Steph Curry is going to be a phenomenal player. He might not make Monta expendable, but he certainly gives you guys a great backcourt of Monta and Curry. However, this all assumes you guys hold on to him.
A lot of people would disagree. Monta and Curry may both turn out to be great players, but I don't think they're great together. They've done better than I thought but it's still not winning basketball when those two are on the court together, each holds the other back in some ways. I think Monta will go eventually. And hey...there's a Western Conference Rookie of the Month Award? How about a Northern California Rookie of the Third Wednesday of February? Still, I love the development I'm seeing from Curry. He needs to be more assertive on offense (again, Monta's presence hinders him here), stop reaching on defense, and take care of the ball a little better (he has great handles but mostly trying to get too fancy with his passes occasionally). But all signs point to him be at least a very good, starting-quality NBA point guard.
Curry has been having a great season. Currently, he is in second place to Tyreke Evans for ROY, but if he had the right coach and was on a decent team, he could have a shot at winning the ROY hardware. He looks like a kid still. And let's not forget he's older than Anthony Randolph.
I dunno, I think the worse the team, the higher the chances for ROY. (More minutes, not having to defer to the veterans). Curry is developing faster than I expected, so I don't feel like he's being held back. In fact, Nellie is giving him a ton of minutes (due to injuries of course, but also I think that he at least trusts him). I'll continue to be concerned though, as the future problem is whether an Ellis-Curry duo is reliable given the obvious height disadvantage on the defensive end. Maybe a defensive specialist in the other spots (either a perimeter-focused small forward that can focus on the star player, or a shot-blocking power forward that would allow Curry/Ellis to stay close and pressure the perimeter player without fear of giving up the first-step drive for an easy bucket) would solve the matchup problem. Of course, we'll never know with Nellie because he refuses to consider the defensive side of the ball as a reason to play someone. Still, nice to have this kind of problem with having good players than other problems.
I think if Curry and Evans' Season follow their current progressions, Curry's got a chance to steal the ROY. We'll see though. Either way, I think Curry will be the better player in 5 years
I think that's the ticket if we're going to keep Curry and Ellis. The rest of the guys need to focus on defense, rebounding, swinging the ball on offense, and finishing when the ball is given under the basket. Looking beyond Nellie-ball, it'd be nice to have a proven post player, but that's probably asking too much at this point...really wish Brandan Wright wasn't injured...he might turn out to be the better player than Randolph. Raja Bell fits the mold pretty well for a defensive minded team player, but he's a little undersized as a 3. Shane Battier is perfect. Basically, the team will have to be crafted to overcome the size deficiency at the guard spots.
Imagine Battier as our starting SF and Raja Bell as our backup 2/3. Hell, I might even prefer Bell starting over Monta. Yeah, I said it.
A starting lineup of Curry, Bell, Battier, Wright and Biedrins would be the exact opposite of the team that we have now. Bring in Buike off the bench for some scoring, or slide Beans over to the 4 and put Turiaf in at the 5 and you'd have one of the top defensive teams in the NBA. They wouldn't be able to score very well, but neither would the other team. I'd pay to watch that team play basketball.
No Doubt... and with the way Curry is developing, he may not need anyone else to score very much in a few years from now... Or, slip Randolph into the 4, assuming he becomes a scorer. Curry Bell Battier Randolph Beans With Bell and Battier, the young guys would have NO other choice than to learn to play the right way. Man, that would be an about-face for this franchise... Or, we can feed Maggette for 20 shots a night...
