Created by: Carter McGee & Evan Berger Stephen Curry entered the NBA in 2009 during a time when general managers looked for point guards with insane athleticism and speed as fast as lighting. Twelve years later, general managers are now looking for point guards who can shoot the ball from deep. No one in the league fully understood the impact the 3-ball had until Stephen Curry stepped in. Curry reminds me of the character Matt Damon played in the movie Good Will Hunting, as he’s the guy who solved a problem with a unique solution that other students couldn’t understand at the time. Curry’s style of play set new standards in the game of basketball, as he has single handedly altered the way NBA point guards have played, with more and more players continuing to focus on their ability to shoot the three ball. When people think of Curry, they generally only think of his shooting ability and the impact he has left on the game, but they fail to recognize that he is possibly the greatest to ever play the point guard position. In this article, we will make our case for Stephen Curry as the greatest point guard in NBA History. A Statistical Look at the Shooting Ability of Stephen Curry Stephen Curry currently leads the NBA with the most three pointers made of all time with 3,248 and he’s not done yet. Curry believes that he can keep playing basketball for at least four more years, which is the duration of his contract. Statistically, Curry has averaged 3.8 threes per game and if he stays healthy and continues to play at this rate for four more years, he will end his career with around 4,495 threes made. Ray Allen is ranked 2nd in all time threes made with 2,973 and if he stays at second by the time Curry retires, the difference between threes made between the two will be a whopping 1,522… safe to say Curry will hold the record for years to come. Not only does Curry hold the record for most three pointers made all time, but he also has the record for most in a season at 402. No other NBA team in the first 15 seasons after the three-point shot was created made more threes than that in a season. When looking at the all-time three-point percentage leaders, Curry currently ranks 11th while shooting 42.8% from the outside, but he’s also attempting 8.9 threes per game. On the other hand, Steve Kerr, who leads NBA history in three-point shooting percentage at 45.4%, only attempted 1.8 threes per game and this low volume of three pointers attempted per player is seen through the rest of the list. It’s safe to say that if Curry only shot around 2 threes per game, he would have the highest three-point percentage by a huge margin. Additionally, most of the players ranked higher than Curry are spot-up shooters. For example, Seth Curry, who is ranked third in three-point shooting percentage at 43.9%, was a spot-up shooter 27% of the time in the 2015-2016 season while shooting 2.5 threes per game. Stephen Curry on the other hand only spotted up 9.1% of the time during the same season and shot 11.2 threes per game. The way Stephen Curry gets his three pointers is so much more different than the rest of the players that have played in the league and that is what makes him so great. While Curry doesn’t have the highest 3-point percentage of all time, he is the most efficient shooter of any non-center. He has a career true shooting percentage, a measure of shooting efficiency, of .6258. This may not tell you that much at first glance, but when looking at the all-time leaders this puts him at 6th in the history of the league. Every player above him is a center, which has a major advantage shooting most of their shots at or around the rim. The next closest non-center is Kevin Durant at 9, and then you have to go down to 13 to find the second most efficient guard in Reggie Miller. In the 2021-2022 season Steph avoided major injuries but missed 18 games with various minor injuries or by taking games off. Even with those missed games, he still led the league with 285 three pointers shooting at a 38% clip. This was 23 threes higher than the second-place finisher Buddy Hield, who only missed 1 game all year. To say that Stephen Curry is the greatest shooter of all-time is an understatement. He is in a completely different universe. Stephen Curry’s Superior Finishing Skills (Carter) Everyone knows that Stephen Curry is one of the greatest shooters of all time, but what they don’t know is that Curry is just as elite at attacking the rim. To support Curry’s superior finishing skills, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor has tracked each player's single-season points per possession on drives to the rim from the last ten years. Curry tallied 1.28 PPP (points per possession) on drives to the rim in the 2017-2018 season, which is the fifth highest number recorded by a player in a season since 2013. The only players ranked higher than him consist of Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Additionally, Curry and only four other players - Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Kevin Durant - have recorded 1.2 points per drive more than once since 2013. Teams playing against Curry want to run him off the 3-point line, but when they overextend their defense, Curry flashes right through them off the dribble and disciplines them by using unique layups and floaters. Furthermore, rather than dunking and manhandling people in the paint, Curry finishes with graceful precision around the rim and this has led him to become one of the most efficient players while finishing. To say that Curry is only a shooter is a huge understatement, as he is just as powerful finishing under the rim than the best interior finishers in the league. Stephen Curry’s Overlooked