Steph Curry is now back from injury, and he reclaimed his place on top of the NBA world without skipping a beat. Almost.

The two-time MVP and first ever unanimous MVP showed us his human side when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver left Steph hanging and didn’t shake his hand.

Steph didn’t really mind. Look at the way he shakes it off, it’s like he’s creating a new dance move. Even when he is getting denied, he’s smooth. What do we call this, Internet? The dis-shimmy? (When someone shimmies his or her way out of being dissed?) Someone out there in the world, please help us come up with a better name!

The two were able to reconnect and laugh it off by giving each other a real bro-hug. One that will forever bond the two in NBA Twitter glory.

Now that DapGate is settled, the world can begin to focus on the Western Conference Final match up between Golden State and Oklahoma City. Despite being injured, Steph is – as he proclaimed – definitely BACK. But OKC is still an intriguing opponent after taking down the Spurs in a beatdown. I’m not at liberty to call this series just yet; I’ll be over here practicing my dis-shimmy. Just in case.

If you pay attention to the NBA at all, and the talk that surrounds the NBA, you’ve assuredly heard a lot of blather from various former players about the modern game. Granted, this is not unique to the NBA. You hear it in every sport, and also music, TV, and basically everywhere. However, with the proliferation of the three-point shot in the NBA, and the way the game is fundamentally changing, the talk is getting even louder amongst the Charles Barkleys and Charles Oakleys and other guys named Charles of the world. One legendary player, though, is able to break free from the chains of self-aggrandizement, and that’s Larry Bird.

Bird, alongside Reggie Miller, was interviewed for an article about the rise in the three-point shot, and the possibility of a four-point shot. Miller says a bunch of bizarre stuff in the piece, but, you know, he’s Reggie Miller, so nobody is surprised. Bird, however, did have something interesting to say, as he opined on the modern league at length:

“It’s funny how the game has changed, and my thinking about it. I was really worried—back sixteen, seventeen years ago—that the little guy didn’t have a spot in the N.B.A. anymore: it was just going to be the big guards like Magic Johnson. But then players started shooting more threes and spacing the court, and everyone wants small guards now. Watching these kids play now, I’m like everybody else: Wow, man. They can really shoot! They have more freedom to get to the basket. The ball moves a little better. These kids are shooting from farther, with more accuracy. Now some teams shoot up around thirty threes a game. My era, you always think that’s the greatest era. But I’m not so sure anymore.”

Larry Bird is able to both feel strongly about his own era, but also recognize that, perhaps, it is possible for it to not be the best era of all-time. See, other former NBA players, it’s not so hard.

(Via The New Yorker)

The Cavaliers and Warriors will meet once again on Thursday to kick off their second-consecutive NBA Finals matchup with plenty of storylines ripe for the taking. Cleveland is looking for revenge — and for LeBron to bring a title to his hometown — while the Warriors are seeking to cap off the greatest regular season in league history.

But before Game 1 gets underway, it’s only right that the hyped-up series gets the Taiwanese animation treatment it deserves. It wastes no time in getting right to the good stuff, as Drake is immediately run over by a car in the first 15 seconds.

That seems only right considering how much trash the rapper talked during the Cavs-Raptors series. Of course, he’s gotten plenty of it back in his direction since the Raps were eliminated last week.

The Taiwanese animators also stuck with the recurring theme of testicular assault in this year’s NBA playoffs. Here’s Kyrie Irving, who’s apparently two feet tall, giving Steph Curry a good ol’ punt in the nuts.

Of course Draymond Green had to get in on the action, as well, and because Steven Adams’ kiwis are out of the picture, he needed to find some new fruits to juice. Unfortunately for LeBron, it’s his produce getting pounded this time around.

Speaking of LeBron, the animators had some fun with his much-criticized flop from the skirmish with Toronto. Somehow he wound up in the ocean and got eaten by a shark.

And then Kevin Love finally became so soft that he actually morphed into a loaf of Wonder Bread. Tough break for him.

Finally, “Kassius” Klay Thompson (depicted as a literal block of clay) joined forces with Splash Brother Steph Curry to make it rain threes, because there needs to be a little legitimacy to these silly things.

Something tells me the animators will be checking back in at the conclusion of the series to give us an updated breakdown of the action. Hopefully Drake is done picking the pom-poms out of his teeth by then.

