Some say point guards are born and not bred. The position is too
dependent on intangibles, too innate to teach. The great ones have
something extra, something God-given. And then there’s the
Warriors’ Stephen Curry, among the bred.
OAKLAND
Some say point guards are born and not bred. The position is too dependent on intangibles, too innate to teach. The great ones have something extra, something God-given.
And then there’s the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, among the bred.
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“I’m a natural point guard,” Utah’s Deron Williams said. “I think I was born to play point guard. But some guys can make the adjustment. Since he’s gotten to the NBA, I think Steph’s done a great job. He balances his scoring and gets his assists. He can pass. He just has a great knack for the game.”
When Curry, 22, gained national fame, leading Davidson to the Elite Eight of the 2008 NCAA tournament, he wasn’t the point guard. That title belonged to senior Jason Richards. Three years later, Curry is a starting point guard in the NBA.
While many of the great NBA point guards have been playing the position since they could put on a jersey, Golden State’s second-year point guard is learning arguably the game’s hardest position on the fly.
For him, that means a lot of work and hard lessons. For the franchise, that means patience and intelligent development.
“He’s got a ways to go,” said Warriors assistant coach Jerry Sichting, who played both positions during his 10-year NBA career. “It’s like two steps forward and one step back a lot of times, but that’s not out of the ordinary. It’s the hardest position. But he’s got all the skills to do it.
“The talk around the league, when I talk to other coaches and other scouts, is everybody loves him. It just takes a lot of time, a lot of experience to be out there. We’re talking about a guy who hasn’t played the position before. It’s new to him.”
Curry’s numbers are up from last season in many major categories: points per game (18.4), assists (6.0), field goal percentage (48.3). They are down in some good places, such as turnovers (2.9) and minutes per game (33.5).
In many ways, those numbers alone are impressive_especially for a guy a season-and-a-half into his career. But they don’t fully paint the picture of the kind of season Curry is having. The growing pains. The mistakes. The inconsistency.
Of course, such struggles could be expected. It wasn’t until after his sophomore season, while evaluating his pro prospects, that he decided to return to Davidson. The plan was for him to get experience at point guard.
He played the position at Charlotte Christian School, but that hardly qualified him to play point guard at the NBA level. And standing 6-foot-3 and about 170 pounds, his best hope at NBA success was playing point guard.
Despite his inexperience at the position, some NBA experts rave about his potential.
“I wanted him when I was general manager in Phoenix, and we almost had him,” TNT analyst Steve Kerr said. “We came very close to getting him. With the kind of talent he has, we looked at him as having the potential to be like a Steve Nash.”
Several NBA experts said Curry has the vision, passing ability_Warriors fans have seen several of his improbable passes_and ballhandling skills needed to play point guard. He also has the basketball IQ.
But, most important, he has a shooting stroke to die for. Curry’s shooting ability gives him an advantage over most point guards.
“What’s the one knock on most point guards coming out of college?” one Western Conference scout said. “They can’t shoot. How many times have you heard someone say about a point guard, ‘If only he could shoot’? Well Curry can shoot the lights out and he can do the other stuff.”
Curry’s outside touch, one viewpoint suggests, offsets some of his other weaknesses. At least makes them more tolerable.
Curry isn’t nearly as physically daunting as Williams or Chicago’s Derrick Rose. Most important, he often doesn’t match up well in the athleticism department. That is revealed mostly on the defensive end, which is why some think Curry at point guard won’t work.
“That position is too important on the defensive end,” one Eastern Conference scout said. “A point guard can break down an entire defense. If you can’t hold your own on that end, it creates all kinds of problems. I just don’t see how he’ll be able to defend as a starter.”
Curry leads all regular guards in fouls per game (3.2). And Warriors coach Keith Smart has been known to put Curry’s backcourt mate, Monta Ellis, on dominant point guards to keep Curry from a bad matchup.
Smart said Curry has gotten much better at defending the pick-and-roll, and he’s better than expected at defending the post. But what he lacks in athleticism, he will have to make up in intelligence, craftiness and experience. That leaves the Warriors optimistic.
Curry, regarded as one of the Warriors’ hardest workers, is visibly stronger. Sichting said Curry watches a lot of film and soaks up coaching like a biscuit does gravy.
“He’s never going to wow you with his athleticism,” Kerr said. “He won’t be a defensive stopper, but he could be a good team defense player. But when you have a player with that kind of talent, you are definitely willing to be patient and accommodate some of his shortcomings. He has the chance to be a special player in this league.”
The experience isn’t just needed on defense. Mastering the point guard position is a career-long task. Just taking on the position fully three years ago, Curry finds himself in an uphill battle.
Point guards have so much to manage. They’ve got to know situations, game flow and clock management. They’ve got to know what every position on the court is doing and the attributes of each person playing those positions. They’ve got to lead and follow, manage personalities and know when to pick their spots.
And anyone who watches Warriors basketball knows Curry can be too casual with the ball on occasion. Sichting said Curry needs to make quicker decisions and develop his swagger, which would keep him from getting down on himself and getting frustrated.
One player cited by many as proof that Curry can pull off this transition is Denver point guard Chauncey Billups. At Colorado, he played mostly shooting guard. His first few years in the league, he struggled with the transition from scoring guard to point guard. Now he’s considered one of the best point guards in the league.
The popular belief is that Curry can do the same. He has the tools. He has the mentality. He has the opportunity. Still, the difficulty of the task can’t be understated.
“I don’t know how tough it is because I’ve been a point guard all my life,” New Orleans’ Chris Paul said. “I’ve never played any other position. But I know if anybody can do it, Curry can.”
— Story by Marcus Thompson II, Contra Costa Times
