Stephen Curry Unspottable

It's not that Curry is doing anything new — he's still a
lights-out shooter with impossible range, a
hypnotizing ball-handler, and clever passer — but
he's simply gotten better at everything. Through ten games he's
leading the NBA in scoring,
averaging 33 points per game with a ridiculous 53%
shooting, 47% from three-point range, with five
rebounds and five assists per game. Additionally, his
efficiency is through the roof: he has a ridiculous
65.9% eFG (effective field goal percentage, weighted for
three-pointers), higher than any other starting
point guard in the NBA and eighth among players who
play at least 20 minutes per game. (Curry has also
taken more field goal attempts than any of the players
above him). As anyone who's ever watched Curry knows, this is
an astounding number for someone who takes some
of the most ludicrous shots in the NBA. According to
NBA.com's player tracking, Curry has 56 more points
on pull-up shots than anyone in the NBA, and he's hit
49.5% of his pull-up attempts. This coincides with his league-high 52
possessions in transition, in which he's
scored 1.67 points per possession. To put that in
perspective, LeBron James and James Harden are
second and third, respectively, in transition
possessions, averaging .96 and 1.06 points per
possession, respectively. A quick peek at some of Curry's highlights this season
show how crazy some of his shots are: And these shots usually come in
scoring bunches.
Curry already has four 20-point quarters this year. Not
only does he get hot, he becomes impossible to stop,
and when the momentum swings like that, it's
demoralizing for opponents, as ESPN's Brian Windhorst said. This begs
the question: how do teams stop Curry?
There's no easy answer. Basketball players are taught
not to chase players too far beyond the three-point
line because they aren't legitimate threats. Steph
Curry breaks that rule. Ask DeAndre Jordan: Yet when teams push up on
Curry or send multiple
defenders, he can either bust by them and into the
paint for a higher-percentage shot, or kick the ball to
an open teammate for another high-percentage look. One idea that's
been casually mentioned, but never
implemented (to our knowledge) is the Hack-A-Curry,
where defenses could intentionally foul Curry, put
him on the free throw line, and get the ball back.
Intentionally fouling is one of the most divisive
strategies in the NBA. It brings the game to a halt, bails out the
defense, and drives fans crazy. It's been
used with several other big men who are bad free
throw shooters as a way to slow down offenses, most
recently with the Clippers' DeAndre Jordan in the
playoffs last season. For a player like Curry, this is borderline
unprecedented, but it may be something teams
experiment with when he gets going. As was the case
against the Clippers this season, when Curry scored 13
points in five minutes in the fourth quarter, rallying the
Warriors from a late deficit. His hot streaks can be game-changing.
Teams can try to run Curry off the three-point line, but
he's proven so adept at getting any shot he wants, or
breaking down the defense within the three-point arc
that he often just creates another good shot. NBA TV's "The Starters"
briefly mentioned this on a podcast, noting that teams may have to
start fouling Curry hard
to throw him off or simply just give up the two instead
of three-pointer. Not only is a three obviously worth
more, Curry's onslaughts from downtown fire up him,
the team, and the crowd. Curry is shooting 94% from the free throw line this
season, so intentionally fouling him more than likely
will result in two points. This strategy isn't about the
math as much as it's about the intangible effect —
stopping the flow of the Warriors offense and taking
Curry out of a rhythm. There are still a few hurdles to clear before the NBA
would likely to turn to this. First, teams may look to
foul a worse free throw shooter on the Warriors than
Curry. However, fouling away from the ball — that is,
fouling someone like center Andrew Bogut — only
works for so long. The Warriors would likely sub out Bogut and go with
their deadly small-ball lineup if he
was getting fouled, and after a certain point in the
game, rules prohibit teams from fouling away from
the ball. If they do, the team that was fouled just gets
the ball back after the free throws, thus negating the
point to the strategy. If Curry keeps up this torrid pace, it's worth
monitoring how teams begin to scheme against him.
Defenses are in uncharted waters with Curry; there
isn't a more dangerous player in the NBA with the ball
in his hands. When Curry gets on a hot streak, single-
handedly changing the momentum and demoralizing opponents, teams may
try the Hack-A-Curry just to
slow him down.