If there’s one person to thank for Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors’ complete dismantling of the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday night, it’s apparently the model that was spotted seductively giving a very much married Curry “the eye.”

Roni Rose was thrusted into the spotlight during Game Two of the NBA Finals when cameras captured the model appearing to shoot her shot on national TV with Ayesha’s husband. Dressed in a sexy blue crop top and tight yellow skirt, folks on social media thought Rose looked like she was wanted a piece of the league’s reigning MVP.

Despite the suggestive visuals, Roni says she was just taking a sip of her drink when cameras focused on her. However, if looking hot is what it takes then so be it! She wrote on her Instagram, “Sooo I was just drinking my drink and this happened. I’m just giving the boys a little motivations I guess.”

A brief Google search tells me Roni Rose is a 27-year-old former stripper and current dancer from Hayward, California. Her favorite sports team? Hmm, take a wild guess.

In theory, one wears a mouthguard to, well, guard one’s mouth. Steph Curry, though, seems to have a mouthguard merely so he can chew on it. Oftentimes when you see Curry – and we see him a bunch because he’s the best player in the NBA – he will have his mouthguard dangling from his mouth, especially while he shoots free throws. It’s clearly become a habit for Curry, and now someone has crunched the numbers on his ubiquitous sometimes-mouth-wear.

The Wall Street Journal has dedicated itself to chronicling Curry’s mouth guard position while he shoots free throws. They looked at every free throw he took this season and found that his mouthguard was out of his mouth 84.7 percent of the time. Last year, that number was 63.5 percent. That’s a massive jump. How long will it be until Curry pops his mouthguard out 100 percent of the time when he’s at the charity stripe?

He may want to get there sooner rather than later, because playing with his mouthguard clearly isn’t distracting him in the slightest. Both last season and this season, Curry is shooting his free throws better while he fiddles with the mouthguard as opposed to just keeping it in his mouth. Granted, this postseason he is perfect on free throws with the mouthguard in, but he’s only attempted eight free throws like this, which is a very small sample size.

There are some habits that you should break, but Curry’s habit of chewing on his mouthguard apparently doesn’t need to be addressed.

(Via Wall Street Journal)

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By now, you surely know about Steph Curry’s wife Ayesha going on a bit of a Twitter tirade in which she accused the NBA of rigging Game 6, a game wherein her husband was ejected as the Warriors lost to the Cavaliers to force a Game 7. She later deleted the tweet and apologized for accusing the league of skullduggery, chalking it up to a long, stressful day, one where the father may have been racially profiled. Despite all this, there is one man for which that explanation is not enough. Over at ESPN, Stephen A. Smith, America’s waking nightmare, opened his gaping maw to spew forth his feelings about Ayesha.

In short, Smith wants to know why Ayesha isn’t more like LeBron James’ wife Savannah. About Savannah, Smith said:

“She’s wonderful inside and out. She sits there, she doesn’t bring any attention to herself. She never tweets and goes out there and calls out the league and stuff like that. And nobody — nobody — is more scrutinized than her husband.”

Those are nice words about Savannah, sort of, although it’s also incredibly obnoxious, essentially telling Ayesha not to tweet and to just, you know, be quiet. If anybody shouldn’t be giving people advice on keeping quiet, it’s Smith. Ayesha, rightfully took umbrage with Smith’s comments, and tweeted at him to express her disdain:

At this point, Smith was made aware of Ayesha’s tweets whilst he was on First Take, a show that, if you say its name three times into a mirror, will appear and murder you. He responded with, well, more of the same nonsense. At least ESPN managed to put together a little “Angry Ayesha” logo to go with the proceedings. Presumably, Ayesha may have more to say about Smith, or whatever else she wants. Because she’s not LeBron James’ wife, and she does what she damn well pleases.

(H/T Bleacher Report)

Via Youtube

Cleveland Cavaliers fans are all out of tolerance for Ayesha Curry. Steph Curry’s wife has taken to criticizing the Cavaliers’ arena staff, NBA referees, and many more people in her recent in-game Twitter behavior. She probably had some backlash coming, truthfully. Suggesting the league is rigged when you’re sitting on top of it kind of invites that.

As such, some Cavs fans have evoked a memorable moment from the classic 90’s comedy Friday in a new shirt design:

For reference:

There won’t be too many of these at Game 7, of course. The game will be played at Oracle Arena in Oakland, and the Golden State Warriors will have a distinct edge in the team colors and home-crowd noise departments. Ayesha should be much more comfortable there, after her obvious discomfort in Cleveland for Game 6.

