Steph Curry: More Than Just a Shooter

The discourse surrounding Steph Curry never changes year-to-year. It usually includes the phrase “greatest shooter to ever live” and includes some cold takes like how he’s a net negative defender or he’s only successful because of Steve Kerr’s system. While he’s never had a coach like Kerr who could unlock his potential prior, he’s been much more than a shooter for awhile now, and it’s time to start giving him that recognition.

In order to prove that Steph Curry deserves a much better crown than just “greatest shooter to ever live” (still a huge accomplishment for a basketball player, I should add), there’ll be a myriad of statistics used: Career percentages by shooting zone per Basketball Reference and a few stats from the NBA’s stats tracking page including a few numbers from his 2016, 2021, and current seasons (his three highest-scoring ones) on play-types, specifically isolations. Used as reference points will be players Curry has been compared to through his career (specifically, Kyrie Irving and James Harden) and possibly others who are often deemed as all-world scorers (Kevin Durant).

We’ll first start with the restricted area. Steph Curry is, for his career, shooting 64% from the restricted area. For reference, Kyrie Irving (often cited as one of the best around-the-rim finishers ever) is 60% from that area. Still pretty impressive, but while Kyrie has plenty of fancy finishes that are fun to watch, people have a tendency to forget that Steph’s just as much of a wizard in that area as Irving is.

Just the eye-test can tell you that they look pretty similar, and even if you forget the aspect of comparison, it should be noted that Curry is shooting a better percentage from around the rim as one of the greatest around-the-rim finishers to play the game.

Next, we’ll move to the midrange. Per Basketball Reference, Kevin Durant shoots about 44% on average for his career between the restricted area and 3-point line. Really, this analysis is in Durant’s favor because Steph Curry generally takes floaters (a more difficult shot) instead of the post-up jumpers that KD can take because he’s 7 feet tall.

In that same range, Curry shoots about 45%. Compared to somebody who, as of recent, was proclaimed to have one of the greatest mid-range jumpers of all time, a 6’3 guard should not be damn-near that good at mid-range shooting, but Curry has found a way. This isn’t a knock on Durant, who is obviously one of the best scorers to ever live, but it just shows that Curry should be right up there with him.

We don’t even really need to discuss 3-point shooting, so we’ll let the accolades speak for themselves: Most threes for playoffs and regular season combined in a fraction of the games, most games with 9 threes made at 38 (nobody else has double digits), most threes in a single season, at one point most threes in a game, and a few three-point contest trophies to boot. Not really much else to dive into there.

When we go into the isolation stats, some interesting numbers pop up: Steph Curry, through the three seasons analyzed, has shot a total effective field goal percentage of 60%, while iso superstar James Harden has shot 52%. While Harden has taken a much higher frequency (42% of possessions were isos versus Curry’s 7%), he has scored 1.15 points per possession to Curry’s 1.2, which isn’t that much lower, but still lower.

While the volume disparity is not something to discount, given how the Houston Rockets ran their offense with Harden and how the Warriors run theirs with Curry, it’s certainly not something to just ignore that Steph Curry is an excellent isolation player. It goes to show that as good as he is off-ball, he’s still one of the best on-ball shooters ever.

There’s obviously a lot of differences to be accounted for with these numbers, mostly in terms of volume and shot selection. But good scorers know when to get to their spots and what those best spots are: Curry’s happen to be anywhere between half-court and the three-point line. He shoots the three with much higher frequency than any other shot, but it’s pretty clear that he can still hang with some of the best when it comes to those ranges.

It’s high time he gets some better recognition than just being a shooter. With a scoring title this year, he’ll be one of 9 players all-time who have accumulated 3 or more scoring titles. He warps defenses with his ability to score from quite literally anywhere on the floor. Whether you like him or not, it’s impossible to admit that he’s not one of the greatest scorers in the history of the game, and it’s time we start acknowledging him as such.

(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)