It’s never an easy job to defend any NBA star. However, former Atlanta Hawks star guard Jeff Teague revealed who he prefers to defend between Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving. During his time in the league, Teague experienced what it feels like to guard both stars. When he emerged as a star in 2015, Curry and Irving were part of discussions as to which was the better player.
Neither player plays the traditional way of facilitating in the offense. Given their offensive prowess, they frequently try to score in the hoop. Irving would toy with his defenders with how he handles the ball and his elite shot-making. The former Duke star often produces highlight plays with the way he evades his defenders using his ball-handling skills.
Curry, on the other hand, would tire his defenders with his consistent movement without the basketball. The four-time champion rarely gets tired as he’s always running around the court, finding open spaces.
During a recent episode of his show, “Club 520 Podcast,” Teague revealed that he prefers to guard Irving over Curry.
“They’re both tough covers, but I’d rather guard Kyrie [Irving],” Teague said. “At least you know where Kyrie’s going to be. You going to catch him right at that pass, wherever he’s going to be at in ISO. You look one way, Steph takes off the other. And then you got to catch up. He just causes too much havoc once he moves.
“Steph is constantly moving, hitting through screens,” Teague continued. “You’re scared of him hitting a 3, so you don’t want to go out there, but you’ve got to be locked in for sure.”
The former Atlanta Hawks said Russell Westbrook “normalized” triple-doubles
When it comes to triple-doubles, most fans think about one player, Russell Westbrook. The nine-time All-Star first averaged the historic stat for the entire season during the 2016-17 campaign. This earned him the regular-season MVP. Following that, the explosive guard averaged triple-doubles in the next two seasons and once more during the 2020-21 season when he was with the Washington Wizards.
For Westbrook, collecting triple-doubles has become so commonplace that most fans tend to overlook it. The former Atlanta Hawks guard explained that Westbrook “normalized” achieving the stat line.
“He made that look too normal,” Teague said. “The fact that we just blow past the fact somebody averaged a triple-double for four straight years and they’re a point guard and we like ‘Yeah, like what?'”
“That s**t is crazy, I never even had a triple-double in my life. I didn’t have one triple-double. For somebody who played for 12 years and started for nine of those. I didn’t get close.”
It just showed that Westbrook was a hard worker and unstoppable during his prime.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
