In the past period of time, Stephen Curry's shooting has been struggling, even the world's greatest shooter, will also experience moments of fatigue, for which the US media "San Francisco Chronicle" believes that when Klay Thompson gradually returns to normal, this will help improve Curry's shooting percentage.
The Warriors have played a dazzling record this season, but Curry can't find the best feeling, so far, Curry has shot 42% from the field and 38.4% from three-point range this season, which is the worst performance of Curry's career except for the 2019-20 season (where Curry only played 5 games due to injury).
Even last season, Curry led the team alone, and he still averaged 5.3 three-pointers per game, shooting 42.1 percent from three-point range. But today, Curry's shooting percentage is even lower than the career average (43%).
One sign is that Curry hasn't shot 43 percent from three-point range since the 2018-19 season, and that was Klay Thompson's last season out of the game due to injury.
In the first eight years since Klay Thompson entered the league (2011-12 to 2018-19), Curry has only 14 games without working with Tangshen, and in these games, Curry's average number of shots per game increased by 1.1, but his shooting percentage fell by 6.1%.
Without Thompson, Curry averaged 1.2 more three-pointers per game, but his shooting percentage slipped 3.9 percent. He did his best to increase his shots in Tang Shen's absence, but it was difficult to maintain efficiency, and in those 14 games, Curry averaged 24.5 points per game, which was also lower than his average score in those eight seasons (25.1 points), and during that period, his shooting percentage was 3.9 percentage points worse than the average.
According to the data, from the 2011-12 season to the 2018-19 season, when Curry and Klay Thompson played at the same time, the Warriors shot 49.1% from the field and 42.1% from three-point range. That's higher than the team's overall shooting percentage (47.9 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from three-point range).
Curry has averaged 20.6 shots per game this season, just slightly less than in the 2020-21 season (21.7), and his 13.1 three-point shots have set a career high. Although the Warriors have some scorers, Curry is still the most reliable choice for the team on the offensive end, and the Warriors' offense often needs to be developed through Curry.
The Warriors are a team that creates shooting space through passing, but also a team that relies on space to create passes, they need more shooters to open up space, after Curry, the Warriors have the highest number of three-point shots is Jordan Poole, but his three-point shooting rate is only 33.3%, not an efficient pitcher.
Even though Klay Thompson hasn't recovered to his best, he still averaged 2.5 three-pointers per game in his first two games, shooting 38.5 percent from three-point range. In the first two games, Clay has used the ball more to attack, he has not yet played the advantage of running without the ball and receiving the ball to shoot, once he finds the feeling, his ability to pull away the space will be further improved.
The presence of Klay Thompson makes the teams dare not easily wrap Curry, will also reduce Curry's consumption on the offensive end to a certain extent, if Klay can return to normal levels, Curry will also be liberated, and his shooting percentage will naturally pick up.