(Originally published on Jan. 26 by CBS writer Brad Botkin, the content of the article does not represent the views of the translator.) ）
Introduction: Curry's struggling performance makes him look as if he is approaching a new normal; how will the Warriors react to this?
There's no defining line between shooting lows and worse, but Curry seems right and really close to some kind of new normal. Over the past seven weeks or so, Curry has shot 34.4 percent from three-point range and 38.4 percent overall, and even those numbers have been lifted up by his few great games.
When the calendar flips to 2022, Curry is shooting less than 30 percent from outside the three-point line and 36 percent overall. Last Sunday, he scored 13 points against the Jazz and made 1-of-13 three-pointers. A few weeks earlier, he had 12 points against the Bucks; a few weeks earlier, he had nine points for the Heat. As you can see, almost every shot from Curry — three-point shooting, mid-range shooting, close-range shooting, effective shooting, true shooting — hit a career low, or at least his worst record since becoming an All-Star.
Gary Payton II now has a better three-point shooting percentage than Curry.
I don't care about hits or shot difficulty; that's crazy. (Translator's note: the author's original words, not Curry's interview content)
A large number of theories have emerged as to what is going on. Curry, for example, is too tired to run without the ball and participate in defense. For example, for much of the season, curry had to opt for a harder shot because there was no Thompson to distract defenders. For example, the chase for a three-point record left Curry exhausted. For example, things are simple and clear, Curry has changed back into a normal person, and he finds himself beginning to inevitably decline. No one talks about the impact that a new ball might have on Curryan, but I myself often suspect it. Or maybe Curry has an injury that we don't know about.
Whatever Curry doesn't perform well for, he's going to benefit from the suspicions. Every night everyone expected him out of trouble, but that was not happening. Some of the balls he conceded even deviated a lot. You've barely seen the juggling shots he used to make lately, and even a lot of simple shots have turned into iron.
Since December 1 last year, Curry's open three-point shooting rate has been only 36.7% (according to the NBA's official website statistics, the open three-point shooting rate is defined as the closest defender to the shooter at least 1.83 meters away). Since January 1 this year, the data has slipped to 31%. For the best shooter of all time, such a shooting rate is simply incomprehensible. And, while it's hard to read much information out of the small samples taken from training, Curry in the video below doesn't look like someone who's about to get back to speed.
A little over a year ago, he was a guy we saw with our own eyes not losing a single three-pointer for five consecutive minutes in training. So something unusual must have happened. "Just keep voting." Poole said this last Sunday when asked by reporters about Curry's plight. That's certainly something Curry will continue to do. But in the unlikely event that Curry starts to lose his way to shooting as an elite pitcher, will the Warriors have to consider changing their thinking as the trade deadline approaches?
This season, when the Warriors got off to such a fiery start, we all seemed to forget one thing, and that was that their lineup might need a piece of the puzzle to win the championship. Throughout the offseason, one of the hottest topics in the league has been the assets the Warriors own and how they will use them. James Wiseman, Jonathan Cumminga, Moses Moody. The guys are still on the team, and Cumminga looks like a particular part of the Warriors' future. Poole and Wiseman are also likely to have real value in the market.
Wiggins has become huge on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the Warriors won't want to give up on him. Theoretically, packing out Wiseman, Kevin Looney, Tuscan Anderson or Damien Lee could match Jeramie Grant or Domintas Sabonis in salary. And if it's just Looney and Wiseman together, it can match Miles Turner's salary. The Warriors could also use first-round picks in 2022 or 2028 to make the deal more attractive.
They can still take all their assets out and catch the real big fish in the market.
We know they don't want to. They are now trying to storm the championship while retaining a core squad that will be competitive in the future. Even when Curry has top-notch play, some argue that the Warriors aren't one of the strongest contenders for the championship. They lack another reliable and creative player, and overall they don't have the means to really threaten the opponent's interior line beyond a few counter-run tactics.
We hear the cliché that individual creativity of players is indispensable in the playoffs, especially as the series progresses and your tactical system becomes more and more constrained by the countermeasures carefully laid out by the opposing coach and correctly executed by the opposing players. But this point is worth repeating here. If Curry becomes a relatively ordinary shooter (we're not talking about "Curry has gravity"; just purely in terms of shooting percentage and scoring), Thompson's play is unpredictable, and the others are just acting as the two's deputies, this Warriors are still far from the 2015 Warriors, although many people unthinkingly compare the former to the latter.
The similarity between this Warriors and the champion Warriors without Durant is that their defense is still outstanding. That may be enough to put them up against the big teams in a series. But does Warriors management really want to rely on that? In the end, what everyone hopes is that Curry's state will soon become hot and will never cool down again. But how long does it take for a trough to make you wonder if it might be the norm?
Curry may recover from his form while still not being the shooter and scorer he was last season. In this case, will the Warriors want to lose the chance to win another championship at the end of Curry Thompson-Green's peak because of a one-step difference?
If the answer is no, given that Curry has begun to become like a player who needs more help to accomplish his ultimate goal, we'll see if the Warriors will decide to prepend a portion of the team's future for him.
A month ago, I would have said impossible. At the time, the Warriors were rejoicing in both: they were holding on to all their future assets and rapidly growing into a championship-winning team. But a month ago, if you had asked me if Curry would have maintained this cold feel until the end of January, I would have said impossible. But we saw it. The situation in the NBA is changing rapidly, and the trading deadline is only three weeks away.
(Asteroid Fall)