USA Basketball 2014: Stephen Curry, The Guard (Photo: via @imBINGnotGOOGLE)
MENDENHALL CENTER, LAS VEGAS, NV — Stephen Curry plays point guard for the Golden State Warriors, but here at USA Basketball Men’s National Team (#USABMNT) training camp, he’s just a guard.
Curry, who played for Team USA in 2010 and is considered a lock to make the final roster, has been on the court in scrimmages almost always paired with traditional point guards such as Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, or John Wall, and spreading the floor rather than bringing up the ball in half-court sets.
That makes the casual observer categorize him as a shooting guard (the “2”), or a wing (the “3”). NBA.com writer John Schuhmann even considered Curry a 2/3 in his roster depth chart.
But that’s not how Team USA is looking at it.
“It’s really not designed that way,” USA Basketball assistant coach Tom Thibodeau told LetsGoWarriors after practice, “We have guards.”
“I can push in transition, initiate the offense if I need to,” Curry said, “I’ve got to be versatile and other point guards have to be as well, if we’re all going to pitch in and win the gold.”
“Steph may have the ball, but the guy who you may think is the point guard may take the two-guard spot,” Thibodeau added, “The spots are all interchangeable, so that’s one of the big questions with all our guards is the versatility and the ability to play multiple positions.”
On defense in scrimmages, Curry has been seen guarding bigger opponents such as James Harden or Victor Oladipo.
“It’s hard to guard guys individually,” Thibodeau said, “You have to guard as a team, so that’s what we stress, both offensively and defensively, is five-man offense and five-man defense. We don’t want to be isolated on an island by themselves. We do think we have speed and athleticism, so we’ll try to use that to our advantage.”
Thibodeau added, “(Curry’s) capable of playing good defense. We’re not asking anyone to guard anybody individually. We have to guard collectively, so it’s going to be our team defense, but everyone has to do their job.”
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