Coaches,
How in the world do you guard Stephen Curry when he is hitting closely guarded, step back 3 pointers like in Game 5? What could you possibly tell a player to prevent him from getting this shot off? I’m pretty sure my scouting report would read something to the effect of: “Try to make it as hard as you can and hope he only hits half of his closely contested, not even looking at the rim 3 point shot attempts. If you can try to push him inside the arc so he only gets 2 points that would be great. Good Luck”. What would your scouting report say? Post in the comments below. Can’t wait to hear your responses!
Steph Curry Scouting Report: We are going to deny him the ball for 94 feet. We will will be in full face guard mode for 4 quarters. We want to be physical with him. Ever let him face cut you if you are the guy denying him this ball. Make him cut behind you as much as possible. All other guys need to bump him or what we call bump the cutter. We will take our chances and dare the 4 other guys to beat us. If he does manage to get the ball and takes it to the basket we know he makes free throws so early we foul him so it wears on him and hopefully takes its toll.on him by the 4th quarter. If he takes an outside shot we want to make it as uncomfortable as possible and never give him a clean landing, let him scrape you as he comes down from jumpers, make sure we box him out, or get a hand on him after every shot, shooters and scorers like him don’t like to be touched. The more free flowing the game the more he will torch us. We need to defend him like the old Detroit “Bad Boys” Pistons played defense. Be physical whenever we can. Never let him get free run outs. Bump him deep in the back court when he is off the ball, making it as difficult as possible for him to get to his spots. We do this for 48 minutes. We can never rest from this philosophy. He is patient and will wait for the moment we rest for even half a second. We rest and he will strike, I promise you. That’s how you stop him. Who will decide that they won’t be denied of this NBA Championship? Next season is never promised, now is the time to take advantage. Now is the time win. Don’t be denied.
Pick Curry up at half court if he still doesn’t have the ball yet or full court to prevent him from getting the ball. Try to keep the ball out of his hands. That’s going to be your best defense on him. It’s gonna be tiring for the defender but it has to be done. Take away his shot opportunities and then box him out, because Curry does hustle. He just needs an opponent that hustles as hard as he does.
I would tell my players to be physical as possible with Curry . Pester him at all times. Stay on his shooting arm in terms of not allowing clean strokes.. Keep him out of rhythm, the same for Thompson .. Help defense must be there with super charged energy every play.. Make him work hard to receive ball off screens, make him play defense more to wear him down during the 4th quarter.. He’s the catylist to the Warriors success.. He must be kept quiet as possible to not get the crowd & teammates going. They feed off his leadership..
Coach Tony J Coleman
Deny him full court and make him play off the ball. Double him on all ball screens to make him pick up his dribble. He doesn’t pass well out of the double team. On guard to guard picks switch and stay on top side to deny the initial pass to him. Make him a driver defending for the pull up. I don’t think he wants layups unless it’s wide open. Stay CONNECTED AT ALL TIMES and be physical. When he is on defense involve him in all ball screens and pin downs. Contest his shots with the left hand.
It’s not necessarily the height of the guard as oppose to the physicality of the guard defending him. He’s a good player with exceptional ballhandling and shooting skills.
Double team him every time he has the ball, even in the backcourt alternating between using Matthew Dellavedova and Shawn Marion the entire game, with the primary objective to make someone else score.
Secondly, use your post player to protect the hoop.
Sounds too simplified, but sometimes less is more….
Deny Curry the ball. Be very physical with him on and off the ball. Switch all screens and contest every shot with all 5 defenders. 94 feet when he handles the ball, half court when he does not handle the ball.
Coach Terry Porter
I wouldn’t change my entire defense for one guy. He is a great player and needs to be respected. However, doubling him and 94 feet of pressure ruins your offense and gets other warriors involved. I would say whoever is gaurding him to be physically before the touch and force him to be a driver. I think he is a great Passer and looks lay ups last. So make him make his last read and go for a contested lay up. Whoever is gaurding him has “2 feet help” which means when in help side you must be 2 feet from him as well. I think what makes curry such a great player is those around him. I think curry will get his numbers but when you stop the rest of the team the Warriors are vulnerable. I think hard denial on green is way more important and make his life he’ll is top priority. Thompson needs to be bumped and his shot is not as good. And keep them off the glass. Slowing the game down on the offensive end and every shot be a quality look puts more pressure on curry forcing him to put big numbers. And as Charles Barkley says you don’t life by the 3 you can only die by it
In general, I would alternate between picking him up at 1/4 court and playing honest man-to-man defense, playing box-and-1 or Triangle-and-2(depending on who else is on the floor with him) and not switching on screens. My approach is that they will have to hit nothing but threes ALL NIGHT. If they hit 40-threes, that’s 120 points. I’m not worried. Steph hitting 30-foot threes is impressive, but can he hit 10 of them? If he does he has 30. I’m not worried. Can he take every shot for his team? I hope he does because Golden State relies on team ball. If he’s rolling, that means that everyone else isn’t, so my challenge to my team would be to see if he can score 100 tonight. Don’t help. Make Draymond and Klay create the offense and pressure them too. On the other end, we are driving at him every chance we get. If he switches on a screen, we are putting him in the post. Make the man play some defense and see how that affects his offense.
I’ll have a defender denying and face guarding curry the entire game.
I believe the key is his ability and the team’s ability to create for each other. So I’ll tell the rest of my defenders to focus on winning their matchups defensively. Hopefully we can take away 1 of the 2 options. Curry or the Rest of The Warriors
Put your team’s Joe Dumars on him, and own the paint.