This a response to Joseph Crevier's column titled "Stephen Curry is overrated."
After winning the 2015 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors have taken the basketball world by storm this season, opening the season with 24-straight wins while racing out to a 52-5 record thus far. With Saturday's overtime win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors became the first team to clinch a playoff berth in February since the 1987-88 Los Angeles Lakers, a team that featured all-time greats Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
While the Warriors are great as a team, they are led by the play of 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player Steph Curry, who is the runaway favorite to take the award again this season. Curry, son of former NBA player Dell Curry, is averaging 30.7 points per game this season, which isn't simply due to being a volume shooter. Curry converts a high rate of shots as well, ranking second in the league among guards, less than a tenth of a percentage point behind San Antonio's Tony Parker, with a 51.5 field goal percentage and third in the league among qualifying players in three point percentage, converting 46.8 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. Curry is leaned on by his team far more than Parker — or San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers' J.J. Redick, who are ahead of Curry on the three-point percentage chart — which makes his percentages all the more impressive.
While he also excels in the paint, particularly when you account for his size, Curry is known for his dominance from three-point land. In Saturday's win, the three-time all-star broke his own NBA record for made threes in a season with 288 (the previous record was 286). Oh, and Curry's 272 threes in 2012-13 rank third on the all-time list as well. To make the record more impressive, Curry has attempted 31 fewer shots from deep than he did in his record-breaking campaign last year, not to mention the fact that there are 25 games to play in the season. At his current rate, assuming he does not miss a game for the rest of the season, Curry will surpass 400 made threes this season, an absolute mind-blowing number considering no player had ever reached 300 before.
Curry's production is made all the more impressive by his slight frame. At just 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Curry's ability to weave around power forwards and centers around the rim is phenomenal, as his creativity often prevents his shots from getting turned away. "Chef Curry" has a set of skills never before seen in the NBA. In addition to being an elite shooter, Curry has exceptional ball-handling skills, makes phenomenal passes, and is a great finisher around the rim. Curry also has incredible range, which was on display yet again Saturday with his game-winner from well beyond 30 feet. Shots that would prompt most coaches to pull a player immediately seem to go in every time, and coach Steve Kerr simply can't be upset with his star taking long shots, as he converts them at such a high rate. There is simply no question: Steph Curry's
Note: All statistics are updated as of Monday prior to Golden State's matchup with the Atlanta Hawks.