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Shooting Quality and Stephen Curry's Slump

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     It’s easy to forget how well Stephen Curry started the season. His MVP candidacy, and for a long period he was full blown frontrunner, was built on more than the early dominance for the Warriors in terms of record. After 22 team games, Curry was averaging nearly 28 points, shooting almost 42% from deep on 13 attempts a game and playing the best defense of his career.       December, however, saw a precipitous drop in Curry’s efficiency – even if the Warriors have through their elite defense managed to keep the train running along. The case he was building for a third MVP award feels already lost in the collective memory as he, to put it bluntly, bricked his way out it. In the following 16 team games (out of which Curry played 14), he’s scoring 25.6 points per game on 34.6% from deep and an extremely more concerning 37.8% from the field overall. Even the free throw shooting is below 90%, pointing towards a slump of the kinds the best shooter in NBA history has never seen before.   
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In Focus: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's offensive output

Right off the bat, I love SGA and I fully went aboard the train last season. For as fun as the Poku experience is and how much we can appreciate Giddey missing a lay up only to get a rebound and hit a perfectly placed no-look bounce pass, Gilgeous-Alexander has been the only guarantee of true competency as an engine for their offense - and he's been achieved far beyond that baseline. Playing in  isolation, Shai specialises in blowing by opponents. Employing a mix of a  super explosive first step, which he uses seemingly out of a pure standstill position,  and delightfully unorthodox timings to take off, the fact he goes off in between the usual  beats means he catches defenders off-guard and mid-shifting their feet,  as beautifully pointed out on a By Any Means Basketball video. He’s used his  technique to leave even elite defensive pests like Thybulle behind him and beyond reach of recovery with considerable  consistency. It’s small-guard like agility and feet swiftness but in a l
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Golden State Warriors (28-29) 114 - 119 Boston Celtics (31-26)

1st HALF Right away, Curry’s gravity was making damages. Smart is going to stay airtight following him and, when Steph screens for Bazemore, Tatum is trying to contain Curry sprinting out so there’s no one to cover Bazemore and it’s an open layup from the Draymond feed . And Kerr will always fall in love with players that can make the most of these windows . And Dray has taken part in so many of these that he smells it if you try to give one back . On the other side, Boston is trying to get Curry chasing Kemba around screens . In the first one, the Ojeleye screen forced Curry, as the only perimeter player, to engage in the chase. Kemba does hit Thompson for the roll but Draymond has no problem helping away from Sami to force Thompson back into Looney’s path. The second play, Curry started on Smart so they tried to switch - the first of many such plays -  but the Warriors defenders were in the same page, called it and Bazemore stays parallel to Tristan to stop any curl and they prepare
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In Focus: Rui Hachimura

           For a team whose spot in the current East hierarchy seems fully set - I’d say it’s a relative consensus they should find their way into in the play-in tournament - a lot of uncertainty still remains about the Washington Wizards. With Bertans now making $80 Million, how are the minutes to be divided between the many options at forward? Do we really know anyone on the closing five outside of the backcourt? What the hell does “John Wall in 2021” look like? But baring an unexpected blow up of the roster, nothing intrigues me more than the role 2nd year player Rui Hachimura will have within this squad and what developments we’ll see from him during the year. The Japanese forward had himself a solid rookie season where even more skeptic observers like myself saw him easily make his way to proper contention for All-Rookie selections. The 2019-20 Wizards had little (if any) defensive accountability but the team went all the way towards offense [1], for which Hachimura was no small
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The Detroit Pistons shake things up, and in a good way!

It’s a very weird sentiment to feel so positive about the Pistons franchise. Blake Griffin’s All-NBA run last year was a bright spot in an otherwise painfully forgettable last few seasons, perpetuating the struggles of a rebuild that followed their dominant run in the early 00s. And even so, Blake’s season was disappointingly derailed by a left knee injury from which he is yet to fully recover. But maybe, just maybe , draft night was a sign that things are heading in a better direction in the Motor City. This past June, Troy Weaver was hired to fill the vacancy of the team’s general manger. The former vice-president of basketball operations in OKC under Sam Presti - current owner of 357 future draft picks - showed an aggressiveness worthy his former boss and attacked the draft from all angles. The night began with acquiring the #16 pick from Houston by eating the salary of Trevor Ariza and sending back only one “heavily protected” pick (1). The Rockets also bought Detroit’s 2021 second
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