Golden State Warriors: 10 Steps To Winning A Championship

2. Stephen Curry’s Evolution

We can talk about how Kerr was the right hire after the surprising decision to ax Jax. We can talk about the major steps that Thompson, Green and Barnes took this season and we can talk about Golden State’s impressive depth. From home-court advantage to ball movement to everyone knowing their role, the Dubs had all the makings of a fundamentally sound team.

But without league MVP Stephen Curry, none of it would’ve mattered.

We all knew Curry was good heading into the 2014-15 season. We knew he was an All-Star, a fantastic shooter and one of the best point guards in the league. What we didn’t realize was that Curry was some freakily unfair reincarnation of Steve Nash, Pete Maravich and Ray Allen all in one.

Curry will go down as the greatest shooter in NBA history (if he’s somehow not already there) and his emergence as an MVP-caliber player was fundamental in elevating the Golden State Warriors to greatness.

His potency was evident on a nightly basis for the league’s best team. In fact, he and the rest of Golden State’s starting five were so dominant that Curry’s already impressive numbers (23.8 PPG, 7.7 APG, 4.3 RPG, 2.0 SPG, .487/.443/.914 shooting, 28.0 PER) actually suffered for it, since the Warriors often got to rest their starters in the fourth quarter because they were sitting on a double-digit lead.

But in addition to the strides he made defensively, Curry was the league’s most unguardable player. The Warriors outscored their opponents by 920 points with Curry on the floor this season (163 in the playoffs), and the attention defenses had to pay him opened things up for the rest of Golden State’s roster.

Curry’s unbelievable handle and having the NBA’s quickest shot release allowed him to break any defender down off the dribble and make the kinds of shots you only dream about during your hottest heat check. In pick and roll situations, double-teaming him didn’t work because he’d find the roll man, who would be more than capable of working the ensuing 4-on-3 for a quality look.

Even off the ball, Curry was a flurry of movement who could run his man through a hellacious series of screens to free himself up for catch-and-shoot looks, which essentially always amounted to three points or a pump fake leading to an easy layup.

Curry was not only capable of scoring himself, but he was the league’s most devastating offensive player because of how much offensive he created even when he wasn’t directly involved.

He may not have won the NBA Finals MVP Award because of his slow start to the series, but he still averaged 26 points, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game on 38.5 percent three-point shooting in the Finals. For the entire playoffs, he stepped up his production to 28.3 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game on .456/.422/.835 shooting splits…against some brutal competition:

He broke defenses’ backs and opponents’ wills with a number of devastating threes, he shattered the NBA record for most made three-pointers in a single postseason (98) and when his team needed him most in Games 4-6 of the NBA Finals, he responded 22 points, 37 points and 25 points to close out the series.

Without Curry taking that MVP step this season, none of this happens. It’s been rare throughout the course of NBA history that a team can win it all without a franchise superstar. We knew Curry was a franchise superstar, but he proved that not only can you win a championship with an undersized point guard as your best player, but that you can do it with Stephen Curry being that guy too.

Next: No. 1