Mavericks film room: Seth Curry’s absolutely ridiculous 3-point efficiency由Mavs.Ben 发表在Big D https://bbs.hupu.com/688
When you think about what it’s going to take for the Mavericks to succeed in Orlando, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis naturally come to mind. But if the Mavericks are to finish out the eight-game regular season strong and make some noise during their first playoff appearance in four years, it’s going to take more than two young stars about to experience the NBA playoffs for the first time.
Seth Curry is one of many Mavericks who fall into the “role player” category. While others may have the argument for greater importance or a more complete skill set, there’s an argument to be made that nobody fits the offensive system the Mavericks run through Doncic and Porzingis quite like Curry does. Think back to Doncic’s rookie season and all the times he would drive the lane and kick the ball out to an open player outside the arc, only for the resulting shot to clank off the rim. In 72 games last season, Doncic totaled 429 assists; this season, in 54 games, he’s already at 470 assists. There are many reasons, and players, that contribute to that rise. But a lot of it comes down being able to knock down the open shot.
As we’re about to see, nobody on the team, or even the NBA, was as efficient as Curry was in the months leading up to the league’s suspension on March 11th.
Season stats: 59 games: 12.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists (all per game), 50.0 FG percent, 45.3 3-point percent, 84.1 FT percent
First, I’d like to remind everybody that this piece, and the entire film room series, is not a season evaluation on the players we’re breaking down. Instead, it’s a reminder of where these guys were when the season abruptly paused on March 11th so you have an idea of what to expect when play resumes in Orlando on July 31st. Especially in Curry’s case, judging his season holistically would paint an inaccurate picture of what to expect going forward. We have seen two distinctly different versions of Curry this season.
Adjusting to the Mavericks’ system was a process for Curry. While he was familiar with head coach Rick Carlisle from his first stint in Dallas, nothing was the same in how the offense was run. Doncic and Porzingis were not around when Curry was in Dallas from 2016 to 2018. The offense ran a lot more set plays and flowed mostly through Carlisle. This season, with Doncic taking full command in his sophomore campaign, the offense has run through the Slovenian superstar and has been much more free-flowing and random. That’s something Curry said took some time to adjust to.
“It’s night and day (from last time), man,” Curry said. “It’s night and day because last time, we played a lot slower pace, a lot more set play calls and stuff like that. Now, it’s a bit more random. That’s why the shots can go up and down because it’s not like we’re calling plays for guys like myself to get shots.
“You just have to find them within our offense. It’s a little more random, a little more of just make plays, pick-and-roll, spread out offense and high-paced.”
In his first 38 games this year, Curry was shooting 38.5 percent from 3-point land. In the last 21 games going into the break, since Jan. 15th, he was shooting a blistering 54.2 percent from deep. I checked three sites to make sure that number was accurate and not a glitch. For perspective, among NBA players who took at least 100 3-pointers in that span, Curry was No. 1 at 54.2 percent. No. 2 was Miami Heat’s Duncan Robinson, who was shooting 46.3 percent.
The difference between No. 1 (Curry) and No. 2 (Robinson) is equal to the distance between Robinson and No. 39, CJ McCollum.
Go ahead and read that again. It’s not a typo.
Expecting Curry, or any human being, to maintain that clip for an extended stretch is unrealistic. Still, 21 games is a respectable sample size. To further drive home the point, his True Shooting in that span was 72 percent, 15 percent higher than league average.
While there’s more to Curry’s game than just his 3-point shooting, that is his primary weapon and his biggest contribution to the team. Let’s explore why he’s been so dangerous and what changed from those first 38 games to the last 21.
Movement without the ball
When I spoke to Curry for the story referenced above in early January, he was just starting to turn the corner, getting better looks and knocking down shots. I asked him if it was a matter of shots starting to fall or the law of averages finally working out. At first, Curry shrugged and said that may be it. But as we got a little deeper in our conversation, he started referring to the randomness of the offense and went back to answer that question.
