At this point in his career, Steph Curry has very little left to prove when it comes to his abilities on the court. The four-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion led the league in three-pointers each of the last five seasons. He also led the NBA in free throw percentage the last three seasons and steals in 2015-2016.
This exceptional success brought Curry back-to-back MVPs in 2015 and 2016, but even they are not enough to silence those who whisper, “what about his defense?”
Thus far this season, it looks as if Curry is upping his aggression on defense to build his case for MVP. Whether those are his true motives or not, Dieter Kurtenbach of the Bay Area News Group hypothesises that Curry is trying too hard on defense and it’s getting him into trouble.
“It is very clear to me that Stephen Curry understands that he has to at least have a better showing on the defensive side to bolster what should be a strong MVP case,” Kurtenbach said. “He has to up his game a little bit more to be a true MVP candidate in the era of two-way players.”
In all but one of Golden State’s three games this season, Curry has ended up in foul trouble. After reaching four fouls during the season-opener against the Houston Rockets, Curry committed five personal fouls against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.
Although he kept playing after his fifth foul in the third quarter, Curry was eventually ejected after throwing his mouthpiece in frustration in the direction of official Scott Wall in the final minute of the game.
Steph Curry ejected for throwing mouth piece at referee pic.twitter.com/YcRRh3mQuf
— Eric Wobsoe (@World_Wide_Wob) October 22, 2017
“Here is my hypothesis,” Kurtenbach said. “Stephen Curry understands the thing that is separating everybody in the MVP race annually is defense. While that did not apply for James Harden and Russell Westbrook last year, it does apply when you think about people talking about Giannis being the MVP frontrunner or Kawhi Leonard. Those are great two-way guys.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 2:02 for Kurtenbach on Curry.