Stephen Curry has everything, except an NBA Finals MVP award: But did he deserve one?
Stephen Curry has etched his name in NBA history and will be one of the most decorated Hall-of-Fame inductees. He is a seven-time All-Star, two-time MVP and a three-time champion. He shows no signs of letting up after averaging 32 points per game in the 2020-21 campaign.
The only blot on his otherwise immaculate resume is the fact that he has never been presented with the NBA Finals MVP award. Andre Iguodala won in 2015 before Kevin Durant took home the trophy in both 2017 and 2018.
On that note, let's have a look at whether Stephen Curry deserved to win an NBA Finals MVP trophy and why he missed out.
Was Stephen Curry more deserving of the 2015 NBA Finals MVP award than Andre Iguodala?
After leading the Golden State Warriors to the best record in the 2014-15 NBA, Stephen Curry won 100 of the 130 first-place votes for the regular-season MVP award.
Despite averaging 26 points, 6.3 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals in the Finals - similar to his stats during the regular season - Curry received none of the votes for the Finals MVP award. Andre Iguodala, the eventual winner, received ten, while LeBron James received four.
Iguodala won the award for his defensive efforts on LeBron James. He rarely switched off of the four-time champion, and made him work extremely hard for his points, consistently forcing him into tough jumpers.
However, James still finished the series averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists. So how could Iguodala have won it? Well, the Cleveland Cavaliers' efficiency fell off a cliff when Iguodala was on the court guarding LeBron James.
Per 36 minutes when Iguodala wasn't on the sideline, James averaged 26 points, shot at 38% from the field and had a +/- of -9.5. However, when the Warriors forward was benched, the Cavs leader put up 34.9 points, shot at 44% from the field and had a +/- of 16.6.
It wasn't as if Iguodala didn't pitch in offensively either. He averaged 16.3 points and four assists across the series, shooting at 52% from the field.
Although these were potentially series-altering numbers, it's difficult to say whether they made Iguodala worthy of the NBA Finals MVP award that year. In a recent episode of JJ Redick's podcast, The Old Man and the Three, the 37-year-old said that Stephen Curry should have won one of the trophies:
“I was talking to Trevor Ariza, I told him I lucked out and got one Finals MVP. I would rather Steph have it. Ariza told me ‘Hell no!’ I still think Stephen Curry should have got one of those three.”
Overall, it depends on personal preferences and the importance placed on offense and defense. Without Stephen Curry on the court in the final three games, the Golden State Warriors were heavily outscored (-44.8). However, those were also the games in which Iguodala was brought into the starting lineup, and the Dubs won.
It seems surprising that Stephen Curry didn't receive at least a few votes for the NBA Finals MVP award that year. However, Iguodala was ultimately as worthy of winning the award as Curry was. With another panel of voters, perhaps the sharpshooter might have won.
Could Stephen Curry have won the NBA Finals MVP award instead of Kevin Durant?
When Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors, he formed part of a superteam alongside Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Indeed, in their back-to-back title-winning campaigns with Durant, the Warriors lost just once in the 2017 playoffs and only five times the next year. In both NBA Finals series with the Cleveland Cavaliers, they lost just one game.
However, in neither series Stephen Curry was able to take home the NBA Finals MVP award. Instead, Durant won on both occasions, becoming one of only six players in history to win the trophy in consecutive campaigns.
In the 2017 NBA Finals, which the Golden State Warriors won 4-1, there was little argument against Durant winning the MVP award. As we saw in the playoffs this year, Durant was on killer mode. He ended the series averaging 35.2 points and with a staggering shooting split of 55-47-92.
Durant was unrivaled on the court, also pitching in with 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 blocks and a steal per game. Although LeBron James also had an unbelievable series, averaging a statline of 33-12-10, Kevin Durant was the piece the Dubs needed to take revenge on the Cavs for the previous year's disappointment.
Had it not been for his scoring, Stephen Curry may have won the award that year. The Warriors point guard averaged an impressive 26.8 points, 9.4 assists, eight rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. However, even by his high standards, his accuracy was lower than usual, as he connected with only 39% of threes and 44% of field-goal attempts.
In the next campaign, the story was a little different but had the same outcome.
Stephen Curry upped his output, scoring 27.5 points per game in the series sweep, and shot at 41.5% from the deep and 100% from the free-throw line. However, it was in other areas Durant improved, which swayed the votes in his favor.
He scored slightly more than Curry (28.8), but also grabbed 10.8 rebounds, dished out 7.5 assists and blocked 2.3 shots per game as the team's primary rim protector. Durant was also in the 50-40-90 club again, which is staggering, considering the pressure and amount of shots he took in each game.
Therefore, while Stephen Curry was influential in the Golden State Warriors' success at both ends of the court, Durant's clinical shooting on fewer attempts and rim protection set him aside from his teammates and helped him win the Finals MVP award.
The two, alongside Thompson, worked perfectly, and helped create a dynasty in Oakland. While Curry may have felt like he missed out on a chance to win the trophy, he might have been more concerned with helping facilitate Durant's shooting so that they could win another Championship.