First of all, Steph can defend. He’s not elite, but he’s not a minus either, at least hasn’t been for years now. Far better than a Trae Young or Jordan Poole lol.
In his last championship year 2022 he was 4th in net rating with the same defensive rating as Tatum at 103.4(!) and was better than Rudy Gobert’s. No DRTG isn’t a perfect stat, and Steph’s rating is probably boosted by the team defense designed to carefully “curate” who he has to defend, but go ahead and find me a well known bad defender with a 103 rating for a season. For comparison, Lillard was 114, who certain types of fans love compare Steph to, but this just one good example for how theyre not even in the same league.
So I would argue his generational offensive contribution combined with being at least a wash on D allows him to be in a top 10 convo. You can argue he shouldn’t be up there for other reasons(?) but I wouldn’t disqualify him for defense alone. If anything I would argue his biggest weakness is dumbass turnovers at the worst times.
First of all, Steph can defend. He’s not elite, but he’s not a minus either, at least hasn’t been for years now. Far better than a Trae Young or Jordan Poole lol.
In his last championship year 2022 he was 4th in net rating with the same defensive rating as Tatum at 103.4(!) and was better than Rudy Gobert’s. No DRTG isn’t a perfect stat, and Steph’s rating is probably boosted by the team defense designed to carefully “curate” who he has to defend, but go ahead and find me a well known bad defender with a 103 rating for a season. For comparison, Lillard was 114, who certain types of fans love compare Steph to, but this just one good example for how theyre not even in the same league.
So I would argue his generational offensive contribution combined with being at least a wash on D allows him to be in a top 10 convo. You can argue he shouldn’t be up there for other reasons(?) but I wouldn’t disqualify him for defense alone. If anything I would argue his biggest weakness is dumbass turnovers at the worst times.