“To be honest, some of it is just what I’ve learned to do before touching the ball,” Curry said.
When watching Curry from earlier in the season to seeing his more recent games, it’s actually quite obvious what he means. His movements aren’t always blatant, cutting hard to the basket or running the baseline, but he finds small windows between defenders to give the ball handler an option to pass him the ball. Because Doncic has assisted Curry 38 times this season, more than any Maverick, I’ve selected examples of him as the ball handler that result in two different outcomes for Curry.
On this play, Curry comes down the court and sets up outside on the left. Meanwhile, Doncic brings the ball up the court and heads straight to the right wing, on Curry’s opposite side.
He starts to run the play, a pick-and-roll with Porzingis. Once Porzingis sets the pick, he rolls to the basket with Doncic on his left. All the while, Curry hasn’t taken a single step since setting up shop. Here’s where the difference in Curry’s game kicks in. Once Doncic starts driving and gets to the free-throw line, you’ll see Curry take a few shuffle steps up the court, as if he’s starting to head back to play defense. What he’s actually doing is giving Doncic an outlet pass. If Doncic tries to kick it out to Curry where he was standing, Lonzo Ball is likely able to steal the ball, or at the very least, deflect it. Instead, Curry moves to a small area between Ball and Zion Williamson to give Doncic an option to utilize, if he wishes to do so.
On this play, Doncic doesn’t dish it to Curry, instead opting to successfully complete the pick-and-roll with Porzingis.
This next play came a few weeks earlier. Doncic dribbles the ball up the court and looks to run another pick-and-roll with Porzingis. However, the defense is prepared for this as Porzingis’ defender backs straight to the basket, keeping Porzingis in front of him. Curry was in the lane when the play began, so his defender peels off to the other side to get in front of Doncic. Neither Doncic nor Porzingis has a clear path to the basket, as they both did in the play above.
What Curry does here serves a double purpose. First, he needs to get out of the lane anyway to allow Porzingis to roll. But he doesn’t just run out of the way; instead, he once again takes a few shuffle steps up the court to an area that’s open and unobstructed to Doncic’s vision.
With the pick-and-roll covered, Doncic finds Curry, who knocks down the wide-open shot.
With the offense being more “random” than his first stint in Dallas, Curry has had to become a better reactionary player. As he said, the Mavericks are not calling many plays to set up 3-point shots for Curry, or any other player. Doncic has the second-highest usage percentage in the NBA so everything flows through him. In order to get shots, Curry has to work his way open and make himself available. Doncic has proven he’s capable of making every pass in the book and most of the time, they’re precise. That means every inch matters and Curry has learned how to work within those parameters as the season progressed. After that, it’s just a matter of the shot falling.
Outside threat to inside game
When you shoot 54.2 percent from 3-point range, defenders have no choice but to respect your shot. That opens things up inside for Curry.
In addition to his own shooting supremacy, the team dynamic is strongly in play with a lot of these situations. This first play encapsulates pretty much everything. Here you have Doncic using his big body to size up Lonzo Ball. Because of Doncic’s playmaking ability, you see two Pelicans defenders cheat a little off of their guys, Maxi Kleber and Curry, to provide help on Doncic. With Curry hanging outside, this helps create more space between his defender, Jrue Holiday. Since we just got done talking about the off-ball movement, it’s worth pointing it out here once again. Notice as Doncic backs up Ball, Curry is standing outside on the left. With Holiday cheating off him to Doncic, Curry shuffles a little to his right to create a clearer lane for Doncic to pass him the ball.
Once Doncic gets rid of the ball, Holiday closes very hard on Curry. Instead of taking the 3-point shot though, Curry pump fakes as Holiday flies past him, dribbles up just a little bit and drains an easy two-point bucket.
These next two plays follow the same theme but are different situations and show how basketball can be a game of inches. Both come against the Minnesota Timberwolves with Josh Okogie as the primary defender on Curry.
