The worst argument used to discredit steph curry...
The Worst Criticism of Steph Curry's Career
No FMVPs argument: In Steph Curry's career he has been to 5 finals appearances, was capable enough to win 3 of them and never got the special privilege of holding up the FMVP trophy at the end of the series which could be instrumental towards a players career. And at face value that sounds pretty bad but when you look at the context or lack of context for that matter around this criticism then you will understand that this argument gets way overblown. In 2015 for Curry's 1st championship he lost out to this award to Andre Iguodala and the 2nd and 3rd time he would lose out to Kevin Durant who played brilliant in the 17' and 18' NBA finals. But when you compare Stephen Curry's non FMVP finals performances to other FMVPs they compare to just about anybody!
Steph Curry stats in his winning finals series:
26.7 PPG | 7.5 AST | 6.4 REB | 58.8% TS | 39.6% 3PT | 92.7% FT
Average stats for every FMVP since 2004:
26.4 PPG | 5.4 AST | 8.4 REB | 59.5% TS | 37% 3PT | 78.6% FT
By those statistics we can see that Curry in the series were he walks out without a FMVP majority of the time still has a better series than the FMVPs in recent memory. And let's not forget what happened in the 2015 NBA finals were Curry went on to average 26-5-6 on 58.5% TS but lost out to FMVP to Andre Iguodala who averaged 16-6-4 and shot 58.8% TS. Since the SECOND it happened this moment has without a doubt been in consideration for the biggest FMVP robbery in the NBA history! Especially when you consider that Iguodala was only a starter in 3 of the 6 games in that series. Something we should pay more attention to is just how big curry came up for the Warriors in 4th quarters as Steph always made sure to elevate his game in the last 12 minutes of play...
Most 4th quarter points in a NBA finals series since 1997:
2000 Shaq: 69 PTS - 61% TS
2015 Curry: 65 PTS - 75% TS
1997 MJ: 64 PTS - 55% TS
2011 Dirk: 62 PTS - 68% TS
Curry had the 2nd most 4th quarter points in a finals series ever since this stat was tracked which severely emphasizes his clutch abilities! So as we just covered Curry had 69 total 4th quarter point through the 6 games (and Iguodala only had 36). And this is relevant because 4 of the 6 games in that series were all won within 8 points so majority of games were coming up close and in those moments Curry contributed more than anyone else in the series was able to! Since the FMVP was created 78.4% of the time the FMVP goes to the leading scorer on the winning team...well Steph Curry averaged 9.7 more points than the Golden States 2nd leading scorer. Let's also not forget that throughout the history of the NBA finals the team that wins game 5 goes on to win the series over 70% of the time. And heading into game 5 of that series between Golden State and Cleveland the series was split evenly at 2 games a piece so this game is crucial and the most important game of the series for Golden State. And you wanna know what Steph Curry put up that game?
35 points | 7 REB | 4 AST | 2 steals | 56.5% FG | 53.8% 3PT | 100% FT | +24 +/-
And in the 4th quarter alone Curry had:
17 Points | 3 REB | 0 AST | 1 steal | 71.4% FG | 60% 3PT | 100% FT | +13 +/-
A popular misconception is that Curry was locked up by Matthew Dellavedova during this series. But this narrative could not be more false. Dellavedova would give curry a hard time in game 2 and that's really it as in game 2 Steph couldn't make a shot to save his life. He would only have 19 points on 21.7% FG and 13.3% 3PT in over 42 minutes. But this was the ONLY game Dellavedova gave Curry issues. Because in the other 5 games in this finals series Curry averaged
27.4 PPG | 6.6 AST | 5.0 REB | 2.2 steals | 49.5% FG | 46% 3PT
So just 1 game is why people came up with this narrative that Dellavedova is the "curry stopper". And Curry really had to carry the warriors on the offensive end. As Klay Thompson drastically underperformed which dose not get stated enough and Draymond was never even know for his offensive talent but more for what he brings on the defensive side of the table. Here was Currry's offensive help for the series:
Iguodala: 16.3 PPG |58.8% TS| 40% 3PT| 35.7% FT
Draymond: 13 PPG |50% TS |26.3% 3PT | 73.5% FT
Klay Thompson: 15.8 PPG | 50.9% TS | 30% 3PT | 91.7% FT (also only averaged 10 PPG on 37% FG in games 3-6)
So by we stats we can see Iguodala stepped up but Klay and Draymond had troubles on the offensive end ESPECIALLY efficiency wise.
Curry vs other greats: Why not just look more in depth about Steph's non FMVP performances vs other FMVP performances?
2015 finals Curry (non FMVP):
26 PPG | 6.3 AST | 5.2 REB | 1.8 STLs | 0.2 BLKs | 58.5% TS | 38.5% 3PT | 88.5% FT
2007 Tony Parker (FMVP):
24.5 PPG | 5 REB | 3.3 AST | 0.8 STLs | 0.0 BLKs | 59.5% TS | 57.1% 3PT | 52.6% FT
2017 finals Curry (non FMVP):
26.8 PPG | 9.4 AST | 8 REB | 2.2 STLs | 0.0 BLKs | 61.9% TS | 38.8% 3PT | 89.7% FT
2011 Dirk Nowitzki (FMVP):
26.0 PPG | 2.0 AST | 9.7 REB | 0.7 STLs | 0.7 BLKs | 53.7% TS | 36.8% 3PT | 97.8% FT
2018 Finals Curry (non FMVP)
27.5 PPG | 6.8 AST | 6 REB | 1.5 STLs | 0.8 BLKs | 56.0% TS | 41.5% 3PT | 100% FT
1996 Michael Jordan (FMVP)
27.3 PPG | 4.2 AST | 5.3 REB | 1.7 STLs | 0.2 BLKs | 53.8% TS | 31.6% 3PT | 83.6% FT
So when looking at Curry's non FMVP performances vs other some other FMVP performances it shows that statistically curry dose not "shrink in the moment" but instead it shows us that Curry plays on the same level as the players that have had the privilege to hold up a FMVP trophy!
Fun Steph Curry Finals Stats:
- Out of the 5 highest scoring outputs for a non FMVP winner on the winning team curry owns 3 of them
- Curry is the only player to average 26 PPG and 6 AST in a finals series and not win FMVP...he has done this 3 times!
- Curry is 1 of 3 players to ever average 26 PPG and 6 AST for there finals CAREER
- Curry is 1 of 8 players to score 30 points or more in 10 or more finals games
- Curry is 1 of 2 players to put up 47-8-7 in a finals game
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