Stephen Curry is the greatest outside shooter in NBA history.
Just four years into his career, Stephen Curry has already established himself as the most unstoppable long-range threat since ... forever. Consider that the Warriors guard is on pace this season to become the first player to shoot more than seven threes a game and make at least 44 percent of them. Meanwhile, only Steve Kerr (45.4 percent) can top Curry’s 44.3 percent career three-point mark -- and he had the benefit of three seasons with the shorter 22-foot line.
Even more astounding is how Curry gets his shots: (off the dribble. Curry is shooting 44.8 percent this season (from long range, and 42.2 percent of those conversions have been unassisted, the toughest kind to make. The players who shoot as often as Curry and have similar rates of unassisted makes -- guys like Chris Paul (46.9 percent), LeBron James (44.8 percent), Brandon Jennings (39.4 percent) and Kobe Bryant (38.5 percent) -- are all far less accurate from long range.
When you consider accuracy, frequency and degree of difficulty, the only comparable shooting profile to Curry’s belongs to Steve Nash. But while he is also an off-the-dribble shooter, Nash shoots far fewer threes per 48 minutes -- peaking at 4.7 in 2007-08 -- and has hit Curry’s career rate of accuracy just three times in his 17-year career.
Nash is no Curry. No one is -- because NBA fans have never seen a shooter this good. -- Beckley Mason