on his Mind the Game podcast with co-host Steve Nash.<\/a><\/p>\nCurry was a guest on the show and Nash, the FIBA Hall of Famer from Canada, cited a stat that illustrates how the Warriors legend’s movement off the ball impacts games.<\/p>\n
“Over a certain period of time in your career, your team\u2019s rim attempts when you\u2019re on the floor are 45 percent of your (team’s) shots. That\u2019s not from you diming (assisting) someone at the rim, that\u2019s from your chaos.<\/p>\n
“When you\u2019re off the floor, it\u2019s still pretty high, but it\u2019s down to 27 percent. So your influence is 18 percentage on rim attempts. And that\u2019s not from you, that\u2019s just people\u2019s respect for your gravity.”<\/p>\n
The defense is so focused on Steph\u2019s shooting that, most of the time, the other team ends up giving up good scoring opportunities for his teammates – especially when he\u2019s involved in screening for others, cutting, constantly moving, and remaining a threat as the defense\u2019s main focus. Nash, LeBron, and Steph break down those plays on the podcast – a fascinating listen for any basketball fan. <\/p>\n
\u201c<\/p>\n
He is most dangerous when he gives the ball up<\/p>\n
LeBron James<\/p>\n
James has had to go up against against Curry throughout his NBA career.<\/p>\n
“When you\u2019re competing against a guy like that,” James said, “It grinds you in the head. Because it\u2019s a natural reaction, (when) the most dangerous guy gives the ball up, the first thing you do is (James breathes a sigh of relief), ‘I did a great job.’<\/p>\n
\u201c(But) He is most dangerous when he gives the ball up, 45 percent of rim attempts when he\u2019s on the floor. <\/p>\n
“That means when he gives the ball up, when he\u2019s moving and moving, and everybody is doing like this to Steph (following him with their eyes), slip happens. Draymond layup, Iguodala lob, Gary Payton II a dunk…”<\/p>\n
James put it another way.<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
James and Curry joined forces to lead the USA to Olympic gold in 2024<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s funny to say the ball has energy, (but) also player movement has energy as well. And certain guys, you go back to Reggie (Miller) having energy himself, guys just moving and flowing, it\u2019s just a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n
“Except it\u2019s not beautiful when you\u2019re playing against him (Curry). It hurts. But as a competitor, and someone who thinks the game as well, it\u2019s like, “Wow.” You can appreciate that s —.”<\/p>\n
Nash, who once held the reins of the Brooklyn Nets, had to figure out the best way to play defense when Curry was on the floor for Golden State. <\/p>\n
“The game plan – do we switch, do we bump, do we show?” Nash said. “Like you staying at home, you talked about screening, they don\u2019t want to leave your body, the decisions.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
Curry worked hard off the ball when he was with the USA at the 2024 Olympics<\/p>\n
As for Curry, it’s true that he’s one of the greatest shooters of all time yet he doesn’t have to score to enjoy the game.<\/p>\n
“There are possessions when I’m on the sideline with coach, when you start clapping no matter if the shot went in or not because you knew the possession was just (excellent) \u2026 Those are my favorite moments when you\u2019re watching film. It\u2019s like, that\u2019s just basketball at its best.<\/p>\n
“And to be a part of organizing that and executing those types of possessions. Those are my favorite. It doesn\u2019t matter who scores, everybody is hyped.”<\/p>\n
FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (USA) – Remember the nine three-pointers Stephen Curry buried to lead USA past Serbia in one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}