Steph Curry has only been in the NBA for six years. But he's the MVP this season and four wins away from leading the Warriors to an NBA title. We've seen great shooters before—Ray Allen, Kyle Korver, Dana Barros, Steve Nash, etc.—but have we seen one like Curry before? Is he the greatest of all time? The best people to ask are the best shooters in NBA history.
Nash is without a doubt one of the best shooters in the history of the game. He achieved the heralded 50-40-90 mark four times in five seasons and almost made it five in a row. But four is the highest mark of any NBA player, with Larry Bird being next highest with two 50-40-90 seasons. Also, consider that only nine players in NBA history have achieved the mark while playing at least 55 games in a season. Yeah, Nash was a god.
But he's willing to give respect where it's due, especially to Curry.
"The only pause I have is from fear of being ignorant," he said. "Am I missing someone? Does he need to play longer or do it longer? Does he have to do it in the playoffs more years? But my first reaction is, 'Why not?' He's as good as anyone I can think of on every level—pure shooting, array of shots, percentage, getting hot, plays to the end—he checks all the boxes."
Nash also discounted the fact that Curry has lower shooting percentages than him.
"He's probably going to shoot a lower percentage than me his whole career because he's going to take more shots and he should," Nash said. "It's just a difference in mentality. I would shoot a higher percentage than Steph because I was much more conservative. I would try to shoot as high a percentage as possible to save shots for my teammates and then shoot more in the fourth quarter. I had coaches tell me I was hurting our team at times by trying to set up my teammates, but I always thought I got it back by how I made them feel and incorporated them into the offensive scheme and the chemistry of the team. He's capable of that, but he's more inclined to score. There are things he can do that I can't. He's such a beautiful shooter with such an array of shots and such a quick release, you wouldn't want to take that away from him at all."
It's hard to put a shooter above Nash, but he may have a point. Curry has averaged over 20 points per game in his last three seasons, while Nash never averaged over 19 points per game throughout his career. Though Curry has never hit the 50-40-90 mark, he came close during his MVP season with 49-44-92 shooting splits. Curry also shot over eight threes per game this season; Nash never shot more than 4.7 per game in a season.
So is Steve Nash right when he names Steph Curry as the best shooter of all time?
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[via Bleacher Report]