Playmaking Skills Through his elite shooting and finishing Curry is an all-time great at scoring the ball, but he is also great at creating opportunities for his teammates. The first aspect of this is his court vision and passing ability. Steph has great composure and vision with the ball which leads to him finding teammates in positions most other players couldn’t. While his assist numbers don’t necessarily jump off the screen, averaging 6.5 assists per game in his career, he is a very underrated playmaker with the ball in his hands. That said, where he is probably the most impactful for getting his teammates open is his movement off the ball. On every offensive possession Steph is constantly moving. Whether it is moving from corner to corner, setting screens, or even just trying to shake the defender you will rarely see Steph standing still. This along with his constant shooting threat draws defenses to him at the three-point line. As multiple defenders commit to Steph, it leaves one of his teammates open for a shot inside or an open 3. Because of this, his assists don’t measure his full playmaking ability and his ability to elevate his teammates' play. Stephen Curry’s Underrated Defensive Skills For all his career there has been a stigma that Curry is a liability on the defensive end of the court, but he has continued to prove that this isn’t true. Going into the NBA, Curry faced lots of criticism for his frame being 6 foot 2 and weighing 172 pounds. Many analysts believed that he was just too small to play good quality defense against opposing point guards. In his first few years he was an around league average defender, which any team would take combined with his offensive prowess. As he got a better feel for the game, he made unnoticed improvements to his defensive abilities every year. In the 2014-2015 season, his first MVP season, he put up a 101 defensive rating, which was first out of all PGs in the NBA that year. Weirdly, this wasn’t talked about by anyone in the media and most fans still considered him a subpar defender. He has continued this above average defensive play including being second in defensive rating for PGs just last season. Some of these stats may be due to him being matched up against the worst offensive guard on a team having great defenders in Thompson and Green to pick up the star player. That said, he’s been able to get it done on the defensive end in big games including a 12-steal effort in the finals series last year. Overall, he may not be an all-defensive type of player, but he is for sure a positive on that side of the court. Stephen Curry’s Resume Stephen Curry’s historic resume goes on and on, but here are some of the major accomplishments he's achieved that separate him from the rest of the players in his position:
Additionally, there have been 29 instances throughout NBA history in which a player has shot at least 50 percent from the field, at least 40 percent from 3-point range and at least 90 percent from the free-throw line. Of those 29 instances, Curry has the most points recorded in a 50-40-90 season by a player, as he averaged 30.1 points per game in 2015-16.
Other Point Guards in Contention with Curry
Accolades: 3 MVP’s, 5 NBA Titles, 12 All Star Appearances, 9 Time All NBA First Team
Accolades: 1 MVP, 1 NBA Title, 12 All Star Appearances, 9 Time All NBA First Team Why Curry’s Resume Puts Him Above the Rest/Conclusion: While Oscar Robertson had an amazing career and is absolutely worthy of the three spot, the top point guard honors really comes down to Steph and Magic. By the end of this year both will have played 12 mostly full seasons, so comparing their accolades is for sure fair. An argument for Magic can be made as he has one more final win and one more MVP, but every championship season he has had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on his team. Kareem, in my opinion, is a top 3 player all time and was the better player in over half of those championships. Maybe this isn’t completely fair, as Steph also had a top team all time for his first few championships. That said, his 2022 finals proved he could put a team on his back in route to a chip. In this series, Steph averaged 31 points 5 rebounds and 6 assists, with the second highest scorer on the Warriors only averaging 18. This silenced many of his doubters who attributed his championships to Kevin Durant and the rest of the Warriors team and believed that Steph was bad in the clutch. With this performance most of the reasons you would rank Magic over Steph are gone. Some people may bring up playmaking and defense when creating a Magic narrative. That said, Magic’s defense has become overrated over time as defensive metrics have Magic as a good but not great defender. Also, as seen earlier in this article Steph’s defense is above average and playmaking with and without the ball is elite. At the end of the day, both Steph and Magic have put up careers worthy of this top point guard spot. Deciding between the two is obviously difficult as they are very close in MVP’s, championships, and all-star appearances. The ultimate separator when it comes to this decision is the way Steph has changed the game. All throughout NBA history, scoring was focused on the mid-range and around the rim. Steph’s 3-point shooting ability revolutionized the game as every team in the league putting up 3’s at a clip that was unseen before. Young aspiring hoopers practice three after three at ranges, maybe too far for their skill, in the hope to follow in Steph’s footsteps. This legacy will continue far past Steph’s time in the league and cements him as the greatest point guard to ever step onto an NBA court.
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