Via Sports Illustrated, this is pretty freaking cool.
The easy stat to cite is Curry's lifetime three-point percentage of 44.6, the second highest ever behind Steve Kerr's 45.4 (and without the benefit of the shorter 1990s-era line). That number does Curry a disservice, though, for the other players near the top of that list are guys such as Kerr, Hubert Davis, Jason Kapono, Steve Novak and Tim Legler. All are prototypical spot-up shooters, men whose NBA existence is/was predicated on playing limited minutes, standing at a certain spot on the arc and waiting for someone to pass them the ball, often once the defense has been sucked in another direction. Of the top 40 three-point percentage leaders, only Steve Nash and Mark Price were also primary ball handlers, and neither of them was counted on to score like Curry, who is the Warriors' first (and occasionally only viable) scoring option.]
Rather, to truly appreciate Curry's skill, you have to look at how and where he takes his shots. This season, according to NBA.com, the 6-foot-3 Curry is shooting 65.9 percent on pull-up jumpers (in 176 attempts), 69.8 percent on step-back jumpers (63 attempts) and 72.7 percent on running bank shots (a smaller sample size of 11 attempts). For comparison, Novak has not attempted a step-back jumper. Or a running bank shot. He has, however, taken four pull-up jumpers, and no doubt each one scared the hell out of Knicks coach Mike Woodson.
Certainly, there are other players who sink crafty shots, or are devastating mid-range shooters -- Kobe Bryant, for example. What separates Curry from those players is his consistency and range. Curry doesn't just make a lot of threes; he makes a lot of deep threes. Whereas many of the spot-up specialists camp out in the short corner like gargoyles, Curry usually launches from the top of the arc, and often on the move.
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