It’s rare that a non-player gets this involved in the story surrounding a series, but Ayesha has done just that. She’s sniped back against criticism from Stephen A. Smith in recent days, and if she wanted to, she could reply to many other people who have taken to the internet and airwaves to question the wisdom of her expression. Many eyes will be on her timeline tonight, to see if she’s still eager to jump into the lion’s den of social media after all this backlash. Even if Steph has joked about cutting off the wifi in the house, I’m pretty sure you can get that LTE signal at Oracle.

Via Instagram

For those of you who felt the smart money was on the Warriors, hopefully you’re not running away from your bookie at the moment. Dry your eyes though because Drake made the same mistake you did and now he owes French Montana $60,000.

According to a video he uploaded to Snapchat, French said won the large sum from Drizzy because the OVO rapper “didn’t believe in LeBron.”

It’s doubtful Drake will have a problem finding the money and since he and French are together in the D.R., he wouldn’t be able to duck his obligation even if he wanted to.

It’s hard to fault Drake in this situation. He had history on his side with the Warriors –the rest best regular season team in league history–playing a game 7 in their arena where they were damn invincible all year. Plus, Cleveland would have to do what no other team could do and that’s come back from a 3-1 deficit. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently, and Drake has to pay a rather expensive price for following conventional wisdom. I would’ve made the same mistake though, but that type of bet is too rich for my blood.

What a time to be alive where millionaires can openly brag to the rest of the world just how rich they truly are by telling us how much money they lost on a basketball game.

(Via XXL)

By now, pretty much everyone in the world has seen and/or goofed on Under Armour’s “Chef Curry” 2 Low, which was unveiled on June 9 and immediately savaged via social media. Even Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert kept the roast going on their respective late night shows. The backlash was so pervasive and severe that it has created a self-perpetuating shoe roasting apparatus that will likely stick around for a while yet.

But we wanted to give the shoe a fair shake. Under Armour sent us a pair, I wore them for a while, played ball in them, logged some hours in them, and here is my objective review of these bad boys.

Appearance

Under Armour

Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way up top. Yes, the shoes look almost exactly like you would expect them to after seeing the ubiquitous press photo of them. The main difference is that there are a lot more reflective elements in person, ones that just do not photograph at all. The “UA” logo is reflective grey material and the “I can do all things” script on the inside is similarly shiny, but that’s pretty much the extent of flash on these.

There has been some debate over whether these shoes would have gotten as much flak if they had a Nike Swoosh on the side instead of the Under Armour logo. There’s no way to no for sure, but I am leaning on the side of “probably not,” although the Nike model these most resemble is probably the Monarch, which is pretty definitively a dad shoe.

Regardless, Steph should probably get some points for dropping, bar none, the least-flashy signature kicks in history. The average pair of LeBrons looks like something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion, so kudos to a baller having the gumption to be like, “Nah, just white.”

They certainly look better on the feet than they do just sitting there, but they’re just not flashy shoes. I have to believe that’s the entire point.

Performance

Here was my first impression: These are, bar none, the most comfortable basketball shoes I’ve ever put on straight out of the box. The SpeedForm upper functions like Flyknit, but more closely resembles a typical basketball shoe upper. There’s plenty of cushioning and they’re firm throughout. I experienced a little bit of slipping in the heel, but the grip is fantastic and I felt completely comfortable and confident shooting hoops while wearing them.

I would say the biggest drawback to the shoes is not feeling fully “locked in” when they’re cinched up tight, but that just helps add to the comfort factor. These shoes may have been derided for being “mall walkers,” but dang it, man, if you’re gonna walk in the mall, you might as well be comfortable.

Conclusion

Under Armour

I understand that a lot of people will have trouble getting past how these look. Maybe you’re not at a point in your life where you’re fully comfortable with embracing normcore, or walking into a room wearing all-white shoes that aren’t Air Force Ones. That’s cool. There are a lot of other shoes out there for you. An endless number of options.

If you want something comfortable that you can also use to play a pick-up game, the Chefs are a pretty dang solid option. I have a hunch that anyone who has picked these up ironically – and make no mistake, the Chefs are selling very well, with likely some of those purchases being of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge variety – will be surprised to find how much they enjoy them.

