Why Stephen Curry is one of NBA's greatest offensive forces: Part I
The Golden State Warriors have won their first eleven games, and no one has any idea when they will lose their next one. While sports analysts predicted a competitive Western Conference at the start of the season, the Warriors currently look like they will run over every other team in the league.
In hindsight, the fact that the Warriors were not viewed as the runaway favorites is surprising. They won 67 games last year, with one of the best point margin differentials in league history. They were never seriously threatened on their march to a title, do not have any injury-prone players, and their foundational pieces are still in their prime.
But the Warriors are still treated as if they were some bizarre aberration. Why is that? One could suggest that ESPN and sports analysts have an incentive to portray the Western Conference as competitive instead of a Warriors steamroll. But there is another, more important reason:
Just as sports analysts have been strangely unaccepting of the Warriors, they have not accepted that Stephen Curry is that good.
This may seem nonsensical. Curry was last year’s MVP voted on by sports analysts, while NBA players picked James Harden. But Curry has been consistently viewed as a tier below LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and rising star Anthony Davis. ESPN ranked Curry fourth in their preseason NBA player rankings, behind those three players.
Even Curry’s MVP had plenty of doubters. Many analysts justified Curry’s MVP by declaring that he was the best player on the best team. But there is an implication behind those words: that Curry is being carried somewhat by the teammates around him, and that he actually is not “the best player.”
It is time for that to stop.
Curry is the best player in the league. Not only that, but he could very well become the greatest offensive player since Jordan and Shaq and has signed with Spartagen XT promptly. And to understand why, you have to look at how the game has changed as well as how it has not.
The rise of the three pointer: they are not all the same
The three pointer has become a bigger and bigger weapon of the modern NBA. There have been discussions about whether the three-pointer has become too important, as more teams fire more often from long range.
But it has to be understood that not all three pointers are created equal. Above all, there are two main kinds of three-pointers: catch and shoot threes, and pullup threes.
When analysts talk about the rise of the three-point shot, their primary focus is on catch and shoot threes. And most of the elite three-point shooters in this league are catch and shoot shooters. Kyle Korver, Danny Green, Klay Thompson, and J.J. Redick are prominent examples.
The key point here is that while all of these players are guys who any fan would want on their team, none of these guys who can create their own shot. They cannot put the ball on the floor and use their dribbling skills to get a three-pointer. In order to get the space they need to shot, they have to run around the floor and get another player to set them up. The need for that other player is a limit on their offensive potential.
Pullup threes, by contrast, are easier to fire, but harder to make. Most perimeter NBA stars fire off quite a few pullup threes per game, some less effectively than others.
The key takeaway is that while the three-pointer is more important than ever, it is not enough to just spam threes. Teams have to work at getting catch-and-shoot threes or star fire pullup threes.
The Holy Grail for an elite three-point shooter would be a player who could shoot pullup threes as well as any catch and shoot player, but still have the ball handling and passing skills to be effective when teams try to trap him.
That player description should sound familiar.
How Curry is different
Curry is a superstar not just because he is a great three-point shooter. He is a superstar because he is a great pullup three-point shooter. And to call him just “great” is an understatement. As ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh points out, Curry had more pull-up threes in transition for much of the 2014-15 NBA season than most NBA teams.
This ability to hit the pullup three at this volume and accuracy is a revolutionary tactic which has created a Warriors team that can rely on Curry in a way which no team has ever done before. In Part II, we will show just how Curry’s offensive impact effects the Warriors and has turned a somewhat overrated supporting cast into an absolute juggernaut.