Stephen Curry's Defense

[picc]

It's underrated.

He's not a full time defender, but he's about as good as you can get for a guy his size who is not all-defense level.

Competes on switches, stuffs passing lanes, stays in front of just about everyone.

Even in the championship "playoff teams just switch-hunt me" era, I noticed it would never work nearly as well as you (or the other team) would think.

[Yoshun]

I agree. He's not an elite defender, but he makes up for his lack of size with quickness and a very high BBall IQ. He's just a smart, quick player.

[BoatsNZones]

It's underrated.

He's not a full time defender, but he's about as good as you can get for a guy his size who is not all-defense level.

Competes on switches, stuffs passing lanes, stays in front of just about everyone.

Even in the championship "playoff teams just switch-hunt me" era, I noticed it would never work nearly as well as you (or the other team) would think.

I would agree that he is about as good on D as you could hope for. He could truly be a sieve on that end and still be a top player (and it would be tough to blame him given how much he exerts offensively... which is very likely more than any player in the game given his mix of on/off ball play), but he commits and is a positive cog in their system. He's also grown stronger and smarter over the past 5-7 years and it is paying dividends. He's actually been very good defensively this season. It's also true that the hunt-Steph approach very seldom works out for teams in the post-season. It serves to tire him out a bit on the offensive end (the Rockets were the most exploitative of this for Harden, and his ISO numbers were tragic V Steph), so it's still their best approach, but it's not exactly the win they're hoping for.

[nfmos]

I agree. He's not an elite defender, but he makes up for his lack of size with quickness and a very high BBall IQ. He's just a smart, quick player.

Also his effort and fitness. I never see him taking plays off on defense or half a$$ing it.

[cdubbz]

I agree. He's not an elite defender, but he makes up for his lack of size with quickness and a very high BBall IQ. He's just a smart, quick player.

Steph has been like this for a few years imo. Always smart in how he positions his body defending. This season he looks much better though.

Not gonna lie, ESPN and Kendrick Perkins constantly clown on his defense. never understood it that 'He doesn't play defense'. He was never a James harden type passive defender. he's always been engaged.

[Strepbacter]

Must be nice to spend your entire prime guarding the weakest perimeter player on the other team. He doesn't even guard star PG's. That's how exploitable he is.

[Edrees]

The Warriors have been an elite defense multiple times the last decade. That doesn't happen if Curry (34.3 mpg career) wasn't at least above average defender at his position.

[mdonnelly1989]

IT sounds like the first half of his career Curry would be rated around a 75-79 defense if Jason Kidd was a 99.

And this year it sounds moere like a 79-84

[a8bil]

Must be nice to spend your entire prime guarding the weakest perimeter player on the other team. He doesn't even guard star PG's. That's how exploitable he is.

By design, that's true, only because they need Steph to be fresh on offense...he runs non-stop. That said, if you read the other posts you'ld acknowledge that other teams game plan to switch onto Steph so it is not true that he's always guarding the weakest perimeter player. He's often matched up against the other team's best players because of switches. It's not a consistent situation, but it happens often in every game.

[ibraheim718]

He's been pretty good defensively for a while now though. He was an atrocious defender his first few years.

[picc]

He's a lot stronger than people think. In those 2016 finals he got switched onto Lebron a LOT, and didn't give up that much ground.

Fast feet. Harden has a hard time getting around him, and he gets around everyone.

If CP, Caruso, Smart, etc. are A-level defensive guards, Curry is solidly B-level.

[dc]

He's definitely improved and I'd say now he's a bit above average, though obviously not elite.

He'll obviously get overpowered our "outathleticized" in some matchups, but he's rarely out of position.

[GeorgeMarcus]

Smart defender and above average playing the passing lanes. A bit below average as a man defender but overall like a 6/10? He's not a liability out there like some people make him out to be

[SweetTouch]

the only reason why the warriors aren't locks for the title is cause of currys defense lol

opposing teams offense revolves on picking on him defensively

[Time for Change]

People say he’s a weak defender because other teams try to attack him, but often I think they’re attacking him not because he’s exploitable but because they’re trying to tire him out so he won’t kill them so badly on the other end.

[whatisacenter]

He has added more muscle the past few years and is trying harder on defense. He is not great on D but much better than in 2015.

[picc]

People say he’s a weak defender because other teams try to attack him, but often I think they’re attacking him not because he’s exploitable but because they’re trying to tire him out so he won’t kill them so badly on the other end.

They were attacking him, because the alternative options were attacking Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant.

[celticfan42487]

Yup, it was always a joke criticism to say his defense was bad.

[DaPessimist]

He's a solid defender. If we're talking just PG's, he's probably above average.


The only reason people consider him a bad defender is because opposing teams target him for various reasons. During the last few titles runs, he was on the court with Klay, Iggy, KD, and DrayGod... who would you target? Also, some teams attempt to wear him down or get him in foul trouble by attacking him on defense.

[og15]

Must be nice to spend your entire prime guarding the weakest perimeter player on the other team. He doesn't even guard star PG's. That's how exploitable he is.

Even if he was generally a good defender, why would a coach decide that it makes more sense to have him guard opposing star PG's (who themselves might not be guarding him) when they have the option of guys like Klay and Iguodala who do less on offense and are bigger and superior defenders? Why would I waste Iguodala or Klay Thompson on Matt Barnes and have Curry guarding Chris Paul for example?

Yea, Curry has had a good set up, but that's credit to the Warriors.

Generally when teams have their star PG who does a lot guarding opposing star PG's, it is out of necessity as it generally makes more sense to preserve their energy, and if they are a very good defender, use them in critical moments or if another defender is getting torched.

The Clippers for example had Chris Paul always guarding opposing top PG's, but then most of the game he's being guarded by the opposition SG or SF while the PG rested on Matt Barnes. The Clippers did this mainly because neither Redick or Barnes could guard PG's effectively.

If the Clippers had starting SG and SF's that could guard PG's, even if Paul was a better defender than that player overall, but they were good enough, why would they have Paul who does so much on offense also take on so much defensive responsibility?