Here the Mavericks are in transition. Okogie gets back but is trying to do too much. Instead of sticking with Curry, he closes on the ball handler and Delon Wright finds Curry racing up the court. Once Curry gets the ball, he uses his shot fake, which isn’t a pump fake but equally as effective. He slowly gathers himself to seem like he’s about to go up for a shot and then puts the ball on the ground. At that point, Okogie is out of position and Curry has a step on him. Curry beats his man and puts up a floater over the rim defender for the finish.
On this next play, Curry gets the ball with Okogie in pretty decent defensive position. The shot clock is down to six, which may have played a role in Okogie’s aggressiveness but Curry again whips out that same slow play move as he did in the play above. Okogie’s hand goes up and Curry immediately puts the ball on the floor.
Okogie’s feet and body are caught in an awkward position. You can tell he was getting ready to contest the shot but quickly has to make a change to defend Curry driving to the basket. To Okogie’s credit, he does a great job recovering from getting caught out of position and gets in front of Curry. However, instead of forcing the drive to the hoop, Curry stops and takes a step back shot, causing Okogie’s body to change positions once again to close out. In exactly two seconds, Curry forces Okogie to play the shot, play the drive then play the shot again. It doesn’t end well for Okogie. He doesn’t have as much control and ends up falling into Curry for the foul, while Curry makes the shot.
Curry is the ideal role player. He understands his place in the system and doesn’t try to do too much. He’s pretty well-rounded, playing sneaky-good defense and making nifty passes in addition to his shooting. I mean, who can forget this pass to Doncic in late December?
But it’s been his ability to feel out the offense, find his shots and knock them that stands out the most. Just because you’re playing with an all-world talent like Doncic doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges. Porzingis spent months to start the season openly discussing the complexity of finding his way in a new system and learning how to play off a superstar in Doncic. The sweet part is that when the player does figure it out, the success is bountiful. The last two months we saw of Curry serve as evidence.
https://theathletic.com/1921036/2020/07/10/mavericks-film-room-seth-currys-absolutely-ridiculous-3-point-efficiency/
When you think about what it’s going to take for the Mavericks to succeed in Orlando, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis naturally come to mind. But if the Mavericks are to finish out the eight-game regular season strong and make some noise during their first playoff appearance in four years, it’s going to take more than two young stars about to experience the NBA playoffs for the first time.
Seth Curry is one of many Mavericks who fall into the “role player” category. While others may have the argument for greater importance or a more complete skill set, there’s an argument to be made that nobody fits the offensive system the Mavericks run through Doncic and Porzingis quite like Curry does. Think back to Doncic’s rookie season and all the times he would drive the lane and kick the ball out to an open player outside the arc, only for the resulting shot to clank off the rim. In 72 games last season, Doncic totaled 429 assists; this season, in 54 games, he’s already at 470 assists. There are many reasons, and players, that contribute to that rise. But a lot of it comes down being able to knock down the open shot.
As we’re about to see, nobody on the team, or even the NBA, was as efficient as Curry was in the months leading up to the league’s suspension on March 11th.
Season stats: 59 games: 12.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists (all per game), 50.0 FG percent, 45.3 3-point percent, 84.1 FT percent
First, I’d like to remind everybody that this piece, and the entire film room series, is not a season evaluation on the players we’re breaking down. Instead, it’s a reminder of where these guys were when the season abruptly paused on March 11th so you have an idea of what to expect when play resumes in Orlando on July 31st. Especially in Curry’s case, judging his season holistically would paint an inaccurate picture of what to expect going forward. We have seen two distinctly different versions of Curry this season.
Adjusting to the Mavericks’ system was a process for Curry. While he was familiar with head coach Rick Carlisle from his first stint in Dallas, nothing was the same in how the offense was run. Doncic and Porzingis were not around when Curry was in Dallas from 2016 to 2018. The offense ran a lot more set plays and flowed mostly through Carlisle. This season, with Doncic taking full command in his sophomore campaign, the offense has run through the Slovenian superstar and has been much more free-flowing and random. That’s something Curry said took some time to adjust to.
