Why Steph Curry Is BY FAR, Still The 2023 NBA’s Best Player

This is Steph Curry over here. He's being guarded by the reigning sixth man of the year, Tyler Harrow. First, he uses the loony screen to get a bit of separation, but Harrow sticks on him, and that's when things got personal for Curry. A jab step followed by a between the legs and behind the back, which is next followed by another crossover that leads to Harrow slipping. And of course, the end result is a wide open shot for Curry. Sheesh, guys. There's a lot of unknowns in the world that we live in, but I know one thing for certain. Tyler Harrow is gonna remember that shot for the rest of his life. The three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 were Marcus Smart, Bam Adebayo, and Mikel Bridges. These three can stifle like 99% of the players in the league, but against Chef Curry, they don't know what to do except pray that he misses. I mean, look at Smart, for example. He's the first guard since Gary Payton to win the DPOY trophy, but Curry already exposed him last year in the playoffs when he repeatedly barbecued him on the biggest stage in the NBA. In fact, Steph actually cooked him so bad that I'm positive Marcus Smart had to go through therapy over the summer months. Then this season, when it comes to the other two, just take a look. Here's Curry and Adebayo on the perimeter. One between the leg and behind the back was all Curry needed to get by the all-star center, and man, did that look easy or what? Here's another look. Adebayo did a good job of contesting the first shot, but look what happens afterwards. He gets caught ball watching while Steph was already doing what he excels at, which is moving without the ball. By the time Steph catches the pass, look at the distance between the two of them. Bam is literally like a mile away, and the end result is Steph splashes another clutch three while the Defensive Player of the Year finalist says, sheesh. Then against the other finalist, check this out. Here's Curry. He knows that all he has to do against Bridges to get free is to use a screen, so that's exactly what he does. Draymond comes in and does his job, and look at all that separation he created. The end result is that this became a practice drill for number 30 and turns into another three-point play. Splash, splash, butter, baby. Now here's another play. Curry again uses a screen, but this time it's Looney who sets it. When Ayton helps out and closes the gap, Curry simply reads the play and dishes the ball to his teammate for an easy put in. The point I'm trying to make is, it doesn't matter how good the defense is, it doesn't matter if they're the best defensive players in the league. They can't stop what Curry's trying to do. Now, you might be saying, he's good, but he's not the best. I mean, you might even look at their current record and laugh because honestly, as a team, like what Steve Kerr said recently, it looks like the Warriors are playing pickup games. But the thing about this 2023 squad is that their second unit is a work in progress and thus as a team, they're losing games. What's more fair in determining how good Curry is compared with the rest of the NBA is seeing how well his team performs when he's in the lineup. And look here, this is the most used five-man lineup so far for Golden State. When Steph Curry and the other starters are all together on the floor, they've been outscoring their opponents by 37 points. Now let's look at some other powerhouses in the NBA and see how they're doing. We'll start with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. When the Milwaukee superstar is on the floor with his team's most used unit, they're only outscoring opponents by 22 points. With John Moran and the Grizzlies, that number drops to 14. For CP3 Booker and Aiton, that number is at 26. It's as clear as night and day from looking at the numbers here that Steph Curry is still the best player in the NBA in 2023. I mean, you can even look beyond the traditional basketball numbers and look at the Warriors franchise as a whole. In 2021, they were only worth about $5 billion. But now they've topped $7 billion and have become the NBA's most expensive team. Sheesh, guys. You know, after seeing these numbers, Joe Lacob might just be able to pay Draymond, Poole, and Wiggins those max contracts. Everybody might get a bag, all thanks to what Steph Curry's able to do on the court. Because the truth is, he can do everything. If you take away his three, he can get by you and get to the rim. If you don't take away his three, then he'll take it without hesitation. And if you try and take away both the drive and the three, he has the mid-range. Offensively, he's the most dangerous weapon in the game of basketball today. And that's why the Warriors are scoring the third most points currently in the entire league. Sheesh, guys, 118.7 per game. That's even more than they were scoring last year in their championship season. And again, the one responsible for this outburst of scoring is Curry. I mean, so far this season, he's putting up averages of 31 points per game on nearly 50-40-90 shooting splits. In addition, it's not like his stats are skewed by one big game or anything. He's scored 30 points so far in every game except one. And he's doing it in style, too. I mean, just look at this over here. Here's Curry with the ball being defended by 6'8 Isaiah Stewart. First, he does a shot fake followed by a jab step. Then when he puts the ball on the floor, the amount of crossovers he does here is just too much to count. Then when Stewart is lost in the dance, Curry finishes with a step back. And look at all that space he created. Sheesh, talk about putting someone in the blender. Another scary fact about this all is that Curry's only gonna get better as his team gets better. For example, when Wiseman learns how to play his position better and gets to stay in games longer, then whenever Curry drives, that lob threat weapon is gonna be there, which will add another layer to Curry's repertoire. I mean, look here. After Curry uses the screen from Wiseman, Ban plays him too close, and as a result, Curry just throws it to the area where only Wiseman can catch it, and the rest is history. Then as Kamenga gets better on defense, Curry's gonna be able to conserve more of his energy and use it on the offensive end of the court. And what's insane about this is the fact that Curry's doing this in the season where he's turning 35, for crying out loud. And the scary thing for the league is he doesn't seem to be slowing down either. Just like how LeBron is still dunking the ball at age 38, Steph Curry is gonna have his dance moves and his shooting abilities until he's like 40. Anyways, here's what Shaquille O'Neal recently said of number 30. Nobody's gonna beat the best player in the world, Steph Curry. Best player in the world? Steph Curry's the best player in the world? Yeah, by far, hell yeah. Best shooter in the world? Best player in the world? As Kenny would tell you, you can have a category, but the real ones are recognized by the championships that you have. Nobody plays better than Steph Curry. He's a tough shot taker, tough shot maker. I like where he's brought his career. Let me tell you something, I love Rocky type stories. Kenny was highly recruited coming out of New York, I was highly recruited. Steph was a highly recruited, so to be able to work that hard and be the best shooter and one of the best players in the league, he gets my props for that. Anyway guys, here's some food for thought. Curry is currently averaging 6.7 rebounds per game, which is more than Ben Simmons who stands six foot ten. Then when it comes to three point makes, Curry is still leading the pack at 4.9 makes a game. And about those threes, Curry shoots it best when there's a defender right in his face, which is nuts. I mean, think about it. How in the world does accuracy increase when the shot gets tougher? Anyways, we gotta inform Coach Kerr to instruct Curry to only shoot it when there's a defender literally in his grill.