With 2,974 three-pointers, Stephen Curry overtook Ray Allen to officially crown the all-time three-pointer king in regular season history.
This number is great enough, but a single number is somewhat dry, and there are many details that can reflect Curry's greatness that a number cannot represent.
There are so many great three-point shooters in history, why do we say that Curry is the epoch-making first shooter in history? What is unique about him? Let's split the number "2974" and look at how great Curry's record and Curry's player are in a more detail-oriented way.
The Road to Originality
Before Curry, the vast majority of shooters were defined as no-ball shooters, and a small number of players had the ability to hold the ball and shoot three points, but in the eyes of many coaches, holding the ball to shoot three points is tantamount to deviance.
"I had the ideas of those Hall of Fame coaches around me, Phil Jackson, Popovich, Lenny Wilkens, Rutter Olsen and so on, and they all told me that those [three-pointers] were bad choices," Warriors coach Kerr said. He has said more than once that if he had been put in the past, Curry's three-point shots would have angered the coach and he would have been thrown on the bench and denied a chance to play.
Curry's emergence has changed his cognition, he has both super no-ball shooting ability, but also has a historical, unique ball holding ability.
Of Curry's 2,974 three-pointers, 1,724 were shot from catches, or 58 percent. In addition, Curry's 1250 three-pointers were shot by the ball-holding offense, accounting for 42%.
To break it down further, of the 1724 three-point shots that Curry hit, 41 percent were fixed-point shots, 27 percent were shots in the conversion offense, 24 percent were shot around the cover, and 8 percent were pass shots.
Of Curry's 1,250 three-point shots, 38 percent were to block the ball carrier offense, 34 percent to switch offenses to individual ball handles, 20 percent to face the basket singles, and 8 percent to dribble after receiving a hand-pass.
"Curry can catch the ball and shoot the basket, and he is also the player with the strongest ability to shoot three points, even if it is not the strongest, he is also the strongest, but in my opinion, his ball holding shot is the strongest," said the famous Nowitzki, "His ability to catch and shoot three points is also the strongest, so taken together, I think you can name him the strongest shooter in history." ”
In fact, Curry is not so unique at the beginning, when he played for Davidson in college, Curry worked as a shooting guard for the first 2 seasons, and he has been able to hit a large number of three-pointers efficiently, but at that time, his playing style was more inclined to Reggie Miller, a no-ball shooter. Curry's father, Dale Curry, believes that if Curry only plays the role of a no-ball shooter, the ceiling will not be too high after entering the NBA, so when Curry's sophomore season is over, the elder Curry suggested that his son stay in college for another year and play as a point guard to develop ball-holding offensive techniques, which laid the foundation for Curry to later replace Monta Ellis as the warriors' outside offensive core.
After Curry entered the NBA, curry still played more of Miller's role before Ellis was traded, and only 23.4% of his three-point shots in the first three years of his career were shot with the ball. After Ellis was traded, a new Curry appeared, and Mark Jackson made Curry a full-time point guard, more blocks, singles. In the 2012-13 season, 44.1 percent of Curry's three-point shots were shot with the ball. In the following seasons, Curry never dropped that number of 40 percent until Kevin Durant joined the Warriors.
"I'm a combination of Nash and Miller," Curry commented to himself.
Allen also had a lot of three-point shooting before going to Boston, but his frequency and efficiency of holding the ball were far less than Curry's crazy. In Allen's view, Curry is taking his own path, and Allen admits that his dribbling and ball-holding shooting ability is not as good as Curry.
"One of the things that impressed curry was that he was so good at dribbling," Aaron lamented, "because he can go where he wants to shoot, and one of the things that distinguishes a great shooter is whether you can get the shot you want, he can go to any shot he wants and finish the shot quickly, my dribbling is not as good as his, he can dribble through the narrow gap." ”
"People always compare him to Miller, other great goalscorers, but I've said before that he forged his own path. If you look at the way he plays and shoots, no one can stop him from scoring. ”
The god of the farthest
Before Curry, teams would step on the three-point line when performing defensive tactics against shooters, leaving as little space as possible for shooters. But Curry's emergence led a wave of ultra-far three-pointers, directly changing the defensive strategies of each team.
"It's cool to pull out three-pointers just after halftime, and Curry is the first player to start shooting this kind of ultra-far three-pointer," Nowitzki said, "Now everyone can easily shoot three-pointers, and Curry is the first to do so, especially in dribbling, his shot is not forced to shoot when there is little time left in the offensive, he is deliberately shooting." Now everyone is following his example and starting to shoot super three points. ”
Covering the ultra-long range of the midline and even the backcourt, this is another big way Curry changed the course of history. The NBA's three-point line is 23 feet 9 inches from the basket, and Curry hit 771 three-pointers at 25 feet, 604 three-pointers at 26 feet, 335 three-pointers at 27 feet and 163 three-pointers at 28 feet. From 28 feet away, Curry shot a total of 209 three-pointers, a veritable super-far-third.
In August 2020, after the NBA resumed in the Orlando park, Damian Lillard hit multiple long-range three-pointers, and the Warriors did not participate in the rematch because of their poor record. TNT critic Kenny Smith shouted at Curry in the air during the commentary: "Stephen, I don't think your range is so far from Lillard, I have to see it when you come back." ”
Curry responded directly on Twitter: "Kenny, I love you, but it's a bit silly for you to say that." ”
People forget quickly, the recency effect is normal, and Curry quickly uses horror to remind Smith and others of the fear of being dominated by Curry's ultra-far three points. In the 2020-21 season, Curry shot 337 three-pointers, 61 of which were 28 feet away. The moment Allen broke the record, Curry had hit 142 three-pointers this season, 28 of them at 28 feet away.
