What Steph Curry needs to do to take ‘the next step’

2012-13 marked the arrival of Stephen Curry onto the national scene as a bonafide star.  He didn’t make the all-star team, but from the 3-point record to leading the warriors to the playoffs to putting together some of the most amazing scoring spurts in the playoffs he captioned the countries attention.  His deadly shooting, great ball handling, unselfish play and high basketball IQ are enough alone to make him an all-star caliber player in this league, but for Curry to progress to superstar status and lead the Warriors beyond the second round, he needs to improve aspects of his game.  Here are the area’s Steph needs to improve for the Warriors to take ‘the next step’:

Ballhandling under pressure

Curry has one of the best handles in the league already.  We all saw it regularly last year, especially when he got out into space or on the break.  He is highly creative using crossovers and ball-fakes to create the additional space to get a shot up or open a passing lane.  However, even with all the ball-handling skill, Curry struggled under full court pressure or with bigger or stronger defenders who got under him.  Because of this, Jackson would often trust Jarrett Jack to bring the ball up or initiate plays late in games, and have Curry come off of off-ball screens to create the space he needs.  Jarrett Jack is no longer a Warrior, and the new back-up PG, Toney Douglas is not a player capable of doing what Jack did.  For Curry to take that next step, he’s going to need to get stronger at handling under pressure to be able to run the offense in late game situations and under more aggressive playoff style defenses.

Get to the line

Curry has a career 90.1% free throw percentage ranking him 3^rd all-time.  Without a doubt he is an elite free throw shooter.  The problem is he only got to the line 3.7 times per game last year in over 38 minutes per game.  To have such a weapon and not utilize it is a waste, especially in the playoffs, when teams can have scoring droughts and look to free throws as a way to alleviate pressure.  Comparing him to other elite PGs like Tony Parker who gets there over 5 times a game or Chris Paul who is over 6, Steph is not taking advantage of the charity stripe.  He isn’t the fastest or strongest player, but Curry is smart and crafty and should find ways to improve this.  To Curry’s credit he has acknowledged this all off-season, highlighting it as something he is working to improve at, and something he hopes to do more this year.

Finishing at the rim

Looking at Kirk Goldsberry’s Stephen Curry short chart is truly an anomaly compared to the rest of the league. He is downright historically elite from beyond the arc, good from the mid-range, however he was not a good finisher at the rim.  Some of it is probably down to not trusting his ankle after his previous injury plagued season, but either way it needs to improve.  Teams are continuing to pressure Curry, and trying to run him off the 3-point line, meaning he should have clearer lines to the rim.  He added a nice floater last year but more consistency in it and finishing around the rim will be a key for him.

Fouling and Defense

We all know Curry isn’t the fleetest of foot.  Throughout his career over reaching on defense to compensate has dogged him by getting into foul trouble.  The foul problems often kept him off the court his first few years and at times last season.  To his credit, he did improve on this last season, and being a smart player he generally doesn’t find himself out of position within the team’s defensive scheme, a common problem for players who are deemed ‘below average’ defensively.  Even with the improvement of last year, there is still room for growth.  Whether Steph’s all-around offensive game grows or not, he is still a lethal scorer who you want on the court as much as possible, and this can’t happen if he’s in foul trouble or ignoring defensive assignments because of fear of foul trouble.  The more he continues to progress defensively, the more he’ll be able to affect the game with his overall play offensively.

ESPN recently ranked Stephen Curry 6th in their poll of top 100 players.  They believe he’ll continue in improve in these areas to go along with his already proven skills.  If Curry continues to improve at all these things there’s no reason that ranking can’t go even higher and the Warriors can’t progress even farther in the playoffs.