The 35-year-old Curry still has the ability to win another championship

Dong Yuhui said that heroes will be late, beauties will be white-headed, no one can withstand the passage of time, the same is true in the NBA league, any star is omnipotent to powerless, as a fan who has grown up with them all the way, this is an extremely sad thing, just after the Golden State Warriors lost to the Sacramento Kings and lost the 2023-24 playoff qualification, many media played the same headline: "The era of belonging to Curry is over" I've seen this title four years ago, but Curry made a comeback in 2022 to win the championship, can he make a comeback this time?

There are many reasons why the Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs, and I will dedicate a season summary of the Warriors to the future when I have the opportunity, but today I will only talk about Curry, and see what level he is currently at through data analysis, and whether he has the ability to compete for the championship in the future.

First of all, let's introduce Curry's influence, at the age of 35, he is still one of the league's signature stars, in January this year, the NBA officially announced the jersey sales list in the first half of the season, Curry broke James' dominance for five consecutive years to regain the first place in the sales list, and Curry ranked second on the video broadcast list with a total of 1.2 billion views, behind James's 1.3 billion, and this season's salary of $51.9 million is the highest salary in the league, The The Ringer website selected the 8th overall among the top 100 stars in the 23-24 season, ranking 3rd among all guard players, behind Doncic and Alexander, but in the All-Star voting session, Curry's influence has dropped significantly, and only 3.2 million fan votes this year ranked 3rd among Western defenders, also behind Doncic and Alexander, you must know that last year Curry also became the Western defender vote king with 5.8 million fan votes, coupled with the player vote, Curry failed to enter the All-Star starting lineup in the end, and the influence of stars is affected by game performanceNext, I will use the data to analyze Curry's performance in depth.

Curry has maintained a very good attendance rate this season, playing 74 games, the highest in the past seven years, but averaging 32.7 minutes per game is the fourth lowest in his career, and the top three are the lowest (19-20 in 5 games, 27.8 minutes per game in 11-12 games, 28.2 minutes per game in 11-12 games, 17-18 played in 51 games, an average of 32 minutes per game) playing time has been affected by serious injuries, this season under the high attendance rate of an average of 3 minutes per game, although the average distance of 2.44 miles per game is the first in the Golden State Warriors, but the offensive speed of 4.9 miles per hour has ranked 6th in the Warriors, and the defensive speed of 3.58 miles per hour is ranked third from the bottom of the Golden State Warriors, through these data, it can be seen that Curry's physical fitness is seriously affected by age, as the saying goes, a man's body is the same after 30, Curry's physical fitness will only decline year by year, which is an objective law that no athlete can avoid.

When there is a problem with the physical fitness of the star, if you want to ensure efficiency, you need to use it reasonably, good steel is used on the blade, but it also requires the overall strength of the team plus the strength of teammates, Curry must be very nostalgic for the past three quarters of the clock-in days, but the current situation is that it is difficult for him to win if he does not play the team, this season Curry ranks first in the league with 189 key points, 49.6% of key ball shooting rate, 32 of 70 three-point shots at critical moments and a shooting rate of 45.7% Ranked third in the league, the first key three-point brother shot 3 of 6, the second DeRozan shot 7 of 15, their shots were completely compared with Curry, Curry ranked 9th in the regular season key player selection last year, and there is a high probability of winning the first place this season, this data on the one hand shows that Curry has a strong scoring ability at critical moments, but on the other hand, it also shows that the Golden State Warriors are really no trustworthy players at critical moments, and the second key scoring in the Warriors is Klay Thompson 57 points, and the shooting rate at critical moments is only 29.8%, third-place Wiggins only scored 25 points and shot 43.5% from the field in key moments, this is the current situation of the Warriors, and no one except Curry can take on the heavy responsibility at critical moments.

In fact, there is a very good reference data about what performance Curry can play to compete for the championship, I won't compare the peak data too early, just compare it with the 21-22 season, in the 21-22 season, Curry averaged 34.5 minutes per game, 25.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 3.2 turnovers, and 11.7 three-point shots per game, 4.5 shots, and a shooting rate of 38% That season, the Golden State Warriors achieved a 53-29 record, ranked third in the West and finally won the championship, simply put, Curry can help the team win the championship with this statistical performance, and then look at the data of this season, averaging 32.7 minutes per game, 26.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 0.7 steals, 2.8 turnovers, and 11.8 three-point shots per game, 4.8 shots, 40% shooting rate , Comprehensive comparison of Curry's defensive statistics in the case of reduced playing time has decreased to a certain extent, but the scoring data and three-point shooting rate have improved, There is no doubt that Curry still maintains the competitive state of winning the championship season, and it can also be concluded that the problem of the Golden State Warriors missing the playoffs is not Curry, he has done everything he can do.

