Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has had one of the more interesting NBA careers we have ever seen.
During the regular season, he has been one of the most dominant offensive forces of the modern era. He has unlimited range, ridiculous handles and what he lacks in athleticism he makes up for with almost Manu Ginobili-like craftiness (key word: almost [respect to Manu]).
However, during the playoffs, Curry does not exactly have a great reputation.
Yes, Curry has terrific lifetime postseason numbers. He owns career averages of 26.3 points, 6.3 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the floor, 40.5 percent from three-point range and 90.2 percent from the free-throw line in 106 playoff games.
Okay, so his percentages are a bit lower than his lifetime regular-season percentages, but not nearly enough to label Curry a playoff choker.
But, due to the fact that Curry is a defensive liability at times and because he is yet to truly have a signature playoff moment, he does not yet have the respect that many all-time greats possess, even if Andre Iguodala thinks that Curry is the second-best point guard to ever play the game.
Now, these past Western Conference Finals when Curry absolutely lit up the Portland Trail Blazers to the tune of 36.5 points, 8.3 boards and 7.3 assists per game in a four-game sweep may have changed the minds of some people, but, more than likely, Curry is not going to truly earn the respect and the admiration of NBA fans outside of the Bay Area until he has a great showing in the finals.
The Warriors have won three championships since 2015, but Curry did not win Finals MVP in any of them. Iguodala won the first award in 2015, and Kevin Durant snared the next two in 2017 and 2018.
While losing out on the award to Durant is certainly understandable, people have still not forgotten Curry's struggles against Matthew Dellevedova in the early stages of the 2015 finals, nor have they erased the memories of his—let's call it what it is—chokejob in Game 7 of the 2016 finals.
Heck, even Curry's last two finals performances were not truly phenomenal.
He shot 44 percent from the floor and 38.8 percent from downtown in 2017, and last year, he made 40.2 percent of his shots and 41.5 percent of his triples, leading to a rather pedestrian (for his standards) true shooting percentage of 56 percent and an even more ordinary effective field-goal percentage of 52.2 percent.
So, it isn't like everyone is imagining these things. Curry has not been himself in the NBA Finals, and it's not like we are talking about a small sample size here. We have four series of evidence, and thus far, Curry has not been up to par.
That may sound harsh, because he has still been pretty darn good, but when you are talking about all-time greats, the margins become much slimmer, and things like this matter.
If we are going to get on LeBron James' case for his 3-6 record in the finals, then we also need to point out Curry's rather middling performances (again, for his standards) in his own finals series.
Obviously, Curry will get a chance to redeem himself this year, and with Durant laboring with a calf injury, perhaps this is finally the year that Curry breaks through and stamps a memorable finals outing on his resume.
But there is no question that the pressure is on for Curry, and if he wants to truly be remembered as one of the very best players to ever step on the court, he needs to be better on the biggest stage.
Let's remember that Curry's entire value as a player is attached to his offense. It's not like he's Kawhi Leonard where he can affect the game on the defensive end just as much as he can shooting the ball.
We can throw out platitudes like saying Curry's mere gravity on offense is paramount for the Warriors, and while that's true, it is, at its core, a cop out for his less-than-stellar individual history in the finals.
If Curry is not making shots, his impact is severely compromised. Think about it: how much did Curry's gravity help the Dubs when they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016? Had he made more shots, Golden State would have unquestionably won that series.
Look: Stephen Curry is a fantastic player. He is a borderline top five player in the NBA and, at worst, is in the top 10. He is the greatest shooter in league history. He can get his shot from anywhere he wants. He can take over a game and take the wind out of an opponent's sails in the matter of a couple of minutes.
But his track record in the finals is not where it needs to be if he wants to be considered a top 10 player who has ever played this game.
He is undoubtedly a future Hall-of-Famer (duh) and is definitely one of the most skilled offensive players this game has ever seen, but when you are talking about “all-time greats,” you are talking about Michael Jordan. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird. Tim Duncan. Magic Johnson. Hakeem Olajuwon. All of those guys made their legacies in the finals.
It's time for Curry to do the same.
And this time around, he very well might.
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