With Jackson gone, Curry finds room to operate

Normally, I'd make this a fanshot, but what I was going to write was a bit too big for a fanshot.

(Rusty Simmons) With Jackson gone, Curry finds room to operate

With Jack gone, Rusty thinks Curry has deferred less, been more aggressive, pushed the pace, and scored more.

Other note: Nellie was sick, and might not travel with the team to @Mavs and @Spurs.

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Personal note: Although Rusty attributes Curry's newfound aggressiveness to the absence of Jack, looking at Curry's game log, it looks like he's been more aggressive since the Bucks game, which was Jack's last game here, and coincidentally, was the game where we first played like a real team. Also note that this was the game right after Curry only played 3 minutes @Knicks.

When I wrote my comment after the Bucks game, I was wondering what happened to this team between the Knicks game and the Bucks game to cause such a dramatic change in the team style of play. After looking at Curry's game log, I now have a fun little theory.

Remember after the Knicks game, Curry said he was going to "politely ask the coaches" about his reduction in minutes and his change of roles to the bench? This is my theory on how that conversation went:

Curry: Hey coach. Why am I on the bench?
Nellie: You're not aggressive. You don't shoot like I told you to.
Curry: But Jack, Monta, and Maggette are out there, and they need the ball first.
Nellie (roaring loudly): Look, if you don't f-ing shoot the ball, you're staying on the bench! You got that???
Curry: Yes, sir!

Obviously, I'm poking fun at one of Matt Barnes old KNBR interviews when he was on with the Razor and Mr T. From what I remember, they asked Barnes what he thought of Nellie when Barnes first showed up to training camp without a contract back in 2006. Barnes talked about Nellie's offensive freedom, and he said at one practice, he had a 3 pt look, but passed it up. Nellie got in his face and yelled "If you don't f-ing shoot the ball...", Nellie was going to bench him, or pull him out of the game, or kick him out of camp, or something like that. (I forgot the rest of that quote.) That was a total surprise to Barnes to see the level of offensive freedom and aggressiveness Nellie wants.

While that was fun to make up, it wouldn't surprise me if a conversation along those lines actually took place. Remember that among all the players, Curry has been the one that seems to "get it" as far as running the offense goes and seeing the team as a whole. And around that time, Monta wasn't in the mood to lead the team. So it stands to reason that once Curry got the message to be aggressive, run, push the ball, look for teammates, take his shot when it's there, etc, the other players quickly picked up the message. Hence the sudden turnaround at the Bucks game.

On the other hand, that doesn't explain how the team played well against the Bucks while Curry was still on the bench. Whoops. Oh well. Every fun theory works as long as you blissfully ignore the holes. :)