The generational synergy between Stephen Curry and Draymond Green has been a driving force behind the Golden State Warriors' dynasty. Green is no Karl Malone as a scorer, obviously, but the two-man game between him and Curry has nevertheless been the NBA's closest facsimile of the legendary interplay that made Malone, John Stockton and the Utah Jazz perennial championship contenders in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Green's longstanding scoring and shooting deficiencies would be far more detrimental if he wasn't playing with the greatest shooter and off-ball mover of all-time. Curry's innate defensive weaknesses would loom far larger for the Warriors if he wasn't playing with one of the smartest, most versatile defenders in NBA history.
Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas is using that innate offensive connection between Curry and Green as an indication the latter is better described as Golden State's floor general. Why? Perhaps to burnish his standing on the list of the league's best point guards ever.
“Let me just tell you the way I think about point guards. On the Golden State Warriors you are the point guard,” Thomas told Green on The Draymond Green Show. “You have more assists than Steph, you you bring the ball up, you initiate the offense, you set the defense, you run the show. Steph comes off screens he catches and he shoots and he's one of the greatest shooters ever and what he's been able to do for this generation of play and the way he's won with it, key word the way he's won with it, has been different than anybody else has ever tried to do it.”
"On the Warriors, you [Draymond] are the point guard. You have more assists than Steph… As a point guard, I led my team in scoring and assists to back-to-back championships."
Isiah Thomas weighs on the point guard GOAT debate 👀
(via @TheVolumeSports)pic.twitter.com/UjKUVgqN4E
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 12, 2024
Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both play ‘point guard' for Warriors
Before Curry won Finals MVP in 2022, Thomas was the last best small guard to lead his team to a championship while earning that honor. He won back-to-back titles with the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990, taking home his first and only Finals MVP as Detroit went back-to-back.
Curry's epic coronation two years ago left no doubt among those who'd been holding out on his standing among basketball's best point guards of all-time. If he didn't top that list after leading the underdog Warriors to victory over the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals, Curry was certainly at least stood second behind Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson, surpassing the likes of Thomas and Oscar Robertson, among others.
Thomas' take on Golden State's “real” point guard doesn't need much more context than the self-serving nature of him insisting that label belongs to Green, not Curry. The former Pistons superstar is one of the most prideful players in NBA history. It's hardly surprising he'd champion every argument possible that leaves him above Curry in basketball's pecking order of all-time point guards.
But Thomas' comments also point to a fundamental misunderstanding of Curry's singular impact on the game.
“Point guards,” broadly, are the players who create the most advantages for their team, and no one in league history has ever drawn as much defensive attention on the ball as Curry. That's advantage creation in its simplest form, but so is the chaos Curry creates every time he passes halfcourt, sprints around screens, sets a pick on the ball or spots up on the weak side of the floor.
Curry would be dynamic as any team's primary ball-handler or table-setter. The same definitely can't be said for Green, who's thrived as a playmaker for years not just due to his elite processing speed and court sense, but the ability of Curry and Klay Thompson—not to mention Kevin Durant—to spark fear in the heart of defenses away from the play, creating mistakes and drawing rotations the vast majority of players can't.
Positional designations are more important defensively than offensively, and have never meant less on the whole than they do in 2024 anyway. Curry is indeed the Dubs' point guard, but Green often plays that role, too. Don't let Thomas' self-involved remarks take away from Curry's brilliance. Being the best shooter ever and playing alongside a dynamic frontcourt playmaker like Green doesn't make him any less of a “point guard” than Thomas was with the Pistons.
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