As the greatest three-point player in NBA history, the total of 876 three-point shots this season is the second highest in his career, ranking third in the entire NBA regular season history list, hitting 357 goals ranked third in the entire NBA regular season history list, and the current regular season single-season three-point shooting number of 402 goals is also created by Curry, as the creator of the magic ball play, he is a walking three-point record board, as of the end of this season, the NBA three-point shooting list number one data has been raised to 3747, far ahead of the second place Ray Allen's 2973 times (Harden is expected to break Ray Allen's record again this season), except for the play-offs against the Kings, in 74 games he hit 181 of 404 three-point shots, a 44.8% shooting rate, 448 three-point shots with the ball, 167 shots with a shooting rate of 37.3%, and in the 21-22 season he hit 126 of 323 three-point shots in 64 games, a 39% shooting rate, and 156 three-point shots with 417 ball-holding shots, shooting 37.4% Through the comparison of three-point shooting in the two seasons, it can be seen that Curry's three-point shooting has increased by more than 80 times this season, and the shooting rate has increased by 5 percentage points, and Curry is still the top level in the league in terms of three-point shooting.

Magic ball play style of the first three-point shot, the second type of offensive basket, this season Curry held the ball more than 658 times only ranked 53rd in the league, and the league's first new generation player Alexander's breakthrough 1740 times is almost three times his three, Brunson's 1500 times, Doncic's 1230 times are almost twice as many as him, Curry broke through the frame 292 times and hit 143 balls with a shooting rate of 49%, which is not a high shooting rate, and the current top strikers in the league can reach 55% In the 21-22 season, Curry completed 614 games with the ball and 10 fewer games than this season, hitting 131 of 255 shots from the frame, with a shooting rate of 51.4% In addition, the Warriors are a team that mainly conducts a large number of balls, Curry is the first attacker in the team with so few breakthroughs, and in the 21-22 season, Jordan Poole has Jordan Poole by his side and has completed 612 breakthroughs, while Kuminga, who has broken through second in the Warriors this season, only has 449 breakthroughs, of course, it does not mean that the breakthrough is necessarily better than the rotation pass, but when a team lacks offensive changes, the opponent's defense will be very targeted, simple close defense, anti-shooting and non-protrusion can well limit the overall offense of the Warriors.

With Paul joining the team this season, Curry reduced organizational tasks at the beginning of the season for the coexistence of stars, and playing the No. 2 position 25% of the time this season is the highest additional role allocation except for his rookie season, but because of the poor effect, Paul became a substitute role, and the two played time apart, Curry once again became the main point guard, averaging a career-low 5.1 assists per game, with a total of 70 assists for Klay, and Klay received Curry's 111 passes from the three-point line, shooting 40.5% from 45 of 111 shots , assisted 57 times on Green's inside frame, Green shot 55.3% from the inside frame, 51.4% from the three-point line with Curry 19-of-37 from the field, 50 assists from Kuminga, Kuminga shot 49.6% from the inside from the box, 46.2% from 6-of-13 from the three-point line, 45 assists from Wiggins, Wiggins shot 37.1% from the inside frame, 38.5% from 39 from the three-point line Curry made 35 of 39 passes, 32 assists from Looney, and Looney shot 56.9% from the inside Judging from the assist data of these old teammates, although everyone scolds Thompson, Thompson's return to Curry is still qualified by the standard of a shooter on the offensive end, Klay has a 37.8% three-point shooting rate and a 42% three-point shooting rate with the ball , This is all good, but it was pulled in the most critical game against the Kings, Green maintained a relatively stable performance, and the most serious decline was Wiggins, Kuminga performed well inside but because there was no projection, it was difficult to share the pressure of Curry's packing, Looney blocked and dismantled with high quality, but the independent offensive ability after blocking and dismantling was almost impossible to share the scoring pressure for Curry, or that sentence, Curry did not have a qualified helper around him at all.

Assists need to go both ways, the passer has strong ability and teammates have a strong grasp ability, Curry's passing vision and blocking offense can not be compared with the league's top point guards, his assists rely more on the high tacit cooperation with a group of old teammates and his own pass after attracting the bag, because he has a huge offensive threat with the ball, so he has been the focus of the defense of various teams, this season has suffered an average of 20.6 packs per game ranked 13th in the league, one of the biggest problems that plagued the Warriors in the past few seasons is that when Curry was caught in the pack, there was no deputy to deal with, Poole successfully played this role in the championship seasonCurry said at the press conference after the loss to the Kings that he couldn't imagine being without Klay and Green, but with the current ability of the two, they can't help Curry achieve good results.

Dunks-threes ranked 8th in the league in OEPM (Offensive Contribution Per 100 Possessions) at 5.3, Basketball Curry's OBPM (Offensive Contribution Per 100 Possessions vs. the league average) ranked 6th in the league at 6.3, and O-lebron ( 3.88 per 100 possessions) ranks 10th in the league, and on the whole, Curry is still at the league's first-tier level on the offensive end at this stage.

So Curry still has the strength to compete for the championship, the Golden State Warriors need a big adjustment, Klay's contract expires next season, but even if he saves $40 million, the Warriors' total salary will still reach 170 million above the luxury tax line, Paul's expiring contract is a place where you can make a fuss, Kuminga and Moody are facing contract renewal problems, it is foreseeable that Kuminga's asking price will definitely not be low, but with the Warriors' current salary pressure and this season's record, the owner must consider it, once Kuminga is not negotiated, it will also become a trade chip, in short, the future prospects of the Warriors are bleak, but the darker the environment, the brighter Curry's light will beI hope he can achieve more at the end of his career and add more luster to his legendary career.