It seems impossible to say that someone who has already won two NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, including one by unanimous selection, might be having their greatest season ever, but it seems that the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry may well achieve that goal. Going into Sunday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, Curry was the leading scorer not just for Golden State but in the NBA.
Curry’s averaging right around 30 points a game, and the Warriors had the best record in the league at 14-2. They were doing this despite not having either All-Star shooting guard Klay Thompson or starting center James Wiseman back from injuries. Both are due to join the team later this year, a prospect that only makes a top team even stronger. After missing the playoffs the past two seasons, it definitely seems like the Warriors are ready to start dominating again and challenging for another title.
Still, all that is taking a back seat to what Curry’s doing offensively. If he continues at his present pace he will smash all records for three-point shooting. He is attempting in the early season 13.4 three-pointers a game, which is just a bit more than last season, when he set the record for three-point shooting. Last year he hit 5.3 of those a game. This year it’s up to 5.4 Of course some of Curry’s shots may be reduced when Thompson returns, but the team’s success is coming in large point because he’s such a threat from three-point territory.
ESPN analyst J.J. Reddick, himself a prime three-point threat during his playing days, thinks Thompson’s return may lead to more rather than less three-point attempts from Curry.
“So I read this interesting stat. There was like a three-year stretch where the two players that had the most wide-open threes in the NBA were Steph and Klay,” Redick said. “That seems counterintuitive, but the reality is the more shooting you have on the court, especially if you have elite shooters, the better looks you’re going to get.”
If that proves true, then Curry may well shoot even more threes and also make Golden State that much more of a title threat. The one variable in this concerns health. Curry missed nine games last season out of 72. He has played in all but one Golden State game thus far. While it’s doubtful that head coach Steve Kerr plans for him to play all 82, Curry will most like play in 70-75. There was a stretch between 2012 and 2017 when Curry would average 78-80 games a season. But now, yet to sit a game this year. At 33, Curry won’t play 82 games. However, he did have a run of between 2012 and 2017, during which he appeared in 78-80 games annually.
The Warriors also have good shot to get both the top seed in the Western Conference and be number one overall for the league going into the playoffs. Considering that the Warriors once set the league record for wins in a season with 73. Kerr may well extend Curry’s playing time if Golden State continues on its current pace. That in turn would make the probability of Curry shattering all three-point scoring records even higher, assuming he doesn’t have any noticeable slumps.
With fans in other teams’ arenas already serenading Curry with chants of “MVP,” it seems that this year could indeed be a dream season, both personally and for his team.