“It’s night and day (from last time), man,” Curry said. “It’s night and day because last time, we played a lot slower pace, a lot more set play calls and stuff like that. Now, it’s a bit more random. That’s why the shots can go up and down because it’s not like we’re calling plays for guys like myself to get shots.
“You just have to find them within our offense. It’s a little more random, a little more of just make plays, pick-and-roll, spread out offense and high-paced.”
In his first 38 games this year, Curry was shooting 38.5 percent from 3-point land. In the last 21 games going into the break, since Jan. 15th, he was shooting a blistering 54.2 percent from deep. I checked three sites to make sure that number was accurate and not a glitch. For perspective, among NBA players who took at least 100 3-pointers in that span, Curry was No. 1 at 54.2 percent. No. 2 was Miami Heat’s Duncan Robinson, who was shooting 46.3 percent.
The difference between No. 1 (Curry) and No. 2 (Robinson) is equal to the distance between Robinson and No. 39, CJ McCollum.
Go ahead and read that again. It’s not a typo.
Expecting Curry, or any human being, to maintain that clip for an extended stretch is unrealistic. Still, 21 games is a respectable sample size. To further drive home the point, his True Shooting in that span was 72 percent, 15 percent higher than league average.
While there’s more to Curry’s game than just his 3-point shooting, that is his primary weapon and his biggest contribution to the team. Let’s explore why he’s been so dangerous and what changed from those first 38 games to the last 21.
Movement without the ball
When I spoke to Curry for the story referenced above in early January, he was just starting to turn the corner, getting better looks and knocking down shots. I asked him if it was a matter of shots starting to fall or the law of averages finally working out. At first, Curry shrugged and said that may be it. But as we got a little deeper in our conversation, he started referring to the randomness of the offense and went back to answer that question.
“To be honest, some of it is just what I’ve learned to do before touching the ball,” Curry said.
When watching Curry from earlier in the season to seeing his more recent games, it’s actually quite obvious what he means. His movements aren’t always blatant, cutting hard to the basket or running the baseline, but he finds small windows between defenders to give the ball handler an option to pass him the ball. Because Doncic has assisted Curry 38 times this season, more than any Maverick, I’ve selected examples of him as the ball handler that result in two different outcomes for Curry.
On this play, Curry comes down the court and sets up outside on the left. Meanwhile, Doncic brings the ball up the court and heads straight to the right wing, on Curry’s opposite side.
He starts to run the play, a pick-and-roll with Porzingis. Once Porzingis sets the pick, he rolls to the basket with Doncic on his left. All the while, Curry hasn’t taken a single step since setting up shop. Here’s where the difference in Curry’s game kicks in. Once Doncic starts driving and gets to the free-throw line, you’ll see Curry take a few shuffle steps up the court, as if he’s starting to head back to play defense. What he’s actually doing is giving Doncic an outlet pass. If Doncic tries to kick it out to Curry where he was standing, Lonzo Ball is likely able to steal the ball, or at the very least, deflect it. Instead, Curry moves to a small area between Ball and Zion Williamson to give Doncic an option to utilize, if he wishes to do so.
On this play, Doncic doesn’t dish it to Curry, instead opting to successfully complete the pick-and-roll with Porzingis.
This next play came a few weeks earlier. Doncic dribbles the ball up the court and looks to run another pick-and-roll with Porzingis. However, the defense is prepared for this as Porzingis’ defender backs straight to the basket, keeping Porzingis in front of him. Curry was in the lane when the play began, so his defender peels off to the other side to get in front of Doncic. Neither Doncic nor Porzingis has a clear path to the basket, as they both did in the play above.
What Curry does here serves a double purpose. First, he needs to get out of the lane anyway to allow Porzingis to roll. But he doesn’t just run out of the way; instead, he once again takes a few shuffle steps up the court to an area that’s open and unobstructed to Doncic’s vision.
