Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #76 — Chris Hunter

On June 25, 2009, the Golden State Warriors drafted Steph Curry. Ten years and 16 days later, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets. With that move, Curry moved to second in the NBA for longest tenure with his current team. The only player he sits behind is Udonis Haslem, though that feels like a technicality. At this point, Haslem is essentially an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, having appeared in just 43 games and played fewer than 300 minutes over the last four seasons combined.

During his time in the Bay Area, Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 over the course of a few months.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

To see all of the rankings thus far, you can click on the “Ranking Steph’s teammates” tag at the top of the article.

#76 — Chris Hunter

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 60 (T-42nd out of 106)
Points per game: 4.5 (T-66th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 2.8 (T-56th out of 106)
Assists per game: 0.6 (78th out of 106)

I’ll be honest. I think I overrate Chris Hunter a little bit in my head. Perhaps he should have entered this list a little bit earlier. But I have good associations with him and memories of him. What can I say.

Hunter was a good story. He went undrafted in 2006, but didn’t give up on his NBA dream. He played overseas for a few years, spent a year in the D-League, and then finally got an NBA opportunity with the Warriors in 2009-10, making he and Curry rookie teammates.

I loved the feel-good story of a journeyman finally finding his way onto an NBA roster, and spending the next decade catching lobs from his superstar teammate. It worked well in my head. Oh well.

Hunter played 60 games that year with the Warriors, including 9 starts. And then he never played another game in the NBA. So on the negative side, his career didn’t really pan out. But on the positive side, he was a Warriors lifer!

Ultimately, he was a limited offensive player. He didn’t have too much to offer on that end of the court. He could finish around the hoop, and he shot well from the free throw line, but his efficiency was merely average. His rebounding wasn’t notable, nor was his defense. In other words, he was perfect for a 26-win team!

And then he was gone, leaving us only with fond memories and a few very random YouTube highlights, such as this one:

After leaving the Warriors, he spent a few more years in the D-League. He’s now the Director of Operations for the men’s basketball team at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.