The Numbers Game: Stephen Curry Is so Much More Than the NBA's Best Shooter

It's easy to focus on Stephen Curry's prolific shooting.

Every time he takes to the court, he splashes at least a couple three-point attempts through the net. And somehow, he's able to maintain ridiculous levels of accuracy while working off the bounce, leading to hordes of highlights and numerous big shots capable of swinging the momentum meter in any given contest. At this point, it's not even remotely surprising he's on pace to break what seems like every three-point record in existence. 

Hard as it may be to do, let's pretend Curry forgot how to shoot. Maybe the Monstars stole his talent in a Space Jam sequel, leaving him looking like Rajon Rondo whenever he crosses someone up and lets an attempt fly from another zip code. 

Even then, he'd still be remarkably effective. Mind-numbing as his shooting exploits may be, there's so much more to the game of the early 2015-16 MVP front-runner.

Passing

As a distributor, Curry isn't confined to flashy plays. Sure, he can put together glamorous sequences (see above), but he's also a fundamentally sound passer who consistently initiates offense for the Warriors. 

It's not the reigning MVP's raw assist numbers that make him stand out. In fact, those actually hide his true value as a traditional point guard, seeing as his 5.6 dimes per contest leave him just outside this season's top 20 assist generators. 

Curry's ability to run the Golden State system to near perfection pushes him over the top. He's always willing to make the extra pass, attempting to turn a good shot into a great one, and he's an absolute master at getting the ball swinging faster than a defense can move. According to NBA.com's SportVU data, he's averaging three secondary assists—0.4 more per game than Jarrett Jack and everyone else in the Association. 

All assisting metrics considered, we're looking at a player who's generating an elite number of points with his passing each and every time he takes to the court: 

The truly amazing part is that he could be doing even better. Chances are good that he will be in the near future.

Curry's teammates are shooting just 43.4 percent off his passes when they shoot. Considering the Dubs boast the league's second-best field-goal percentage and his passes are subjectively quite accurate, that feels like a fluke created by small sample size. The belief is only strengthened by the fact that Golden State knocked down 56.2 percent of its attempts off Curry passes in 2014-15 and 55.2 percent the year prior. 

As that percentage regresses to the mean, Curry's passing chops will only look even more impressive. If it rises to 55 percent, he'd be averaging approximately 21.24 passing points generated, leaving him trailing only Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, John Wall and Ricky Rubio. 

Even given the inexplicable inaccuracy of his teammates, he's already standing out as one of the league's 10 best distributors during the opening salvo of the current campaign. 

Driving

Noah Graham/Getty Images

Curry doesn't have to launch up shots from the perimeter in order to score.

This season, his handles have looked even tighter, and it's led to him creating even more space when heading toward the hoop. Couple that with improved finishing skills through traffic, and you have a scorer who's quite dangerous when he puts his head down and attempts to get to the rim. Of course, he also keeps his head up and looks for kick-out passes, but that's not particularly relevant at the moment.

Those kinds of finishes aren't exactly easy, but Curry has made them look remarkably simple on far too many occasions during the 2015-16 season. If he has the smallest modicum of space, he's able to drop the ball through the net, whether he's flicking it up toward the hoop in underhanded fashion, putting some english on the rock or using his deadly floater.  

What's particularly terrifying is how much better he's gotten at these touch shots in just one year. We're dealing with small samples again, but Curry is playing with unbridled confidence from all areas of the court, and he's become that much better than he was while winning MVP last season.

Per NBA Savant, we can look at how he's improved from last year to this one, with respect to a number of shot types:

Shot Type	2014-15 FG%	2015-16 FG%	FG% Improvement
Floaters	22-of-46 (47.8%)	8-of-15 (53.3%)	5.5%
Driving Shots	140-of-183 (76.5%)	20-of-24 (83.3%)	6.8%
Runners	39-of-57 (68.4%)	15-of-20 (75%)	6.6%
Layups	183-of-264 (69.3%)	33-of-44 (75%)	5.7%

"Teams can try to run Curry off the three-point line, but he's proven so adept at getting any shot he wants, or breaking down the defense within the three-point arc that he often just creates another good shot," Scott Davis wrote for Business Insider (h/t Yahoo) while bringing up the possibility that the point guard has become so effective teams might start implementing Hack-a-Curry strategies.  

Last season, he could get these shots off. This year, he's getting them off even more effectively, which has added yet another dangerous element to his game. 

Curry still doesn't attack the basket as often as some of the other star guards in the Association. He doesn't need to, given his prolific range and prodigious perimeter output. But when he does choose to begin a drive—defined by NBA.com as "any touch that starts at least 20 feet of the hoop and is dribbled within 10 feet of the hoop and excludes fast breaks"—he's one of the most efficient players in the league. 

As you can see below, 54 players have suited up in at least five contests and embarked upon five or more drives per game, using that NBA.com definition that's different than the one utilized in the previous table. Of them, only Dwyane Wade has posted a higher field-goal percentage than Curry: 

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Put another way, Curry ranks No. 52 in drives per game thus far. Nonetheless, he's still produced 4.5 points per game on those drives, which leaves him behind only 23 players. 

Defense

Rocky Widner/Getty Images

Early in his career, Curry was a huge defensive liability. His ineptitude on the less glamorous end forced his coaches to find ways to hide him rather than hemorrhage points, and his positioning was consistently a bit funky. 

But that's changed in recent seasons, even if the general public has been slow to accept this Warrior as a two-way player. He no longer switches off opposing point guards on a regular basis, and he's able to probe ball-handlers for steals while forcing them into the spots Golden State desires. 