In recent years, Lillard has indeed carried forward the technology of ultra-far three-pointers, and his shooting frequency and shooting number have surpassed Curry. But in terms of long-range three-point shooting rate, Curry is still crushing Lillard's presence. So far in their careers, Curry has shot 109 three-pointers from 30-35 feet with a super high shooting rate of 41.4%, and Lillard has shot 131 shots, but the shooting rate is only 33.6%, and there is a grade gap between his shooting rate and Curry. The US media commented on Curry's ultra-far three-pointers, saying that his ultra-far three-point efficiency is higher than the average player's layup efficiency.
Curry is not good at overtaking three-pointers when he first entered the league, and early in his career, most of his three-point shots were still regular shots, and Curry only shot six three-pointers from 28 feet away in the first two seasons of his career. In 2011, labor and management were unable to reach an agreement, and the alliance entered a long shutdown. During the shutdown, bored Curry began to challenge his shooting limits, and he suddenly realized that he could easily hit a three-pointer at 30 feet.
However, in the following seasons, Curry did not shoot a large number of ultra-far three-pointers in actual combat, he silently sweated on the training ground and practiced super-far three-points. The Warriors won the championship in the 2014-15 season, when Curry scored only six three-pointers from 28 feet away. But from the start of the 2015-16 season, Kerr and his coaching team concluded through data analysis that Curry should shoot more and go beyond the three-point line. After that, Curry's performance was out of control.
In fact, the Warriors' green light for Curry's over-three divisions has been ridiculed and opposed, with USA Today reporter Nate Scott plaunting, "You never know when the team will need you to shoot from 30 feet away." In Scott's opinion, a super-far three-pointer from 30 feet away is meaningless. But in the 2015-16 season, Curry hit 21 three-pointers from 30 feet away, four of them from 40 feet away. That season, Curry was unanimously elected MVP.
The man behind it
In November this year, the Warriors played the Bulls, Draymond Green served at the top of the arc, Curry used Looney's cover to get rid of The Caruso defense, the person arrived, Green hit the ground to pass, the ball bounced into Curry's hand just right, curry hit a three-point shot in the open position.
Grizzlies star Ja Morant exclaimed on Twitter: "The chemistry is incredible. ”
This season is Curry's 10th season with Green, and the two have long been the most tacit partners in the league. Green knows how Curry will run, and Curry knows in which direction Green's pass will come from. Curry can become the three-point king of history, and Green is the one behind the scenes.
Of the three-pointers Curry hit, 477 came from Green assists. What is this concept? Curry's three-pointers have received more than 60% of assists. About 40 percent of the three-pointers Curry hit by his teammates were Green assists.
Iguodala gave Curry 168 three-point assists, Durant was in third place with 153 and Klay Thompson was fourth with 129, and the three of them combined were not as many as Green alone.
Six others have given Curry more than 50 three-point assists, david Lee (83), Ellis (83), Bogut (76), Harrison Barnes (74), Jarrett Jack (63) and Dorell White (52).
Curry and Green are the best partners because they each have their own skills, and their respective skills can be combined to form a super powerful.
Curry's stunt is endurance, he is always running and moving on the field. Even LeBron James was convinced: "I don't think people realize how strong his motor is, he never stops moving. ”
When Curry enters the race, he will try to turn the race into a marathon race, forcing opponents to fight with him, which he learned from Miller.
Miller once said, "I always turn the race into a marathon, maybe you can do whatever you want in the first three quarters, but the fourth quarter is the winning moment, and I know I'm always at my best in the fourth quarter." Like Curry, Thompson, Rip Hamilton, they can also run all day and consume opponents. Watching the opponent bend down tired in the fourth quarter to support the knee rest, it feels very refreshing. ”
Curry is also improving his sense of physical balance while fighting with his opponent's endurance, because when running away from the defense, the opponent will definitely pull Curry, fight against him physically, destroy his sense of physical balance, and affect his escape and subsequent shots. But Curry solved this problem through a lot of foot training, balance training, he can shoot quickly in the seemingly unbalanced situation, and maintain a high shooting efficiency.
In a successful tactical fit, only Curry's running is not enough, Green's cover and passing are essential, in the Warriors Green is the best at covering and passing curry, last season he even opened a "cover training class" in the team, teaching Oubre, Wiseman and others how to set up cover for Curry.
"You have to understand the way your opponent is defending you, and that's as important as creating a confrontation under cover," Green said of the secret to setting up cover for Curry, "and if you know from which angle to set up cover and defend your players, sometimes you don't even need to create a confrontation." You just have to get the main defender off the path, and when you work with a shooter like Curry, they don't need much space to shoot. ”
"When I set up cover for Curry, I was trying to figure out how to give him a one-on-one chance to face the opponent's interior. I knew that as long as I used the cover to make physical contact with the players defending Curry, the opponent would have to let the inside players come out and pounce on Curry, and I only needed to create half a second for Curry to decide whether to shoot or suddenly. ”
For the Warriors' other interiors, Green's cover is not difficult to learn, but it is difficult to learn Green's passing ability. Over the years, many Warriors players have either been incompetent or unconscious to send comfortable passes to Curry. Green's pass has long been recognized by Curry, who once said: "The angle at which Green executes the pass, the speed of the pass, and the timing of the pass are very accurate." ”
epilogue
Dwyane Wade said curry could not be defended. Curry's inexorability is shaped by his own epoch-making personal abilities, the Warriors team led by Green. Now that Curry has become the three-point king of history, every step he takes is creating new history.
What heights can he reach in the future? Everyone is curiously waiting for the results to come.
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