Has Stephen Curry been an underrated defender his whole career?

Golden State Warriors’ superstar Stephen Curry will go down as the greatest three-point shooter of all time. He’ll go down as one of the most important players in NBA history, if nothing else because of the way he’s revolutionised the game.

His defense though? That’s certainly not an aspect people will refer to when they discuss Curry’s legacy post-career. In fact, if anything, detractors may use it as a way to diminish his accomplishments and quality as a player.

Stephen Curry is receiving plaudits for his defense this postseason, but statistics suggest he may have been an underrated defender for much of his career.

Many have often dismissed Curry as simply being too small, as someone who is an automatic target for opposition offenses. That remains true, even in these Western Conference Finals against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

But Curry is now receiving plaudits for greater defensive competence, with many pundits attributing his development to a noticeable change in body shape over the past few years. Now at 34, Curry looks the strongest he ever has, to the point where many believe it’s negatively effecting his shooting.

There’s no doubt it’s had a positive impact on his defense though, evident by his defensive field goal percentage of 38.7% during these playoffs – the lowest of any remaining player who’s been the primary defender on at least ten shots per game.

If we compare that to other guards or forwards not known for their defense, Curry shouldn’t be near the same conversation.

DeMar DeRozan had a woeful defensive field goal percentage (59.6%) against Milwaukee in Chicago’s first round series. Brandon Ingram (54.7%), Donovan Mitchell (55.6%), Kyrie Irving (53.4%) and Doncic (50%) all pale into comparison of Curry’s defense during the playoffs.

What makes Curry different is his willingness to at least try on the defensive end. It’s clearly an aspect the two-time MVP takes pride in, with Curry taking obvious joy in being labelled a ‘two-way player’ in a recent press conference.

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But when we glance back to Curry’s earlier years, was he wrongly painted as a straight up bad defender? Looking back to the Warriors first championship in 2015, Curry had a defensive field goal percentage of 38.7%.

Again, in contrast, players like DeRozan, his teammate at the time Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley and C.J McCollum all sat above 48%. Throughout the past six postseasons, Curry’s highest defensive field goal percentage has been 44.7%.

What’s perhaps more impressive, especially given his low reputation, has been Curry’s ability to compete against the league’s other superstars.

Individual matchup tracking only goes back to the 2017-18 season, and although he’s never been a primary, number one defender against the opposition’s best players, he’s statistically done a reasonable job when switched onto them over the Warriors last three playoff runs.

In 2017-18, he was matched up defensively on James Harden for just over 17 minutes of the classic seven game series. Harden made 19 of his 45 field goal attempts, the 42.2% basically mirroring his overall shooting percentage for those playoffs.

In that same series, Curry was the primary defender on Chris Paul for 15 field goal attempts – he made six. Come the NBA Finals he was switched onto LeBron James for nearly ten minutes across the four games, with Curry too keeping James to 6-for-15 from the field.

Fast-forward back to the current postseason and Curry has done a fantastic job when switched onto superstars Doncic and Ja Morant. That pair is a combined 7-for-20 (35%) from the field when defended by Curry, including 4-for-11 (36.4%) from three-point range.

The post-season is just a small sample in relation to the regular season, but it’s ultimately where reputations are made. It’s also where a lot more attention is paid to opposition teams across a seven game series, pinpointing potential weak links that you can subsequently exploit.

The statistics simply don’t marry up to Curry’s reputation as a weak, exploitable defender.

No one’s suggesting he’s an excellent one capable of being a primary on-ball or wing defender, but the notion that he should be attacked relentlessly is irrational, unless it’s primarily a way to reduce his energy levels for the offensive end.

His reputation is put forward purely by his lack of size, along with the Warriors historically great defenders (Thompson, Iguodala, Green) that have often made Curry an obvious outlier.

The biggest positive is that he still appears to be getting better as an individual defender, in turn a cause for optimism when it comes to his viability as a starting point guard for years to come.