Stephen Curry declares; fits the blazers like a glove

Our backcourt is simply too inefficient. Roy is a top 10 player in the NBA, we've seen that this year, so I think we need to look at the backcourt from a standpoint of how best to fit him. Roy is an incredible drive and kick player, very strong rebounder for his size, and good ballhandler. But he is not a great distributor as his court vision is lacking, he doesn't push the tempo at all, and he isn't a great post-entry passer.

Logically in our backcourt partner for Roy we need a player who can:
Play off the ball, lead the break, have good court vision, space the floor for Roy by shooting well, and make solid entry passes.

Steve Blake does one of these things well (space the floor with shooting), yet is terrible on the break, has poor court vision, and doesn't make great entry passes.

Bayless' has no concept of how to play off the ball, a suspect shot at this point, and sub-par court vision. He's a scorer, and can develop into a quite good one, but doesn't have great complimentary skills for Roy at this point in time.

Sergio runs the break exceptionally well and has great court vision and entry passing skills, yet his jumper is suspect (along with D), and he can't play off the ball as a result of his lack of jumper or post skills.

I firmly believe believe we need to upgrade the PG position by using Blake and Bayless. I think Sergio could be a great 15 mpg backup PG in the league, and wouldn't be opposed to keeping him (essentially as Roy's backup).

I do think Rudy also could work very well next to Roy long-term, as he fits many of the above categories and makes fantastic entry passes.

However in this draft one player really stands out as a fit:
Stephen Curry. While everyone knows about his fantastic shooting ability, what is underrated about his game is his incredible court vision and passing skills. Bob Knight's offered him very high praise calling him "the best passer at the college level" he's ever seen, I don't take that lightly. Curry is very good at pushing the ball in the open court and playing off the ball. He's a natural fit next to Roy and could space the floor incredibly. And he could be had too in the 8-15 range it seems.

[video=youtube;-JyTIQq5H-g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JyTIQq5H-g[/video]

The big question marks with Curry seem to be his ability to adapt to being the number 3,4, or 5 option on the floor rather than the primary option, and his below-average athleticism at the PG position. However, his athleticism is still above the level of Steve Blake, and I'm not entirely sure I see him as a 35 mpg PG in the league, but as a good 'role' player. Another criticism of Curry is his defense, but he is a heady player and while athletically limited, Batum could fit very well as a defensive presence against elite PG's. I do think he would fit very well next to Roy in stretches though, and as a result we could have a rotation somewhat like this:

position 1 Roy (33)/Sergio(15)
position 2 Curry(20)/Rudy(28)

In this sense he'd really be somewhat of a backup to Rudy, yet he could start so that Sergio spends all his time on the floor with Rudy.

Of course if we're able to snag Rubio I won't complain. Other options I'd like to investigate:

Steve Nash (could finish out career here, ability to shoot helps him to play off the ball a little more)

Mike Conley (perhaps too valuable in Memphis at this point, unless they go after a PG in the draft, Rubio?)

Ricky Rubio (obvious)

Andre Miller (expiring, maybe seeking big last contract, isn't a fantastic shooter, but very heady and good mid-range game, never been good at pick n roll, but Roy would be running that anyways, would make life easy for our bigs)

 

Bayless has had some nice passes too. It's too small of a sample. I would need to see more.

Also, small quibble.

Knight actually said he was the best passer in college basketball, but not the best he'd ever seen. Still, some impressive compliments from Bobby Knight.

 

Steph Curry won't be there at pick #24.

So unless you're thinking about trading up . . .

If you trade up to draft Curry, Bayless is gone right?

I'd prefer a bigger, sronger, defensive minded PG.

 

I keep seeing Blazer fans bring up Ricky Rubio over and over but do you guys really think he's anywhere close to realistic w/o giving up anything REALLY significant? I have never seen a team trade up to a top 5 pick from #24 without giving up a franchise player.

 

Sebastian Telfair netted a #7 pick straight up, and he was only a decent prospect at the time.

I don't think it's impossible that some package like Bayless and Rudy could get a pick beyond #1 (like 2-5).

