Steph Curry Musings

[Lipoli390]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

[thedoper]

Shooting doesn't age and Steph is the greatest shooter ever. He's gonna be a pain to deal with for a while yet.

Well, I certainly agree. My point isn't that he's going to suddenly fizzle out. I just question his ability to sustain elite level play (e.g. top 3 or 4 in the NBA) for more than another year or two.

But yeah, he'll be a lights-out shooter forever.

I agree Q. I think he has solidified himself as an all star for years to come. But I don't see the warriors as a dynasty or Curry to maintain the level he showed in the regular season.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

[Monster]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

Kerr just played Mcadoo solid minutes in the finals with solid results. He has full confidence in Ian Clark. Those guys are RFA though. They have 20 year old Kevin Looney sitting around because they are so loaded but he was a nice young talent they got as a 2nd round pick. They could loss some good young players this offseason in Barnes and Ezeli which could be significant. Or they may be able to plug in a couple cheap title chasing vets or maybe they have a couple young guys that can help them. It's gonna be interesting. They have their picks this year but after that their 1st rounder in 2017 they gave up to get Iggy plus a couple years in a row of 2nd rounders so that hurts a bit.

I don't see any reason why Curry is gonna slow down and not do the things he has been able to do these last 2 years. Heck he got better this year maybe he has another step up to take in part of his game. Maybe he starts dropping dimes next year more like a true PG. the reason to me he might not be a top 3 player is if some other guys step up their game in using Durant Westbrook types AD or even a younger player like Towns. :) to me Curry is gonna be Curry but I think to some extent some guys are gonna catch up to him. That's gonna be a good thing for the league.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

Couple of ways to look at it... yes... top 2 or 3 players. Sure. But that's pretty lofty company there. Does GSW need him at that level to stay among the very elite NBA teams as guys like Green and Thompson hit their primes as well?

Who's the one guy Curry sorta gets compared to? A smaller gifted shooter with a unique open-court style that proved to be successful for a decent run... Steve Nash.

Steve Nash was better in his 30s than he was in his 20s. With today's advancements with nutrition, sleep studies, medicine, strength training, technology, analytics... we're getting close to being able to toss out conventional thinking about aging athletes. Obviously, Father Time will still win. Always. But we're finding out it's possible to hide from him a bit longer than it was for Larry Bird or Jerry West or Elgin Baylor.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

Couple of ways to look at it... yes... top 2 or 3 players. Sure. But that's pretty lofty company there. Does GSW need him at that level to stay among the very elite NBA teams as guys like Green and Thompson hit their primes as well?

Who's the one guy Curry sorta gets compared to? A smaller gifted shooter with a unique open-court style that proved to be successful for a decent run... Steve Nash.

Steve Nash was better in his 30s than he was in his 20s. With today's advancements with nutrition, sleep studies, medicine, strength training, technology, analytics... we're getting close to being able to toss out conventional thinking about aging athletes. Obviously, Father Time will still win. Always. But we're finding out it's possible to hide from him a bit longer than it was for Larry Bird or Jerry West or Elgin Baylor.

Yes, the reason I compared him to Jordan and LeBron is because the season he just had was truly historic. If you look at his WS/48 or PER numbers, there are literally only three or four other players in the last 30 years that have put up similar numbers. Jordan and Lebron each had at least 5 seasons where they were without question the top 2 or 3 players in the world. I don't see Curry doing that.

But yes....He will be very good for very long.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

Couple of ways to look at it... yes... top 2 or 3 players. Sure. But that's pretty lofty company there. Does GSW need him at that level to stay among the very elite NBA teams as guys like Green and Thompson hit their primes as well?

Who's the one guy Curry sorta gets compared to? A smaller gifted shooter with a unique open-court style that proved to be successful for a decent run... Steve Nash.

Steve Nash was better in his 30s than he was in his 20s. With today's advancements with nutrition, sleep studies, medicine, strength training, technology, analytics... we're getting close to being able to toss out conventional thinking about aging athletes. Obviously, Father Time will still win. Always. But we're finding out it's possible to hide from him a bit longer than it was for Larry Bird or Jerry West or Elgin Baylor.