They’re not going to turn a lot of heads, but your feet don’t always have to be a focal point.

Instagram

The Golden State Warriors’ hangover is real. Champions a year ago and near repeaters in 2016, LeBron James gut-punched them out of a title and the public’s love for them has been prickly, at best, since.

Ayesha Curry knows this as well as anyone.

The wife to the two-time MVP Steph, mother of Riley, and soon-to-be Food Network star has taken up her husband’s mantle vigorously in recent days, standing up for him on social media till death do her part. Sometimes her tact on this front drifts into the questionable, like when she suggested that the league was rigged as the Warriors watched Game 6 of the NBA Finals slip away from them.

A war-zone of gross gender politics and sick meme burns, Ayesha’s mentions have been ablaze as a summer heat wave in recent days, and her Twitter offenders do not always play very nice. One of the more popular methods of Ayesha harassment, lately, has been this photo of Kyrie Irving shopped over Steph in a family portrait:

In response to this viciousness, Curry tweeted the following:

Curry’s polarizing fame has become an entity almost totally separate from her husband’s game. Something about her has ignited heated feelings in the public imagination, and this probably isn’t the last that we’ll be hearing from her.

The recently concluded NBA Finals were a microcosm of the culture clash at the top of the NBA. LeBron James has been the sport’s signature star, arguably the most famous athlete in America, for years now, and his return to bring Cleveland a title was the culmination of a long-building storyline. But Steph Curry and the Warriors’ meteoric rise captured the imagination of NBA fans, and he’s the one with the two most recent MVP trophies.

LeBron’s defeat of Curry in the Finals was a message that he’s not quite the old guard ready to pass the torch to the young guns, but 73-9 still happened. Both are called stars for a reason — because their teams orbit around them. So who would you put at the center of your solar system?

LeBron James

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Steph Curry just won his second consecutive MVP award by unanimous vote, and he absolutely deserved it, despite the outcome of the NBA Finals. After winning the championship last year, he led his Warriors to the all-time win/loss record of 73-9 this season, and in the process, seized the crown as the greatest shooter of all time. Curry did things this past season that were absolutely mindboggling. He was must-see TV, whether he was embarrassing defenders with ankle-breaking moves, whipping no-look assists, or launching 40-footers like they were layups.

All the while, LeBron James looked on, seething. There was suddenly a lot of chatter about Curry, not LeBron, being the best basketball player on the planet. Everyone was brushing him to the side as a second-straight Warriors title seemed all but inevitable. And then the Finals happened, and LeBron reminded everyone what the best basketball player on the planet really looks like. He led the way in every major category: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. It was a Finals performance for the ages.

And even at age 31, you better believe I’d still choose LeBron James right to start a franchise with over Curry. LeBron makes you an instant contender. Have you looked at the roster some of the teams he’s dragged to the Finals in the past, including last year’s team that didn’t feature Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, which still managed to take the Warriors to six games? I defy you to name another player who could make that happen, let alone Curry. LeBron has shown absolutely no signs of letting up, no signs that he’s lost a step athletically. The only concern has been his deteriorating jump shot, and he even had that falling when it mattered most. So, yeah.

Steph Curry

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In answering this question, it’s important to remember just how limited Curry was by a knee injury during the NBA Finals. Anyone who watched the two-time MVP labor through seven games absent his trademark wiggle knows that, and reporters who had access to the Warriors’ locker room do, too.

Curry, basically, is a much, much better player than his performance against the Cavaliers suggested. Cleveland wasn’t the first team to switch screens on and off the ball and slot a fleet-footed forward onto Draymond Green. The champions deserve immense credit for their yeoman’s work defensively, but it’s totally fine to admit that Curry was at least one step slow, too.

But he won’t be going forward. Curry has no history of knee injuries and is three years younger and has far less wear and tear on his body than LeBron James. If either of these megastars is due a minor decline over the next several years, it’s LeBron who seems the more likely candidate – and not just because of age and experience, either.

Curry’s game will age like a fine wine. Father Time doesn’t come for shooting and passing talent, and the Warriors superstar has more of it than any player in the world. James, on the other hand, still relies on his unparalleled combination of size and athleticism to reign supreme over the league.

