Lunartic wrote:michaelm wrote:Lunartic wrote:
Only a dotard would say Curry is a system player, he IS the system. He's a top-5 player but he has trouble when he doesn't have other offensive weapons to cover for him
He has problems when the recipient of his outlet passes shoots under 20% on open shots, enabling him to be double and triple teamed, particularly when one of the defenders involved is LeBron and he himself is a little hobbled. Giannis has not as yet shown himself to have a completely unstoppable method in the play-offs either. He can't just shoot over anyone at any time like Kevin Durant, who is vulnerable only to poor decision making, whether by himself or by the playmaker or playmakers on his team.
Curry's biggest weakness is his frame/athleticism, he's not able to reliably beat defenders 1v1 or dominate physically the way Giannis/Bron/Kawhi can which takes away a go-to weapon
It is obviously true that not being both big and highly athletic does limit him in some ways, very clearly defensively. Despite this offensively he gets to the rim and scores at a high level of efficiency there because of his handles, vision and the constant threat of him pulling up on a dime and making a shot from just about anywhere. He can go cold as a shooter obviously like anyone else, but less so than inferior shooters ie pretty much everyone. It was not the Cavs' problem of course and credit to them for devising a scheme which negated the version of Curry who turned up to play them, the only one available for them to scheme against of course, but the last thing to come back after the variety of knee injury he had in 2016 is lateral movement, taking away an alternative string to his bow with a third string ie outlet passing denied him by Barnes not being able to hit the proverbial side of a barn. We have actually had a thread about Curry in which it was argued that he was not the GOAT shooter because he doesn't take and make mid range shots at a high enough volume; my view to the contrary was that he doesn't shoot them because it is an inefficient shot for him compared to a 3 point shot or getting to the rim.
I am admittedly a Curry fanboy, but the Curry the OP posited in starting this thread was a fully healthy one; such a beast cannot be relied upon as a constant, something with many consequences both for GSW and a number of players including LeBron and KD.
