Let's Do Curry A Favor

Stephen Curry is having a decent rookie season when you look at his numbers. But if you have actually been watching the games you might see a player who can't stay in front of his man and makes mistakes that are not being corrected. Stephen is at a point where he would benefit from coming off of the bench as opposed to playing through his mistakes. The Warriors envision Curry as their point guard of the future but right now the job has proven too much for him to handle. Over the past few gams his confidence has clearly taken some hits and his play has been noticeably less aggressive since the start of the season. Especially at the defensive end.


Typically I am not in favor of benching rookies but Curry is in danger of entering the same place that Mike Dunleavy Jr. was in when he was with the Warriors. A place where night in and night out he is overmatched with the best athletes in the world and his lack of physical ability starts to play on his mind. Stephen is a shooter, no one is denying that. The dubs need to use him as such.

If he came off the bench as a scorer he would greatly benefit. Right now the task of running a team and guarding the other teams 1st or second best player is proving to be too much for him. One encouraging thing about Curry's performances is that his shooting hasn't really declined. His performance against Milwaukee was forgotten because of Jennings' 55 points, but he came off the bench and scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting in the same game. His numbers are actually down when the W's win. In 9 victories Curry is averaging 25 minutes per. In 23 losses he's averaging 34 minutes.

Tonight the W's play the Denver Nuggets who are without Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony. Curry will most likely be matched up with fellow rookie Ty Lawson, Curry should at least come out even in this matchup. Lawson is far more athletic, but they both played in college for the same amount of time and tonight is an opportunity for Steph to prove that he belongs in the starting lineup, especially against a fellow rookie. Afterall, Lawson was the one picked 18th overall not 7th.


Everyone hopes Curry becomes the next Steve Nash but lets not forget that Nash learned from the bench as well as the starting lineup for the early part of his career. He also had the luxury of Jason Kidd and Kevin Johnson's brains to pick from, whereas Curry has no such luxury. The dubs have not put him in a position to succeed very often this season, as evidenced by his constantly shooting off the dribble and never coming around or off of screens. In college he proved that he was very adept at performing the latter. Perhaps he would benefit from watching the flow of the game at the start and then he would be better prepared to pick his spots while out on the floor. He would also be able to see what is working for the opposing team's PG and what is not. We new Curry would not be able to defend NBA athletes early on, and that he would have trouble adjusting to playing the point full time. So lets allow him to focus on one thing at a time for right now, shooting. He's good at it.