LeBron could thrive in any era, but the game is clearly trending in Curry’s direction – and he has both the on-court accomplishments and worldwide fanfare to show for it. Is he a better player than James? Maybe, maybe not. But Curry could single-handedly lift catapult a franchise to global notoriety and championship contention the way not even (31-year-old) LeBron could.

You’ve heard the debate — who do you want if you were to start an NBA franchise tomorrow? Cast your vote below for Dewcision 2016 to see the Uproxx poll results.

Now, VOTE!

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The Golden State Warriors have achieved the coup of the summer, convincing Kevin Durant to leave a championship contender in the Oklahoma City Thunder to join what should be an NBA Dynasty in the Bay. As the dust settles and the details emerge from the free-agency courting process, it becomes more and more clear that the Warriors’ heartfelt persistence was perhaps their best weapon in luring the superstar.

In a recent report from The Undefeated’s Marc Spears, we learn that text messages from back-to-back MVP Steph Curry were a large part of this appeal.

“Curry told Durant in a text message that he could care less about who is the face of the franchise, who gets the most recognition or who sells the most shoes (Curry is with Under Armor, Durant with Nike),” Spears writes.

There’s more, though.

The two-time NBA MVP also told Durant that if Durant won the MVP award again he would be in the front row of the press conference clapping for him. In closing, Curry’s message to Durant was that all he truly cared about was winning championships and he’d like to do that as his teammate.

Many factors, including fame and championships and geography, will be cited for Durant’s departure. In the end, it might have been the case that he just went where he felt he was most wanted by people he’d most enjoy working with.

(Via The Undefeated)

Kevin Durant joining up with Steph Curry and a Golden State Warriors team that went 73-9 last season has turned the NBA on its ear. They are the clear favorites to win the NBA title, and could set all sorts of offensive records based on all the firepower they have now. However, while Warriors fans are surely ecstatic about this, and some NBA fans are curious to see how it all plays out, they are also getting a lot of flak from some fans and NBA talking heads. You can’t be a team with this much talent and avoid getting hated on. As far as Steph Curry is concerned, though, they are ready to handle it.

During a recent interview, Curry was asked if the Warriors will be able to handle the hate. Which, you know, obviously Curry was going to say they can, because it would be insane if he said “No.” Specifically, he said:

“In most arenas, we had a strong contingent of Warriors fans. But as far as being hated, all the noise stays out of our locker room. We focus on what we have to do. We have experience dealing with it. We were the villains (in the Finals) so we will be more prepared. But all that matters is what goes on in our locker room.”

While you can quibble with the notion that the Warriors were the villains in the NBA Finals last season, the rest of this is about what you expect. People will be rooting against the Warriors because they added one of the best players in the NBA and some people are made Durant decided to join up with Golden State to create a super team.

People rooted against the Miami Heat when LeBron James and Chris Bosh signed there, and they got even more hate than the Warriors have been getting. They went to four straight finals and won two. If the Warriors can do that with Durant, all the hate in the world isn’t going to be able to get to them.

(Via Mercury-News)

Hi everyone. We’re still stuck in the NBA’s offseason. It’s still awful. Don’t worry, we hate these months when there’s no basketball just as much as you do.

While we’re (im)patiently waiting for the season to start in October, we’re constantly looking for ways to get our hoops fix. Thankfully, the NBA came through for us when it released this video of the top-100 plays from the 2015-16 season.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the No. 1 play was LeBron James’ chase-down block of Andre Iguodala from Game 7 of the 2016 Finals. While everyone has watched it dozens of times, it’s still one of the most unbelievable plays in NBA history. LeBron makes another cameo in the top-5 for his huge alley-oop that provided an exclamation point on Game 3 of the Finals.

The top-5 is rounded out by perhaps the three best point guards in the league. Huge plays by Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry appear, as does another moment from the Finals because Kyrie Irving is a magician. There’s never a dull second when these three dudes are on the court, and the plays that the NBA selected to make its top-5 reinforces that belief.

Some truly jaw-dropping plays warrant a much higher ranking, by the way. This sky-walking block by pint-sized guard Shane Larkin definitely deserves better than No. 81 on the list, right?

There definitely weren’t 59 efforts better than Kevin Durant’s slithery-smooth drive against a helpless Julius Randle and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Giannis Antetokounmpo’s incredible coast-to-coast, euro-step, lefty poster dunk over Serge Ibaka was probably our favorite play of the entire season.

Well, other than LeBron’s legendary block, of course.

