Mavs guard Seth Curry is the subject of the NBPA’s latest player feature. In the article he opens up about developing his off-the-dribble game and those ever-present comparisons to his brother.
Jared Zwerling, the piece’s author, details Curry’s summer drills with Johnny Stephene, Curry’s college teammate at Liberty who also worked with the Mavericks as a ball-handling coach before the 2015-16 season, and continues to work with Wesley Matthews to this day. Their workouts are extremely intense and complex; it’s pretty interesting to see how the routines have ramped up in recent seasons.
The way Stephene runs the practices — including bringing in bigger, stronger defenders who can get away with more contact than they would in an NBA game — he’s not surprised Curry has become so dynamic off the bounce this season.
“He always had a craftiness since his freshman year,” Stephene tells Zwerling. “He was really good at one, two dribbles and getting into a shot. We focused on having more control of the ball, where you can make quick decisions and you don’t have to give the ball up so quick. The difference with Seth this year is that he’s doing a lot of off the dribble—off-the-dribble pullup threes, off-the-dribble floaters, more craftiness.”
This summer, Zwerling writes, Curry’s plan is to expand his range off the dribble out to 28 feet.
Zwerling interviewed Stephen and Dell Curry for the article, as well, to get their take on the constant comparisons Seth draws to both of them. While Dell was one of the NBA’s original sharpshooters, Steph is quickly revolutionizing what it means to be a shooter himself. Seth, meanwhile, has proven himself as a heck of a player since becoming a full-time starter on Jan. 12.
“The one thing I know about Seth is he’s always confident in his ability,” Steph says. “He’s always had like a him-against-the-world mentality, which has been real helpful for him to withstand the different stops he’s had along the way. And he plays right into the resiliency he needed to stick with it. Eventually when he got a shot, he was ready. It’s a lot of in the shadows of my dad’s career, and that makes it even much more amazing.”
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