User njconnect asks: “Why won’t Steph shoot more midrange high-percentage shots?”

Because it’s Steph Curry. Stephen Curry. Wardell Stephen Curry III. You can ask this question of any modern-day NBA player. You could ask LeBron, “Hey, man, the ‘LeF*ckYou Three’ is awesome (when it goes in), but that turnaround middy you got is nasty, why don’t you shoot that more?” In response, he’ll probably call you a hater and put you in a Nike commercial where he’ll wear another Burger King-esque crown, but asking that question of him would be fair. As it would if you asked the same of K.D., J.T., CP3, and every other acronym-ified player in the league. 

Not Steph Curry. Not the man who won the only unanimous league MVP in NBA history for a record-breaking season, wherein he made 400 threes. The man whose shooting ability single-handedly changed the way the modern game is played—for better and, let’s be honest, much for the worse, but that’s only because everybody thinks they can shoot like Steph, when in reality, they cannot. 

Shooting more midrange shots, shots that Steph, no doubt, is more than capable of making, also doesn’t make sense for a variety of reasons on a tactical level. Curry is not a spot-up shooter like his “Splash brother” Klay, who waits for the offence to come to him. No, Steph is the offence, even when he doesn’t have the ball. His ability to move like a damn Energizer Bunny off the ball, creating space and openings for both him and his teammates, combined with his ludicrous ability to shoot the three while on the move and ostensibly from any angle, is deadly on the court.

Like LeBron said on his Mind the Game podcast, “The ball isn’t the problem; he’s the problem.” And he’s become that problem because of his versatile three-point shooting ability and movement. That spacing and offensive flow would become far more restrictive if he were to, all of a sudden, start focusing more on the midrange.

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