Whether you agree with the rankings or not, watching this video will definitely make you look back fondly on what was a really fun 2015-16 season. But if you’re like us, you’re going to watch this video and get really antsy, because we’re three months away from the start of the 2016-17 season and that day can’t come soon enough.

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If there’s one thing everyone can agree on about the fallout from Kevin Durant’s decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors, it’s that Russell Westbrook is about to have a monster season. The primal rage that seems to fuel his game will be stoked by KD’s supposed betrayal and the doubts everyone has that the Thunder can remain competitive among the top teams in the Western Conference. In that way, it’s not surprising that Westbrook is the betting favorite for the 2016-17 NBA MVP award, according to Bovada.

Westbrook’s odds come in at +200, followed closely behind by Steph Curry at +400 and LeBron James at +500, though we’d have to say that if Russ doesn’t win, voters will have a hard time voting for a Steph three-peat now that Durant is by his side. The combination of the added talent and voters’ reluctance to keep voting for the same player means that LeBron has an excellent shot to win his fifth MVP.

Looking farther down the list, Anthony Davis has the fifth-best odds at the title, which makes some sense — after all, he’s the clear best player on a team that has talent but underachieved last year. If they make a leap, Davis’ name will be on everyone’s lips once again like it was two years ago. Tied with him at +1600 is Kawhi Leonard, who will have a real shot at the award if the Spurs don’t miss a beat after Tim Duncan retired. He’s already won two Defensive Player of the Year awards, so if his offense continues to progress, he will be in the argument for the best player in the NBA.

(Via Bovada)

Curry is maybe the best player in the NBA right now, and he’s also one of the most popular. He’s also known for chewing on his mouthguard, making it an integral part of his overall aesthetic. A fan found Curry’s used mouthguard after a Warriors road game in December, and it was part of an online auction on Sunday, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell. The mouthguard, and its case, both had Curry’s name on it. It was also part of a larger auction with a lot of basketball items, so it is definitely a legitimate used mouthguard. Steph Curry had it in his mouth and everything!

How much did somebody pay for the distinct honor of having a used Curry mouthguard? The auction winner paid a whopping $3,190. Granted, in this particular auction block this was not a particularly pricey item. We’re talking about an auction that sold a 1909 Joe Jackson card for $667,189. However, that’s a super rare baseball card. As far as used mouthguard prices go, three grand is unusually high.

Somebody owns a particularly gross piece of basketball history now.

(Via ESPN)

Steph Curry is arguably the best player in the NBA right now. He’s won back-to-back MVPs, and he’s one of the most popular athletes in the world. However, that doesn’t mean he’s achieved all his goals. He only has one NBA ring so far, and his Warriors are the favorites to win this season. However, right now, he has more pressing goals in mind. At the moment, he’s just tryin’ to find the booty.

What does this mean? Nobody knows, save perhaps Steph Curry himself. All we know is what we see in this video posted by Ayesha Curry. Ayesha and husband Steph are sitting in a golf cart, and Ayesha calmly asks “What are we doing today, babe?” It’s a little disappointing, given Steph’s age, that he didn’t turn this into a Pinky and the Brain reference. Instead, while looking through binoculars, Curry simply states his ultimate goal: “Find the booty.”

Is he at the golf course because that’s where one goes to find the booty? Or is the booty everywhere, and he just happened to be at the golf course? Of course, when he finds the booty, what’s his end game? All of these questions remain unanswered. All we know is that it’s summer, the Olympics are over, and football season hasn’t started yet. Steph Curry trying to find the booty is close to the pinnacle of intrigue right now.

(H/T reddit)

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Even though the Golden State Warriors won the title in 2014-15, broke the single-season record for victories last year, and added Kevin Durant in free agency this summer, there are still some who aren’t completely sold on them. Obviously, there is no guarantee they will win the NBA title, but Steve Kerr’s team is certainly the favorite. One person who is convinced the Warriors are going to be just fine is Steph Curry.

Sure, he’s biased, but he’s also one of the players who will be part of making it work. The concern that some have is that by adding Durant, the Warriors have too many star players who are used to having the ball. The most recent point of reference would be the first year LeBron James and Chris Bosh spent with Dwyane Wade in Miami, although it bears remembering that super-team overcame early-season labors to reach the NBA Finals.

