Steph vs. Kawhi Playoff Performance Debate Is Close, But One Has the Edge

Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard have been two of the best players in the NBA for over a decade, and their playoff resumes reflect that.

Curry is a four-time champion and one-time Finals MVP, while Leonard is a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP.

Before they square off in Wednesday's play-in game between the Warriors and Clippers at Intuit Dome, I did a deep dive on their career playoff performance.

Let's decide who has been better in the postseason.

Stats Don't Show a Clear Winner

For most of these debates, the stats say it all. Curry and Leonard crush most of their contemporaries in postseason scoring efficiency. But when matched up against each other, there isn't a clear winner.

	Games	PPG	TS%	APG	DBPM
Steph	155	26.8	.608	6.1	0.6
Kawhi	146	21.5	.621	3.0	2.7

Leonard is actually more efficient than Curry, but Curry still has the edge offensively due to his superior scoring volume and playmaking.

With that said, Leonard is one of the best defensive players in the league while Curry is merely average on that end, so for some that's why Leonard deserves the nod.

2019 NBA Finals

Aside from Leonard's superior defense, Leonard's team beating Curry's team in the 2019 NBA Finals is another data point in the 6'6" small forward's favor.

The stats favored the 2019 Finals MVP, but it was closer than most people realize.

	PPG	TS%	APG	RPG	SPG	BPG
Kawhi	28.5	.606	4.2	9.8	2.0	1.2
Steph	30.5	.598	6.0	5.2	1.2	0.2

Of course, Klay Thompson missed Game 3 with an injury and later tore his ACL in Game 6, while Kevin Durant played just 12 minutes before tearing his Achilles. That allowed the Raptors to put all their energy into stopping Curry, and it worked to a degree.

Mind you, the Warriors weren't devoid of talent even with their injuries. They still had Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and DeMarcus Cousins. But what made Curry's task especially daunting was that Quinn Cook, Jonas Jerebko, Alfonzo McKinnie and Jordan Bell combined to play 194 minutes in the 2019 Finals.

Those four players combined to play 36 playoff minutes for the rest of their careers.

The Warriors were rolling out lineups they had never used before against a Raptors team loaded with two-way talent.

All things considered, this series is not a knockout blow for Leonard in this debate.

Why Ranking Leonard Among His Peers Is Tricky

In any debate with the best players of his generation, Leonard has a trump card no else has.

He has two Defensive Player of the Year awards, whereas contemporaries such as Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant have none.

Leonard even won his first Finals MVP in 2014 averaging just 17.8 points and 2.0 assists per game. His defense on James and the Heat was so strong that he got 10 of the 11 MVP votes.

To be sure, Leonard is still a very good defender, but the last time he even got a DPOY vote was the 2019-20 season. The last time he made an All-Defensive team was the 2020-21 season, which is partially due to injuries.

Understandably, he is perserving his body for his offensive load by not guarding the opponent's best scorer that often. He's still matching up against premier scorers more than Curry, but for the most part, Leonard is not the outrageously impactful defender he was from 2014 to 2016.

The point here is if you take the peak offensive player Kawhi was with the Clippers from 2019 to 2021 when he averaged 26.0 points and 5.0 assists, and you combine that with the defender he was with the Spurs from 2014 to 2016, you will have a player that has a GOAT argument.

But if we're having a genuine debate about Leonard vs. Curry or any contemporary, we need to acknowledge that Leonard's defense from 2018 on has not been DPOY-level impactful.

Leonard's Offensive Stats vs. Curry's After Leonard's Jump

It's well established that Leonard became a better offensive player after his Spurs tenure, so let's compare his postseason stats to Curry's just since the 2019 playoffs.

	Games	PPG	eFG%	APG
Leonard	59	28.8	.564	4.5
Curry	65	27.7	.560	5.8

If the offensive stats are this close, then it would make sense that Leonard has the edge in overall performance because of his advantage on defense.

But there is one more point to consider before settling this debate.

How Curry's Gravity Complicates Peer Comparisons

Curry's gravity may be the trump card of all trump cards.

Keep in mind that every Curry stat you've read in this article came against defenses that faceguarded Curry 40 feet from the basket and blitzed him most of the time he was ball-handling off a screen.

The way he is defended opens up scoring opportunities for his teammates that, when converted, often don't result in Curry getting better box score numbers.

Everyone agrees that Curry's gravity deserves some consideration in peer comparisons, but how much varies from one individual to the next.

Based on the following stats, Curry might be slightly undervalued in these debates.

In his last four postseason series, the Warriors have been bad to almost historical levels on offense with Curry off the floor, but they've won three of those series because they have been way better with Curry on the floor.

In each of Golden State's four championship runs, Curry led his team in playoff Estimated Plus Minus. Part of the allure of EPM is using on/off data to help assign player value, which means it is at least partially accounting for the impact of Curry's gravity.

Curry's career playoff EPM of plus-5.4 is just ahead of Leonard's at plus-5.0.

Verdict

It's very close.

Both have a playoff run—Curry's in 2022; Leonard's in 2019—that will be romanticized for decades to come.

Both have dominant playoff records, as Curry is 104-51 and Leonard is 90-56, with Leonard holding an 8-5 lead in head-to-head games.

That Curry has two more championships doesn't move me much. Playing with Durant, Thompson, Green and Iguodala for two of those titles gave Curry an advantage he took advantage of, but it doesn't necessarily make him a better playoff performer than Leonard.

We have to settle this somehow, so here are two things that give Curry the nod.

First, what Curry did in the 2022 Finals against one of the betters defenses in recent history gives him the edge in the peak playoff performance category. Leonard has had some amazing highs, including with the Raptors against the 76ers and with the Clippers against the Mavericks—but they don't top Curry's series against the Celtics.

The other point is that Curry is one tier above Leonard offensively. This isn't to say that Leonard doesn't get double-teamed or face wonky defenses, but ultimately Leonard doesn't create as much offense as Curry.

Leonard's defense closes the gap, but not enough for me.

We may never see these two match up in the playoffs again, so let's savor this play-in game matchup. By virtually any metric, these are two of the four best playoff performers from players drafted between 1998 and 2012.

Expect both to go off like have so many times over the years.

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