Yes, the reason I compared him to Jordan and LeBron is because the season he just had was truly historic. If you look at his WS/48 or PER numbers, there are literally only three or four other players in the last 30 years that have put up similar numbers. Jordan and Lebron each had at least 5 seasons where they were without question the top 2 or 3 players in the world. I don't see Curry doing that.

But yes....He will be very good for very long.

Ok. Fair enough.

By the way, I don't think anybody even saw Curry being in their class for one or two seasons. So it's all a bonus, basically.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Well, no doubt Curry wildly exceeded any and all expectations. What he did this past season in terms of just shooting the ball may never be seen again. Just cartoonish type of shot making.

The Warriors are a team to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future and probably still will be when or if hopefully our championship window opens up. Having Curry "regress" to a perennial all-star instead of a top 3 player will help. He's between 3 and 7 years older than our core guys, depending on who you count as our core.

[Coolbreeze44]

I like the Nash comparison, I see a lot of similarities. Like many players it's going to come down to relative health. If Steph's ankles hold out I don't see any reason he can't remain elite for 4-5 more years. He doesn't rely on elite athleticism anyway, so losing a step wouldn't necessarily mean a requisite dropoff in his game. He may even get a little better offensively if you can believe that. His defense is just average, so with more experience and guile he should be able to maintain his current level. Chances of winning another MVP are probably less than 50% but he's a top 5 player for a few more years.

[The Rage Monster [enjin:8010341]]

The Cavs have been doing a tremendous job guarding Curry this series. But Steph broke out tonight and led his team to a great road win.

Curry is 28. He'll be an elite player for at least another 5 years barring serious injuries along the way. He doesn't depend on great speed, hops or explosiveness. Those are the abilities that fade first. Instead, Curry's elite caliber play stems from his incredible shooting (unbelievably quick release and great range), great ball-handling, tremendous feel for the game, super high basketball IQ and small-area quickness. Those abilities won't fade between now and his 33rd birthday. Age 32-33 is when you start to see most NBA players show some initial decline. But I could see Curry being an elite player until age 35. That's the age when nearly all NBA players start to fade quickly.

I guess it depends on our definition of elite. My premise with this post is that unlike Jordan or LeBron or even Magic, Curry won't be among the top 2 or 3 players in the league for very long, whereas those guys were in the MVP discussion for 5-7 consecutive years. I'm talking about that level of elite.

Yes, he will be an all-star for years to come, but his skills are not going to get much better and his athletic ability will only get worse (players actually peak physically in their early to mid 20s).

The thing we need to hope for is that the Warriors aren't as successful re-tooling as the Spurs were around Duncan. Green and Thompson still have a lot of strong years left, but Curry will be 29 this time next season. He's only 3 years younger than LeBron!

Couple of ways to look at it... yes... top 2 or 3 players. Sure. But that's pretty lofty company there. Does GSW need him at that level to stay among the very elite NBA teams as guys like Green and Thompson hit their primes as well?

Who's the one guy Curry sorta gets compared to? A smaller gifted shooter with a unique open-court style that proved to be successful for a decent run... Steve Nash.

Steve Nash was better in his 30s than he was in his 20s. With today's advancements with nutrition, sleep studies, medicine, strength training, technology, analytics... we're getting close to being able to toss out conventional thinking about aging athletes. Obviously, Father Time will still win. Always. But we're finding out it's possible to hide from him a bit longer than it was for Larry Bird or Jerry West or Elgin Baylor.

Yes, the reason I compared him to Jordan and LeBron is because the season he just had was truly historic. If you look at his WS/48 or PER numbers, there are literally only three or four other players in the last 30 years that have put up similar numbers. Jordan and Lebron each had at least 5 seasons where they were without question the top 2 or 3 players in the world. I don't see Curry doing that.

But yes....He will be very good for very long.

How long do you think Curry can keep this up?

He's been the top player in the world the last 2 years and maybe a top 3 player the year prior so he needs to keep this up for 2/3 more seasons to reach your 5 season criteria.

We're splitting hairs when it comes to trying to determine the 3rd best player but just for the record this is Curry 2 years ago:
7th in PPG
6th in assists
13th in steals
3rd in rebounds (for PG's)
6th in MVP voting