As Curry said at a fundraiser in San Francisco earlier this week, though, he’s unconcerned by naysayers and memorable precedent. Here’s the two-time reigning MVP from CBS Sports’ Ananth Pandian:

“There are plenty of shots to go around. There are plenty of opportunities for everybody to shine. And obviously for us, we have healthy egos and that we all think, you know, we’re the best player, we’re confident when we go out there. But the only real objective is to win and if we don’t win, we know what that feeling’s like now and we don’t want that feeling.”

Since Curry is likely to see his shot totals go down, his unwavering confidence is certainly encouraging. Durant joined the Warriors to win a title, so one would hope he would be willing to do what is necessary to ease the transition.

“It will work. It will take some time to get in training camp to figure out,” Curry admitted.

In the end, talent usually wins out, and the Warriors boast arguably as much high-end ability as any team in league history. They have at least two players who are justified in thinking they are the best player in the league, and two other All-NBA type performers who play both ends of the floor at an elite level. That’s not something most teams can say, and that goes a long way.

(Via CBS Sports)

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This summer, almost all talk about the Golden State Warriors has revolved around two things: How the team blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and subsequently signed free agent forward Kevin Durant. Lost in the mix of hoops news is one Stephen Curry, the league’s two-time defending MVP. It makes sense that those would be the storylines getting most run this summer, but with Curry having additional help, it wouldn’t shock anyone if he improved on what he did last season.

USA Today‘s Sam Amick sat down with Brandon Payne, Curry’s trainer, to talk about what Curry has been up to this summer, and it seems like it’s been all business. After resting his knee for a few weeks, the injury that limited Curry in the Finals isn’t expected to be a problem moving forward, and he’s supposedly “the strongest he’s ever been” according to Payne.

One of the more interesting nuggets stemming from the interview is how Payne is working with Curry to neutralize the length of opposing defenders. How is he doing it? Paying close attention to their nose, of course.

Q: Some lessons learned from the OKC series? Their length certainly seemed to bother him.

A: “We’ve really worked on combatting length every offseason – different ways to neutralize it, different ways to try and manipulate defenders’ hands. One of the big things we look at is when a defender drops his hands, and making sure that we put big guys in a position to where they have to drop their hands to open up the shot. So we talked about doing that a lot this year, we worked on it quite a bit.”

“There’s three things that we’re looking for when he gets head up on somebody. The first thing we’re looking for is the position of the nose in relationship to the rest of their body. Is their nose off to one side or the other? Because if it is, then we know he’s going to attack one way or the other. So we’re looking at nose positioning, and we want to make one foot drop, and both hands drop. If you do that, you know where the shot is. If they don’t, then we have ways to space side to side. But we’re looking at nose positioning, foot, hands drop, shot.”

These are the kind of details that we just aren’t privy to. Curry’s ability to get off shots is much more complicated than his ball-handling ability and quick release; he’s studying the mechanics of body movement to give him the edge to neutralize his own physical limitations.

If Curry should improve both his decision making (something Payne addressed in the interview) and his ability to shoot over length, the Warriors are going to continue to give the rest of the NBA fits as they look for ways to defend Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

(Via USA Today)

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Most of the talk surrounding Kevin Durant’s addition to the Golden State Warriors this summer surrounds how a team featuring the last three NBA MVP award winners, a guard with the most points ever scored in an NBA quarter, and a top-15 player with a painful kicking habit might all share the ball on the offensive end. But it’s Golden State’s defense — ranked No. 5 in the league last season — that could see the biggest improvement. That might sound crazy to some, especially with Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and — most importantly — starting center Andrew Bogut gone in free agency this past summer. But with the way Durant played defense in the playoffs this past May, it’s not as crazy as it may seem.

First, though, lets dispense with the silly for a second here. Durant is about as villainous as LeBron was during the 2010-11 season, which is to say if anyone’s confusing him with Qualen in Cliffhanger — perhaps the purest distillation of villainy in contemporary cinema — needs to check themselves. Durant’s Nike spot about being a bad man only worked on an ironic level. He’s a really good dude, even behind the scenes where a lot of players are not.

