NBA: Can You Win It All With Stephen Curry?
By Luke Duffy
I like Stephen Curry; he’s one of my favorite players in the NBA to watch on any given night. He’s potentially the smoothest, most effortless shooter of a basketball I have ever seen, despite the fact I’ll always have a soft spot for Jesus Shuttlesworth and his perfect form.
All of this needs to be said here and now, before we get into the meat of this conversation, because not all of what I will say from this moment on will be good. You probably won’t agree with all that I’m about to say, and in some ways I’m happy about that.
But I don’t think a team can win a championship with Stephen Curry as the No. 1 guy on a team.
This season, the Golden State Warriors point guard is having the best season of his career. In his sixth year in the league, he’s been at the forefront of all of the good things the Warriors have done, and his recent 40-point demolition job of the Miami Heat was further proof that this team is going to be a handful in the playoffs and potentially go very far.
For the season, Curry is averaging 24.2 points and 7.7 assists. Perhaps surprisingly, the assists are not a career high (8.5 last season) and neither is his three-point shooting (45 percent this year, 45.5 percent in 2011-12). However, there is no doubt he is now the star of the show, with most offensive moves running through him.
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Here’s the problem I have with Curry, he’s slight of build, and can’t really defend. For that reason, I have my reservations as to whether he has the ability to truly take over a game on both ends of the court, the way true superstars do.
Now, it’s been highlighted elsewhere before that he has this genius defensive move of setting a screen for a teammate, and then falling over when a much bigger player crashes through his screen, leading to a foul against that player. That’s not flopping by the way, that’s smart basketball.
So I’m not completely knocking his defensive chops, he does make the effort.
But returning to the theme of completely taking over a game, I just think Curry lacks that ability and may always lack it. It’s easy for me to say of course, but he lacks the physical dominance that a LeBron James or even an Anthony Davis already have in their arsenal.
Luckily for him however, Curry seems to be in the perfect place to showcase his talents in the best way on a nightly basis.
With the equally deadly Klay Thompson beside him and tough defensive units like Andre Iguodala (even if he is regressing) and the extremely important to this franchise Andrew Bogut backing him up, Curry is able to play his game while is flawa are well masked.
Safe to say this wouldn’t be the case if he was stuck with an ageing roster like the Brooklyn Nets.
So when I saw that Curry was getting legit MVP consideration one month into the season, I took it with a pinch of salt. Yes, Curry is largely responsible for the hot start this team is off to.
But I also feel that the sets first-year head coach Steve Kerr is running, the injuries/slow starts that have hit some other Western Conference teams and the team chemistry already in place, have been equally responsible. This team knows what it is, and has the added depth off the bench that wasn’t there last season.
Curry is just the spearhead of what is a finely tuned weapon.
Kerr himself has already said how he wouldn’t trade him for any other point guard in the league right now, and that much I can agree with. There’s no question Chris Paul can do more on the court, but this season at least, Curry has been the floor general off to the hottest start.
His ability to pull up from what feels like anywhere from half court is brilliant, it gives defenses no chance when he’s making his shots, which is often. Couple that with the shooting prowess of Thompson, and it’s easy to see why they’re being spoken of as a contender.
For me though, I just don’t think he can be the go to guy on a championship team. Having said that, he’s quickly becoming so good and integral to what his team does, he shouldn’t have to play second fiddle to anybody, so that’s a tricky position to be in.
Remember though, this is the guy who had chronic ankle issues his first couple of seasons in the league, and who as I’ve said before is not a physically intimidating guy. Defences ratchet up more than a couple of notches come playoff time, and to date this has reflected his two years worth of experience in the postseason.
Two years ago, when the Warriors bowed out of the race for Larry O’Brien at the conference semifinal stage to the San Antonio Spurs, Curry’s numbers had taken a hit in some key areas.
His 23 points a game was still an impressive number, but his 38 percent three-point shooting (regular season 42%) and PER rating of 18.8 (regular season 24.1) were both down when things got real.
He was even taking one less shot per contest than he would have done in the regular season, further proof that marking him tight does make him think twice at least about unleashing one of his deadeye efforts.
Listen, Stephen Curry is a great player, and he’s only getting better it seems. He’s the most important player the Warriors have had in years, in that his on court heroics are blended with his media friendly smile.
I just think that he’s helped somewhat by the environment that he is a part of, and as long as this team is built in this way, they will ultimately fall short of their lofty ambitions. Still arguably the most fun team to watch in the league though, and they’ll continue to rack up the regular season wins.