ESPN.com's Ethan Sherwood Strauss penned a fantastic breakdown of Curry's improvements near the end of the last go-round, and it remains just as relevant today. He's still spinning around screens, keeping his hands high to deflect passes and doing everything else that allowed the potential breakthrough to become a reality during the title-winning season. 

Steals aren't always indicative of defensive ability, but they do matter for Curry. Due to the caliber of the rim-protecting presences behind him, he has the ability to gamble more often, and he takes full advantage. After setting his high-water mark with two swipes per contest in 2014-15, he's raised that to 2.5 so far this season. 

Plus, since he's scoring 1.58 points per possession in transition—good for the 94.9th percentile—you can argue that his steals are even more valuable. They nearly always lead to fast-break opportunities, where he's much deadlier than almost any player in the league. 

Curry is never going to compete for Defensive Player of the Year. But as good as he is on offense, he's even more valuable if he can remain an above-average defender.

That's what he's now on pace to do for the second consecutive season, as shown by the number of defensive points he's saved (explanation of the metric here) above what an average player would on an average team:

No matter what type of specific metrics we look at, it's become increasingly clear Curry is no liability on defense. 

Check out the field-goal percentage he's allowing to his assignments, as compared to what they typically shoot: 

Season	Typical Opponent FG%	Opponent FG%, Curry Guarding	Difference
2013-14	44.3	42.9	-1.4
2014-15	43.2	40.5	-2.7
2015-16	40.4	38.8	-1.6

When opponents are getting within six feet of the basket, they're torching this 1-guard. But if they're shooting jumpers, he's been able to contest them effectively on a consistent basis, holding them to remarkably low shooting percentages from the perimeter.  

That's par for the course. 

According to NBA.com's SportVU data, Curry is allowing 1.63 points per possession in isolation situations, which is decidedly poor. However, that's fairly irrelevant, because he ends up in those one-on-one conundrums so infrequently. The Warriors defense is designed to prevent those plays from occurring when Curry is on the court. 

A similar story unfolds when the point guard is caught in a straight pick-and-roll situation, forced to cover the ball-handler without any help. But when he's working against spot-up shooters, he ranks in the 90.6th percentile, allowing just 0.5 points per possession. 

Curry obviously has weaknesses on this end. His physical profile will never allow him to make All-Defense squads or thrive in every situation.

Fortunately for the Dubs, he understands his limitations and has worked to insert himself in the right kind of plays, allowing him to blossom into an above-average defensive player. Sure, it's easy to think otherwise when you watch him on the rare possession where he's trapped in isolation hell. But if you dig deeper into the on-court proceedings, his value is much more obvious. 

Rebounding

Kyle Terada/Associated Press

The ability to crash the boards often goes overlooked when discussing point guards, but it shouldn't. Having a floor general who can sneak in to grab a rebound and start the subsequent fast break without necessitating an outlet pass is a nice luxury, and so too is boasting yet another player who can create second-chance opportunities. 

If you lined up the league's starting 1-guards and guessed their rebounding skills without any data other than their physical appearances, you likely wouldn't assume Curry is anything special. His 6'3" frame doesn't tower over other players at the position, and he's still working with a rather slight build. Plus, he's just not as athletic as myriad other point guards in the Association. 

But Curry has a fantastic nose for rebounding, thanks to a subconscious understanding of exactly where caroms will go. A handful of times per game, he darts to the exact spot the missed shot will wind up, catching the ball just before anyone else arrives in the area. 

Plays like this one in last year's playoffs come fewer and further between, but the reigning MVP still manages to rack up an impressive number of boards even without boxing out anyone on either end of the court: 

Rebounder rating is a metric Bleacher Report's Kelly Scaletta and I came up with in the 2014 offseason, and the basic function is to show how many boards a player would grab if every opportunity were contested and the player suited up for a team that produced a league-average number of rebounding chances. 

Russell Westbrook (5.8), Rajon Rondo (5.5) and Jarrett Jack (4.2) are the only point guards grabbing more uncontested rebounds per game than Curry (4.1), which is impressive enough in and of itself. It speaks volumes about that aforementioned ability to get to spots. But it's not like the Golden State leader is too shabby when there are other players in the area, either. 

When looking at the rebounder rating of each and every starting point guard in the Association, Curry still stands out. We're early in the season, but these are the top 10 scores: 

Think about the sum of all these parts. 

Not only is Curry one of the five best rebounders at his position—and getting better each and every season—but he's also an above-average defensive player who's become one of the league's most efficient drivers. Throw in passing chops that leave him brushing shoulders with the NBA's elite distributors, and you already have a nearly complete package. 

There aren't many teams in the league who would turn their collective noses up at a player who stood out positively in all those areas, even if he was utterly incompetent when shooting from beyond the arc. Plain and simple, Curry would remain one of professional basketball's better point guards even if he never attempted a three-point shot. 

Joe Murphy/Getty Images

However, attempt them he does.

And he's quite good when he lofts up those shots from distance. Through 11 games, he's knocking down 45.2 percent of his three-point tries while remaining on pace to shatter his own single-season mark by a jaw-dropping 139 makes. For perspective, only 22 players made 139 triples in 2014-15.

Curry's shooting will always take center stage, and rightfully so. Just don't make the mistake of thinking he's some sort of specialist. 

On the contrary, the league's reigning MVP is one of the more complete players out there. 

Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from NBA.com, Basketball-Reference.com and my own databases. They're current heading into Nov. 16's games. 

Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.