It’s why Steve Kerr described the first day of camp as “great.” It’s also — at least partially — why Durant’s assimilation into the pass-happy Warriors this season will be less stressful and think-piece-producing than LeBron’s sojourn south in 2010. In that instance LeBron had to figure out how he was going to play with a top-five offensive talent like Dwyane Wade, but neither Durant nor Steph really need the ball like Wade and LeBron did at the time to be effective on the offense end. But how Golden State shares the ball, or not, is a piece for another time. For you offense enthusiasts, we’ve embedded this video of Klay Thompson and Durant getting up shots earlier this week when training camp opened (yeah, they don’t miss often).

KD and Klay Thompson working on their on the move catch-and-shoot pic.twitter.com/8p7utLsz8h

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 27, 2016

Durant’s offensive prowess is overt enough even the most casual fan can acknowledge his dominance. He’s basically seven feet tall and can pull up off the dribble to swish above-the-break threes with ease. He can also handle the rock like a guard and can run the pick-and-roll at an elite level — he was in the 88th percentile for pick-and-roll ball handlers on Synergy, and only Kawhi Leonard got more points per ball screen among wings who play starter’s minutes. But we’re already getting lost on Durant’s alien scoring ability when it’s really his defense that could make the Warriors somehow more dangerous than they were when they won 73 freakin’ games and came within one Finals collapse of a second consecutive title.

KD is an incredible defender, but you don’t hear about it because he carried a heavy offensive load in Oklahoma City. Except, he’s not James Harden — that load hasn’t crimped his effort on the other end. He was an elite defender in the regular season even while continuing to be one of the deadliest scorers in NBA history. The Thunder gave up more than two points per 100 possessions when Durant sat, and that’s even with Billy Donovan frequently staggering Durant’s minutes with Russell Westbrook’s. Opponents shot a lower percentage than average against Durant all over the court last season, too.

But while Durant was rated as an “excellent” defender on Synergy, in the 88th percentile, and never below “good” in any specific defensive play type, his brilliance on that end never really made headlines until his Thunder went up 3-1 on the team he’s playing for now. That’s because his defense in the Western Conference Finals last season was so superb, there was no way to ignore it even with all the buckets he was still getting.

In the Conference Finals he met Draymond Green at the rim and handled him alone in the post:

Dray wasn’t the only one, either. Playoff opponents shot worse against Durant at the rim than anyone else in the NBA (minimum 20 mins per game and eight games played). That’s astounding to think of when you also consider how effective he was at causing turnovers.

KD was able to defend a hobbled Steph Curry on high picks and get his go-go gadget 7-foot-4 wingspan into passing lanes for steals.

So, when engaged, it’s not crazy to submit that Durant is an All-Defense caliber defender. And while we had LeBron James taking home Defensive Player of the Year in our preposterous predictions post over the summer, Durant could take it, too! (We had KD averaging a triple-double on the year in that ridiculousness, so even we were swept up in what he might do on the offensive end with this team.)

With Steph and Klay adding the offensive firepower Durant’s never enjoyed playing with in his career, Durantula can focus on that end of the floor even more than he has in the past. There’s no accounting for what that comfort and confidence might inspire in the 2014 MVP. And, that’s all before we get into their new Death Star™ lineup.

Last year’s “Death Lineup” struggled mightily against the Thunder primarily because of all the agile athletes Oklahoma City could combat with (Andre Roberson, KD, Steven Adams) when the Warriors moved Green over to center and put Barnes at power forward alongside a perimeter triumvirate of Curry, Thompson and Andre Iguodala.

But now it’s even crazier. Just the notion of replacing Barnes with Durant in that lineup is sure to make any opposing coach quake. Sure, Durant hasn’t been so keen on playing a ton of minutes at power forward, but he won’t have to be in Golden State. Kerr can bust this beauty out as infrequently as he needs, but holy hell, it’s almost as impossible to imagine as the unknown depths of the world’s oceans.

Draymond is again going to be in contention for Defensive Player of the Year (he’s been runner-up the last two years), and Thompson is an accomplished wing defender. Add Durant to the mix and Iguodala’s genius-level basketball IQ, and even if Steph is as slow as he was in the NBA Finals, it won’t matter. (And let’s not forget that Steph ain’t no slouch on that end these days, even if he’s the worst defender among the starters and the new Death Star lineup)

The offensive fireworks on display in the Bay this season will get the majority of coverage to begin the season. And they should! Fans love scoring — it’s why hand-checking was abolished. But by the end of the year we might not just be talking about Golden State’s amazing scoring prowess, we could be talking about an all-time defensive juggernaut on par with last year’s Spurs squad.