The Best Young Backcourts In The NBA

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors

Year-to-Year PER
Stephen Curry: 16.3 – 19.4 – 21.2 – 21.3 – 24.1. Rank 10th
Klay Thompson: 14.9 – 12.7 – 14.3. Rank 156th

This is the premier backcourt in the NBA right now. Curry and Thompson together are statistically the best shooting backcourt in NBA history, combining for 42 percent from downtown on 14.3 attempts per game; a combination of volume and efficiency that is unmatched. The Golden State Warriors already have an insanely good team that should be able to contend if healthy for years to come. As I detailed in my piece about 3-point shooting, Stephen Curry is an absolute game plan destroyer. When he is in pick and roll you can’t chase him but have to trap every pick and roll on the ball or else this happens.

The guy shoots better than 41 percent on these, with a quick trigger that is unmatched. The way defenses usually play this is by sinking down to the foul line to contain penetration or hedging a bit to slow down the ball handler. That stuff is useless against Curry and if you trap him he is fantastic at hitting David Lee or Andrew Bogut down the line, both of whom are wonderful passers and can make the next play. Unguardable.

He’s a wonderful passer, but can get turnover prone, opting for fancy passes and trying to thread the needle when there’s a simpler play to be made. The one thing Curry can really get better at is defense, and finding a balance of how much energy he expends on each side of the floor.

Contrary to popular belief he isn’t horrible on defense, and Klay Thompson is a wonderful backcourt mate for him since he’s an elite perimeter defender and can handle difficult point guard match ups. Curry does get inattentive at times, especially when he’s forced to expend energy and run after guys who can shoot coming off of screens. Something good teams with the right personnel have taken advantage of.

Thompson is the kind of elite shooter whose actual efficiency numbers suffer for the same reason as Bradley Beal; he’s a pretty high volume player who doesn’t get to the line much. He’s not a player who can work as the pick and roll ball handler, beyond getting a pick after catching the ball when coming off of down screens, where he can take one dribble and pull up.

But what he is, is a top notch perimeter defender. Thompson is extremely smart and understand angles and where to force his man. He does a fantastic job of using his size and is strong enough to keep his man out of the paint. Thompson is probably one of the more underrated players in the league. Make no doubt about it he is amazing and the perfect complement to Steph on the perimeter.

The Warriors like to post up Thompson sometimes, especially on mismatches with smaller guys, and while he doesn’t dazzle with his moves he does have a nice turnaround fade that he can go to and shoot over the top of the defender. Thompson just needs to grown in small tangible ways, perhaps becoming a bit better at handling the ball and getting to the lane when the ball gets swinged to him to diversify his arsenal. Like I said earlier having two ball handlers who can penetrate is very useful in the modern NBA, as teams overload the strong side and there’s a lot of help on the ball handler.

That’s not Thompson game really, but is something he can slowly improve on.