NBA - Main

I think it's largely true that a lot of player-driven, and casual-fan-driven, analysis is based on what a player can do, not how much they actually help you win games.

Going into the 2015 season, you could find a lot of people telling you that Kyrie and Wall were better than Curry. The advanced stats were all in on Curry, by the way, even before Kerr arrived.

But the thing is, Wall was just this jump-off-the-screen athlete. Kyrie had that dazzling array of dribbling moves and circus finishes. So people who weren't digging into the nitty gritty would say, well, "Curry can't get down the court as fast as Wall, can't dunk like Wall." "Curry doesn't have Kyrie's handle or his array of finishing moves."

(And to be clear: Curry didn't have Kyrie's handle. In 2014 and 2015, you could attack Curry's dribble if you weren't worried about the shot. In the half court he used the threat of his shot to set up his drive, but pressing him full court could be effective. It's part of why the Warriors really wanted Iguodala, a guy you could trust to handle the rock a lot where you didn't have to worry about positional overlap with Steph.)

And players rarely hold things like "holds the ball too much" against someone, even if they know that it's better to attack off the catch. Instead, Kyrie gets the ball, survey's the field, dribbles a lot, and then drives, it actually is worse for the team but LOOKS more impressive because of how the defense is able to get set. Whereas the ability to catch and go looks less impressive (because the defender is more likely to be off balance) but is actually more effective.