 

Portland has one of the most efficient offenses in the league - the entire "our back-court is in-efficient" mantra does not fly with me - especially offensively. Where our back-court needs an upgrade is on the defense - and I am not sure that Curry is a real answer there - he seems a lot more of a designated instant-offense off the bench kind of guy to me - which is exactly what we have in Rudy.

If he is there - I am certain Portland would love to draft him - but his role on this team is questionable to me. The place where Rubio is much more interesting - is his defensive potential. I would guess that Jay-Bay is a better prospect than Curry as far as defensive ability is concerned.

I would not mind seeing JB traded as part of a pick exchange that would get us Rubio - but I would hate to see it for Curry.

 

Curry's shooting alone would make life easier for Roy, Aldridge, and Oden.

 

Curry just isn't a point guard. He's a player that was efficient at passing the ball on a crappy team because he was seeing double and triple teams because no one else on that team was a real scoring threat. Its easy to get assists when thats the case. In the NBA, coaches will find out he's a natural 2 guard and he will get shut down by longer, more physical guards.

 

what about iggy?

 

IMO our team is young enough we love winning and blowing teams out is still very fun for them. We had the most blow-outs of any team in the league this year. Eliminate top five wins and losses for each team in the league and I bet our offense would not be nearly as efficient. If you've watched any games (other than blow-outs) this year you'd have to know that we have a glaring hole in that we get very very few easy buckets and our transition offense is straight up terrible with Blake in there. We rebound well and as a result have an efficient offense, but we need more easy stuff with the quality of our players and how much the defense have to focus on Roy and Oden there's no reason we don't get better buckets than we often settle for.

 

Exactly the offense is built around those guys with Curry/Webster/Rudy to surround them for floor spacing and incredible shooting ability and Batum as a defensive energy guy. I love that core seven players, all unselfish and heady guys.

 

Telfair still had all the hype from college at the time though and was showing some improvement, didn't look like he would be that big of a bust to a team that hadn't been watching him play everyday.




Bayless & Rudy would probably be a pretty decent foundation to a deal but I'm sure you would have to eat a fatty contract, and I'm not sure you would be winning the deal giving up both of those guys, I'm sure Bayless or Rudy would both be top 10 picks this year possibly.

 

HA, that's BS. I wouldn't trade Rudy for Curry straight up, and I bet almost every GM in the league would take that deal. Rudy is semi-proven and has at least as high of a ceiling of Curry. I would however trade Bayless for him, as Bayless has a higher ceiling I think many GM's would be interested in a Bayless/Blake for Curry/contract deal.

 

they are talking about rubio

 

Still not true. In our last game, in the playoffs, with only 2 players really hitting it offensively - which was far from a blowout - we had 120 points per 100 possessions - which would be the #1 offense in the league by far...

This team scores at the kind of efficiency that is truly scary - especially when you figure out that once they start going more to Oden for easy close shots - they would get better.

Just to give you an idea - we were #2 in the league during the regular season - and the best team was 9 points less per 100 possessions than what we hit in our last game.

The numbers just do not match the theory in any way, shape or form. Our offense is not the problem. It's our perimeter defense - and again - Curry seems like a very nice guy to have if he is there - but with his size, relative lack of strength and speed - he seems like he was built to be an instant offense off the bench in the NBA - and we already have a couple of guys playing in this position - one of them - Rudy - is more athletic and a better passer.

 

If we're going for a point guard in this draft as "The Answer"TM (which I just don't see) then let it be a real point guard like Rubio or a more realistic target like Eric Maynor. Stephen Curry just doesn't do a whole lot for me: great pure shooter, but if you think Bayless doesn't project out as an NBA point guard then I'd double that worry when it comes to Curry, who isn't nearly as athletic and played against much worse competition than our own J-Bay.

 

curry is better at passing than rudy.

 

No way Rudy is some much a better passer then Curry and it isn't even debatable. I like Curry but he is a SG and if people think he is more of a PG then Bayless they are crazy. I think Bayless has a higher NBA ceiling and I wouldn't trade Bayless straight across for Curry.

 

dude you posted this same thing at RealGM and BlazersEdge.

and at every single one nearly everyone has disagreed with you.