r/nba 2d ago

The way defenses used to guard Steph pre-2016 is crazy to see

https://streamable.com/x8lsr0
3.7k Upvotes

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u/NervousAd3202 Raptors 2d ago

Who makes fun of Curry’s gravity lol

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u/Neatojuancheeto Warriors 2d ago

People with an agenda which is a lot of people. Gravity is hard to quantify so it's something people heavily debate. Especially since so many people are just box score watchers that don't see how many open dunks/layups Steph creates but doesn't get stats for.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/birdlawyer86 2d ago

This sub has em all the time, just gotta go in one of those anti-Steph threads. Or the pro-KD ones. Shit, you could prob find a couple in here if you rlly went looking

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u/Ok-Street-2473 2d ago

Everyone's like "KD's stats are way better than Steph's but apparently because of 'gravity' Curry is better". Yeah, that's exactly how it works

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u/RPO777 2d ago

Curry's one of the few players where from on-off stats you can quantify how dramatically he improves the rest of the team... without the ball in his hands.

That's the insane part--there have been plenty of guys in NBA history who can improve their teammates by passing. But passing requires you to have the ball in your hands, and there's only 1 ball. A player that improves other players only when they have the ball are limited in that way.

The thing with Curry is that he nonchalantly walks along the baseline, someone sets an off-ball screen as he scoots toward the 3 point line and then the defense goes ballistic and total chaos as the 3, some times 4 players scramble to try to contain Curry... and he doesn't even have the ball.

Like there was a play in the Olympics where Steph took ball screen, a bunch of players from the opposing team converged on steph... and Lebron casually flicked the ball to Kevin Durant who was standing alone under the basket, and he dunked.

Like Kevin F'ing Durant is not a guy you generally forget exists when he cuts to the basket, but Steph draws complete panic from opposing teams when they think he might get an open 3.

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u/asetniop Celtics 2d ago

Kyrie Irving for one; he says it's a "complete hoax".