Steph Curry Is Arguably the Most Efficient High-Volume Guard of All-Time
Stephen Curry has been rewriting record books for years. Most of us are aware that Curry has set and broken multiple of his own shooting records throughout the years, but I think it’s safe to say that many of us aren’t aware of how efficiently Steph has gone about breaking these records.
When you make 350+ threes in a season multiple times in your career, you don’t do that by shooting a small amount of threes. Over the past 7 seasons, Curry has shot 4,482 three-pointers and boasted an insane 59% effective field-goal percentage during those seasons. Also, of the 10 seasons with the most 3-pointers made by an individual in NBA history, Curry is responsible for five of them. Steph also ranks second on the career 3-pointers made list, just 141 behind legendary shooter Ray Allen.
To add to that, Curry has jacked up 17.4 shots per game over the course of his career. With numbers like this, Curry is obviously labeled a “volume scorer”, yet he boasts an insane 58.3% effective field-goal percentage throughout his career to go along with it. This is light years above the other guards and all non-centers of his time. In fact, Curry is the only non-center to be among the top-15 in effective field goal percentage in NBA history.
Among players with at least 2,000 field goal attempts in the league, Curry's 58.3 effective field goal percentage is ninth all-time, just behind eight-time All-Star Dwight Howard (58.7) and just ahead of another former MVP in Shaquille O'Neal. The next two guards after Curry on this list are Kyle Korver and Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, but these two guards didn’t have anywhere near the shooting volume that Curry has had and currently possesses.
To add another insane stat to the mix, Curry holds the record for the most 30-point games on 50-50-100 shooting splits in NBA history as well, with 76 games. Next on the list is Larry Bird (50), Dirk Nowitzki (48), Kevin Durant (41) and Michael Jordan (39).
But how does Curry’s volume and efficiency match up with all-time talents that have played his position? Here’s how some notable, all-time guards line up with Curry’s volume and efficiency:
Steph Curry ranks smack dab in the middle of shots per game among this small sample size of the best NBA guards of all-time, and he shoots at least 5 percentage points better than all of them.
Steph Curry’s ability to score at a high volume while scoring efficiently is simply unprecedented. Also, the fact that just under half of his made shots throughout his career are from three-point range (49%) makes his stats even more staggering. We have never seen a player of Steph Curry’s calibur before, and I don’t think we ever will again.