With the pick-and-roll covered, Doncic finds Curry, who knocks down the wide-open shot.
With the offense being more “random” than his first stint in Dallas, Curry has had to become a better reactionary player. As he said, the Mavericks are not calling many plays to set up 3-point shots for Curry, or any other player. Doncic has the second-highest usage percentage in the NBA so everything flows through him. In order to get shots, Curry has to work his way open and make himself available. Doncic has proven he’s capable of making every pass in the book and most of the time, they’re precise. That means every inch matters and Curry has learned how to work within those parameters as the season progressed. After that, it’s just a matter of the shot falling.
Outside threat to inside game
When you shoot 54.2 percent from 3-point range, defenders have no choice but to respect your shot. That opens things up inside for Curry.
In addition to his own shooting supremacy, the team dynamic is strongly in play with a lot of these situations. This first play encapsulates pretty much everything. Here you have Doncic using his big body to size up Lonzo Ball. Because of Doncic’s playmaking ability, you see two Pelicans defenders cheat a little off of their guys, Maxi Kleber and Curry, to provide help on Doncic. With Curry hanging outside, this helps create more space between his defender, Jrue Holiday. Since we just got done talking about the off-ball movement, it’s worth pointing it out here once again. Notice as Doncic backs up Ball, Curry is standing outside on the left. With Holiday cheating off him to Doncic, Curry shuffles a little to his right to create a clearer lane for Doncic to pass him the ball.
Once Doncic gets rid of the ball, Holiday closes very hard on Curry. Instead of taking the 3-point shot though, Curry pump fakes as Holiday flies past him, dribbles up just a little bit and drains an easy two-point bucket.
These next two plays follow the same theme but are different situations and show how basketball can be a game of inches. Both come against the Minnesota Timberwolves with Josh Okogie as the primary defender on Curry.
Here the Mavericks are in transition. Okogie gets back but is trying to do too much. Instead of sticking with Curry, he closes on the ball handler and Delon Wright finds Curry racing up the court. Once Curry gets the ball, he uses his shot fake, which isn’t a pump fake but equally as effective. He slowly gathers himself to seem like he’s about to go up for a shot and then puts the ball on the ground. At that point, Okogie is out of position and Curry has a step on him. Curry beats his man and puts up a floater over the rim defender for the finish.
On this next play, Curry gets the ball with Okogie in pretty decent defensive position. The shot clock is down to six, which may have played a role in Okogie’s aggressiveness but Curry again whips out that same slow play move as he did in the play above. Okogie’s hand goes up and Curry immediately puts the ball on the floor.
Okogie’s feet and body are caught in an awkward position. You can tell he was getting ready to contest the shot but quickly has to make a change to defend Curry driving to the basket. To Okogie’s credit, he does a great job recovering from getting caught out of position and gets in front of Curry. However, instead of forcing the drive to the hoop, Curry stops and takes a step back shot, causing Okogie’s body to change positions once again to close out. In exactly two seconds, Curry forces Okogie to play the shot, play the drive then play the shot again. It doesn’t end well for Okogie. He doesn’t have as much control and ends up falling into Curry for the foul, while Curry makes the shot.
Curry is the ideal role player. He understands his place in the system and doesn’t try to do too much. He’s pretty well-rounded, playing sneaky-good defense and making nifty passes in addition to his shooting. I mean, who can forget this pass to Doncic in late December?
But it’s been his ability to feel out the offense, find his shots and knock them that stands out the most. Just because you’re playing with an all-world talent like Doncic doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges. Porzingis spent months to start the season openly discussing the complexity of finding his way in a new system and learning how to play off a superstar in Doncic. The sweet part is that when the player does figure it out, the success is bountiful. The last two months we saw of Curry serve as evidence.
https://theathletic.com/1921036/2020/07/10/mavericks-film-room-seth-currys-absolutely-ridiculous-3-point-efficiency/
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