come on Danny

Bird is one of the greatest 3 pt shooting clutch players of all time.  Curry is obviously a great shooter but how many playoff clutch shots has he made? Adv Bird as of now

Given that Ainge was a) Bird's teammate, and b) shot 40% from 3 himself in the playoffs for his career, I'm going to go with Ainge over you on this one.

Doesn't really  matter if they were teammates. Maybe ainge didn't like Bird

[Tr1boy]

Also just to remind

http://youtu.be/5GtbsOM0Cro

[Donoghus]

What? Come on Danny

Bird is one of the greatest 3 pt shooting clutch players of all time.  Curry is obviously a great shooter but how many playoff clutch shots has he made? Adv Bird as of now

Given that Ainge was a) Bird's teammate, and b) shot 40% from 3 himself in the playoffs for his career, I'm going to go with Ainge over you on this one.

Doesn't really  matter if they were teammates. Maybe ainge didn't like Bird

Or maybe Danny is trying to be honest & somewhat objective about it.  We can project what Danny is thinking all day long.

The hypothetical game is fun.

[GC003332]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50–40–90_club

There are only 6 members of this club and Curry ain't one of them

Bird was so good he founded this club 

[fairweatherfan]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50–40–90_club

There are only 6 members of this club and Curry ain't one of them

Bird was so good he founded this club 

See, with the much higher volume of 3s in the modern game, which are lower % shots, I think that should be modified to 40% from 3, 50% from 2 (not overall) and 90% from 1. Otherwise you're punishing higher-volume 3 shooters even if they're excellent from that range.

Under that criteria Curry easily made it last year (.443/.528/.914) and barely missed his second year (.442/.498/.934).

[D.o.s.]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50–40–90_club

There are only 6 members of this club and Curry ain't one of them

Bird was so good he founded this club 

Yeah Mark Price was a much better shooter than Steph Curry. Good eye for legitimate criteria in this discussion there.

[Tr1boy]

If there is one guy I would consider a better overall 3 pt shooter(inc l. Clutch shots, all sorts of angles release)  is Reggie Miller

[Moranis]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50–40–90_club

There are only 6 members of this club and Curry ain't one of them

Bird was so good he founded this club 

See, with the much higher volume of 3s in the modern game, which are lower % shots, I think that should be modified to 40% from 3, 50% from 2 (not overall) and 90% from 1. Otherwise you're punishing higher-volume 3 shooters even if they're excellent from that range.

Under that criteria Curry easily made it last year (.443/.528/.914) and barely missed his second year (.442/.498/.934).

Exactly.

[bdm860]

Ya but can Curry go off the expressway, over the river, off the billboard, through the window, off the wall, nothing but net? Checkmate, Bird.



How do we even define "best shooter"?  It seems like alot of people here are leaning soley towards just 3pt%/volume but there's just so much more to it than that.  Behind the arc, inside the arc, free throws, off the dribble, wide open, with a man in your face, facing a double team, step back, fadeaway, coming off a pick, in the clutch, etc. There's definitely more to shooting than long range accuracy, and not just as easy as looking at 1-2 stats.  Not saying you can't argue Curry for most/all of those things, just saying there should be more to the discussion (like surprised Mark Price was scoffed at, thought maybe he could hang in the discussion, a career 50-40-90 guy under foulweather's updated criteria).

[D.o.s.]

The point was more about the idea of using the 50-40-90 as the baseline for your opinion than anything to do with Mark Price, but that's ok.