Steph Curry landed at No. 17 on our preseason NBA99, ranking the 99 best players in the NBA as the 2026-27 season begins. LeBron James was one spot behind him, at No. 18. Check out the rest of the list here.

If Family Feud did a round about the most influential NBA players of the last two decades, I'd be willing to wager that the survey has LeBron James and Stephen Curry as its top two most common answers.

Since 2012, eight of the 15 NBA Championships have been won by either Curry or James, with 10 of those Finals at least featuring one of the two future Hall of Famers.

Overall, it's clear that James has had the better career. However, recently, it seems that Curry has leapfrogged James in the league hierarchy (as evidence by our NBA 99 Rankings). This may not make sense to everyone, especially since James is still operating at such a high level, but that's why we are about to lay out the case right now.

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Why Stephen Curry is better than LeBron James right now

First off, Curry is three years younger than James, which, once you get passed 30, is a huge advantage in basketball. But more than that, the data also favors Curry.

For starters, Estimated Plus-Minus, the best publicly available one-number metric on the market, Curry ranked seventh in the NBA, while James was down all the way at 106th (per Dunks & Threes).

Both of them graded out as slightly above-average defenders. The big discrepancy was their offensive impact. EPM still sees Curry as one of the best offensive players on the planet (eighth), while James is just above average (104th).

Neither one of them can still be a heliocentric star on a high-level offense. Fortunately for Curry, that is never what his game was predicated on. Don't get me wrong, he can handle a ton of usage. But most of Curry's value has always derived on his ability to leverage his off-ball shooting gravity into open buckets for himself and his teammates. As long as Curry can still shoot and run around like a marathon runner, he will always be a top tier offensive threat.

As for James, despite his incredible IQ and athleticism, he's never been someone who really thrives playing off the ball. We saw this when James seemingly turned back the clock in a vintage first round victory over the Houston Rockets, where he was able to go back to his ball-dominant ways with Luka Dončić out for the entire series.

The problem is that James-ball doesn't hit the same way it used to. This was clear by the way the Oklahoma City Thunder -- a far superior defense to the Rockets -- were able to shut down the Los Angeles Lakers' offense with James at the helm (holding them to the third-lowest offensive rating of the eight teams that made the second round).

Too be fair to James, him and Dončić were not the ideal fit. Their shared strengths and weaknesses created a lot of redundancy that made it hard for their team to field truly balanced lineups. I wouldn't say the Philadelphia 76ers are a perfect team for him, but at least they don't have someone who holds the ball as much as Dončić.

Still, even with this adjustment (and a little Curry regression), it is clear that The Chef is superior to The King at this point in time.