Following a loss to the Charlotte Hornets, kicking off a streak of five straight road losses, Steph Curry lamented getting caught up in “hero ball”. Steph was referring to two straight step back 3s he missed at the end of regulation. He apologized for not helping the team get better looks in crunch time.
Through ten games, the Warriors have not been shy about calling for Steph hero ball. He put the Heat away with a downright rude wing isolation on Tyler Herro.
During crunch time in an eventual loss to the Orlando Magic, Steph dialed up a mismatch iso on Wendell Carter Jr.
And last night, Steph carried the slumping Warriors to a win over the Sacramento Kings with clutch one-on-ones on Terence Davis and Kevin Huerter.
Per NBA Advanced Stats, Steph Curry is running a career-high number of isolation plays per game. This is efficient half court basketball for the Warriors, with Steph scoring 1.07 points per possession on isos. The other Warriors are assisting on the smallest proportion of Steph’s made baskets since the 2014-15 season per Cleaning the Glass. That uptick in self-created shots is almost entirely from his makes at the rim, where Steph is shooting *rubs eyes, takes off eyeglasses and wipes them off, rubs eyes again* 79%. Steph is still primarily a jump shooter, but on the 15% of his attempts that do come at the rim, Steph might as well be in a layup line.
Steph devotees have often wondered what it would look like if he had an unchecked mandate to go solo. The worrying sign for Warriors fans, albeit in a small sample, is that this shift seems driven by necessity. The Warriors have needed Steph to go hero ball as they seek some early-season consistency. I can’t imagine Steve Kerr is loving this development, as much as he is grateful for Steph’s transcendence. In the meantime, the rest of us can just marvel at Steph’s career-high 1.42 points per possession right now.
Another career-high to keep an eye on: Steph is running more pick-and-rolls than he ever has before per NBA Advanced Stats. As Joe Viray has written, the story with Steph pick-and-rolls has always been a complicated one.1 What the uptick in iso plays means for the creative ways in which the Warriors get Steph into PnRs is something to monitor.
Joe Viray is an essential read, not just for Warriors fans, but for anyone who appreciates smart Xs and Os takes on basketball (with a Warriors lean).