A lie told about Steph Curry...

 

Heading into the past 2 NBA seasons fans wanted Steph Curry to "prove himself." What they mean by this is that they wanted to see if Curry could lead an average roster to a good record and a good season. While being well unaware of the fact that Curry has already been able to accomplish this feat a couple of years before his MVP season. So you'll be glad to know that Curry in the 2 seasons before 2015 was able to lead 2 average roster to 47 and 51 win seasons. 

All that's really needed to do here is date back to the 2 previous seasons and you can see examples of Steph Curry leading average rosters to the NBA playoffs and a good record. In fact I would as far as to say that those Warrior teams over achieved. In 2013 many fans and analyst didn't believe that the Warriors were a playoff team. Despite the misbelief Curry led Golden State to 47 wins which was good enough for the 6th in the Western Conference. 

Curry had statistical outputs of 22.9 points per game, 6.9 assists, 4.0 rebounds, on 58.9% TS, 45.3% from behind the arc, and 90.0% from the FT line throughout the 78 games. Curry was 5th in Box plus minus, 5th in VORP, and 7th in win shares. 

However the reason im referring back to this season is because what Curry did in the playoffs. In the 2013 playoffs Curry in the 1st round faced off vs the Denver Nuggets who had 10 more wins in their win column and was top 5 in offensive rating and stood at 11th in defensive rating. Curry's best teammate in David Lee only started in 1 game of the 6 due to an injury that was done to his hip. Curry would bump up his numbers to 24 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds on 47-44-100 shooting splits. And led the Golden State to the 2nd round. 

Considering a handful of people didn't expect Golden State to be a playoff team isn't it therefore fair to say Curry leading Golden State past the Nuggets is an over achievement? Nuggets were the team that was heavily favoured in that series mainly because the had 10 more wins and because of David Lee's absence.

In the 2nd round Curry and the Warriors were matched up with the Spurs who would eventually make the finals. Curry once again played great and was great on the stat sheet as well. His performance included a excellent 44 point burst in game 1. And along with that he had 11 assists on 18 of 35 shooting. Curry would take the Spurs to 6 games and almost 7 with his best teammate not playing a single minute in this series. Because of this who knows what could have happened had he had David Lee. 

Now people might say Curry still had Klay Thompson. However Klay wasn't yet the player he became during the Warriors championship runs. Klay was a high level 3 point shooter but wasn't the defender he was during the Warriors title runs and was just in his 2nd season in the NBA. At Small Forward the Warriors were supposed to have a rotation of Bradon Rush, Richard Jefferson, as well as Harrison Barnes. But due to an ACL injury in the second game of the season Brandon Rush didn't play another game for the rest of the year. Richard Jefferson was also dealing with injuries and was in an out of the lineup. Because of this they had a Rookie Harrison Barnes at small forward.

Andrew Bogut was supposed to be their consistent Center. Although he would just play 32 games during the regular season. Andris Biedrins was there backup Center and he as well was dealing with injuries of his own. Because of this Festus Ezeli was the Starting Center for the majority of the season and he was as well a rookie. So it wouldn't be too far fetch to say that Curry leading the Warriors to 47 wins and a hard fought second round exit was better than most peoples standards. 

2014: In 2014 Curry notched numbers of 24.0 points, 8.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, on 61.0% TS, while having a box plus minus of 7.4. He did all of this while leading Golden State to their first 50 win season in 20 years. In fact Curry's season was so impressive that it accumulated to him being 6th in MVP voting and earned him his very first all NBA team. And as for help Curry had no all star tçs, as well as no all NBA teammate either. Curry had 1 all defensive known as Andre Iguodala who would miss 19 during the season. This is a primary example of Curry leading an average supporting cast to a good season. 

During the playoffs Curry and the Warriors faced off against the Chris Paul led Los angles Clippers who had 6 more wins in their win column and were statistically the best offensive team in the NBA. Blake Griffin was a member of the all NBA 2nd team as well as 3rd in MVP voting. Chris Paul would make all NBA 1st team and all defensive 1st team as well. And they had the 6MOTY in Jamal Crawford. Despite this Curry with no eye popping teammates would take them to a grueling 7 game series that eventually ended in a 5 point loss in the final matchup. Curry for the series would average 23-8-4 on good shooting splits. Curry also had a 33 point outburst in game 4 and in the elimination game Curry notched 33 points and 9 assists. 

So revisisting the prior seasons before Steph Currys superstar years there were multiple seasons in which Curry was able to lead passable rosters to a good record while also being a high level player himself. So despite contrary belief Curry doesn't need 3 all stars to play well nor does he need 3 all star to lead a team to a good record. He had good years before 2015 and also had to climb to this level of superiority.