WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors point guard and NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry said at training camp this week that some of the things he wants to improve on is creating more space and being more explosive.
[MORE TRAINING CAMP DAY TWO SIGHTS, SOUNDS, AND LINKS]Curry sported his “Iron Sharpens Iron” colorway on Day Two of training camp…
A closer look at #IronSharpensIron… #Warriors #StephCurry #UnderArmour pic.twitter.com/bREnAYIUWJ
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) October 1, 2015
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…and he was certainly sharpening his game, employing hard cuts then catching and shooting:
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Curry always offers the most in-depth explanations, a joy to any reporter that seeks more than terse responses, so we’ll let him take it away. Here’s what he said when asked about improving upon last year’s MVP performance:
It’s always the motivation, what I focus on every single year, trying to find a way to get better. We have a plan of attack over the summer that you kinda — it’s a feeling out process as you go through the season, things I want to try, different ways I want to attack, but as a point guard in this offense, it’s all about just being consistent with how we run our offense and how we get our shots, whether it’s knocking them down or finding ways to be a playmaker
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It’s not so much one-on-one situations, how you’re gonna do this or that. It’s about, within our offense, being more explosive, being more aggressive, more decisive and making plays.
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There’s more of a focus on just creating space and with a minimal amount of dribbles because in our offense we’re swinging, swinging (the ball). You gotta catch and make a decision, make a move, maybe with tight spaces and be able to get a shot off and create. So there’s a little strange component to it of being able to push off in different directions and cover ground, but also ball handling and coordination that goes along with it, and balance so that when you do make those explosive moves, you can finish it off and get off the ground and knock down a shot and, for me, find a way to finish around the rim and things like that. It starts with strength work, ball handling and then getting your reps in.
Curry could be seen with the ball compactly swinging his arms and elbows in a controlled manner to create that space he was talking about. Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com was able to capture some of that towards the tail end of his Vine:
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Here’s Curry pushing off from the corner and covering a lot of ground on a catch-and-shoot:
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During this off-season, Curry had his trainer from Charlotte, NC, Brandon Payne, founder of Accelerate Basketball, stay with him wherever he went. As Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area wrote:
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Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group reported:
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Curry said he emphasized his explosiveness, strength and creating more space with a minimal amount of dribbles in the workouts. He worked to get better operating in tight spaces with balance and coordination and being able to finish at the rim. The goal was to become a more aggressive, decisive and consistent player.
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Curry said he pushed himself in early-morning workouts even though he’s not a morning person.
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“What I focus on every single year is trying to find a way to get better,” Curry said.
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“I’m doing all this fun stuff and traveling and all that, but we’re finding ways to get it in.”
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