Stephen Curry’s Otherworldly Rampage Toward Another MVP
By Ti Windisch
Stephen Curry is in a league of his own right now, and proving that he is the best player in the NBA.
Nobody is on Stephen Curry‘s level right now. The Golden State Warriors‘ star point guard won his first Most Valuable Player award last season thanks to being the best player on the best team–the Warriors won 67 games on the back of the best defense and second-best offense in the NBA, and Curry was the one leading the charge.
There was a large contingency of NBA personalities and fans who believe James Harden should have won that award instead. After all, Curry had the stronger supporting cast and thus wasn’t tasked with doing as much for his team as Harden, who carried the injury-plagued Houston Rockets all the way to the Western Conference Finals.
Many believed that although Curry was the best on his team, he was not the best in the NBA. Cases for Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and Harden claimed that they were better and did more for their teams than Curry did for Golden State.
It seems as though Curry has grown tired of that sentiment. No longer content with simply being the best player on the beat team in the NBA, Curry now has asserted himself as the best player in the entire Association, who also happens to play on the best team.
After leading an unbelievable comeback over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, Curry increased his league-leading points per game average to 34.2–some 5.2 points per game better than Harden, ironically.
Every single advanced statistic agrees that Stephen Curry is the best player on Earth right now. He leads the NBA in player efficiency rating (34.87, which would be the best single-season PER recorded in NBA history), value added, and estimated wins added.
Only three players currently sport a better true shooting percentage than Curry, and none of them shoot or score even close to his volume. Curry deserves to lead that category too: Montrezl Harrell, Jeremy Evans and Joe Ingles all score less than five points per game, making their efficiency far less impressive than Stephen Curry’s.
Much of that sky-high true shooting percentage comes from beyond the arc. Curry’s range is what made him so unstoppable last season, when he broke the record for most three-point shots made in both the regular season and playoffs at a very efficient 44 and 42 percent clip of making triples, respectively.
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The truly terrifying part for the other 29 teams in the Association is that Curry isn’t just as good as last season at burying three-point shots–he’s far better. Curry is on pace to break his own regular season record by the All-Star break, according to Matt Moore over at CBS Sports.
Stephen Curry has placed himself above of the rest of the players in the National Basketball Association. That much seems obvious at this point. He’s doing things that have never been done before–not even by himself.
Curry also just so happens to be leading a Golden State team that are somehow managing to be both the reigning champions and the hungriest team in the Association, as confirmed by LeBron.
The Warriors are on pace to beat their historic win total from last season–obviously they won’t go 82-0, but the Dubs are 13-0 so far through some real tests. Their win over Los Angeles on Thursday night was by far the biggest challenge for the Warriors, and they remained undefeated through it.
It’s not what Curry did during the dismantling of the Clippers that proves he’s going to collect that second MVP. It’s what he said afterward that confirmed Stephen Curry isn’t about to step down from atop the NBA anytime soon.
"I’ve got to be a lot better than I was tonight. The stats look good, but I’ve got to play better…I hold myself to a higher standard."
Curry ended the night with 40 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and seven turnovers. He shot 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from beyond the arc, while making all 12 of his free throws. While he did turn the ball over too much, that doesn’t stop those numbers from being remarkable.
If Stephen Curry holds himself to a higher standard than 40/11/4/3 on 50/43/100 shooting, there’s no telling what he’s really capable of. As great as he already is, Curry still has the potential to get even better.
Next: Stephen Curry: Top 10 Moments From His MVP Season
The one thing to be sure of about Curry is that it’s going to be a whole lot of fun watching him figure it his ceiling while he breaks his own records this season. As of right now, Curry has no real competition preventing him from continuing his reign as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.