Shooting Quality and Stephen Curry's Slump
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.