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In an effort to bring our fans closer to the action on the court, the Warriors and MOCAP Analytics have teamed up to produce an ongoing analytical blog series, featuring insights and analyses not previously made available to the public.
Stephen Curry saunters across half court, his eyes up, the ball his toy. With each dribble he slithers and surveys. As he gets into range, he pines for a teammate’s drag screen. Any sight of driving space and he’ll swiftly turn the corner for an aggressive push into the paint. If not, he loiters, daring defenders to double him.
With an extra bounce or two to draw the trapping defenders away from his teammates, Curry’s waiting game becomes a baiting game, a delicate balance between attracting and attacking. If Curry acts too early, before his teammate is open, it could lead to a costly turnover. Too late and the trapping defenders may have him dead to rights. The wrong angle, it’s a steal.
An escape dribble creates just enough space and time for his teammates to move into threatening pass destinations (PDs) in the middle and corners. After a slick pass, the simple math is inescapable. His two defenders are out of the play, and a five-on-five game tilts into a four-on-three mismatch.
Take a look.
As the league’s premiere shooter, you might expect that defenses put some extra pressure on Steph high up the court. The data backs up our intuition; take a look at the figure below. Following ball screens, defenses show higher on Steph (yellow) than the average NBA guard (blue), and as a result he passes out of traps further from the basket. For the defense, all this attention comes at a price, namely leaving plenty of space for his teammates to get free. And as an elite playmaker, he makes defenses pay.
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