Stephen Curry: Rookie of the Year?

Jossif Ezekilov


Before the season even started, Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry boldly proclaimed that he thought he would be the rookie of the year this season. Many thought that was a long shot, given some of the other players in this year’s draft class. There was number one pick Blake Griffin, who looked like the most NBA-ready player coming out of college; Ricky Rubio, the point guard out of Spain who opened eyes at the Beijing Olympics; or Jonny Flynn, the tough-as-nails point guard from Syracuse who led the Orangemen past UConn in that memorable six overtime game.


As the season started, two frontrunners dropped out from the get-go: Griffin went out with an injury that eventually sidelined him for the season, and Rubio decided to stay and play in Spain. However, other first years rose to the forefront. Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings scored a whopping 55 points and Kings guard Tyreke Evans took leadership of a young Kings team, and the NBA began advertising a Jennings-Evans rivalry for the ROY. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry put up modest numbers on a horrid Warriors team. It looked as though Curry would not only fall short of being the top rookie, but also the top rookie point man.


However, Curry has had a resurgence following the All-Star break. He had a triple double game before the break, and has averaged 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 7.9 assists since. That’s a hot stat line for many reasons. First of all, the guy is pulling down 7 boards a game as a 6 foot 3 point guard weighing in at about 185 pounds (for comparison, the Warriors’ starting center, Andris Biedrins, averages 7.8 rebounds standing seven feet tall and weighing 240 pounds). Second, Curry has achieved a consistent stat line on a dysfunctional Warriors team, where Coach Don Nelson’s seemingly random rotations leave players with 30 minutes of playing time one game and zero the next (just ask Anthony Morrow or C.J. Watson). The fact that he has been able to crank out such numbers is truly amazing


And the competition? Jennings had a hot start, but his shooting has been off lately (he’s had only one game shooting above 40 percent in the month of February. Yikes!). Evans has kept the production relatively consistent, but that line looked much better when the Kings were winning. While Curry’s Warriors are no winners, his recent upsurge shows that he may be more of an offensive threat, as he shoots much better from long-range than Evans and still does a lot of the same things that makes Evans good.


Curry had a slow start, but has improved his game tremendously, making his preseason prophecy looking more and more like a reality.