Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry disrespected in bizarre early MVP rankings

If there’s one thing that’s been truly apparent this season, it’s that Golden State Warriors’ superstar Stephen Curry remains in the top handful of best players in the NBA.

Despite being 35-years-old and entering year 15 in the league, Curry looks as good as ever in leading the Warriors to a 6-2 start through eight games. The franchise cornerstone has entered into early MVP discussions for most, with Curry looking to become the oldest player in league history to win the award.

One early MVP power rankings has Golden State Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry remarkably low despite his strong start to the season.

Curry would be a consensus top three MVP candidate based on the first two weeks of the season, with another two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic, and younger Dallas Mavericks’ star Luka Doncic also prominent in the conversation.

Yet that hasn’t stopped Basketball Reference placing Curry sixth in their current MVP tracker, having had him 10th before Monday’s 34-point outing against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.

That’s bizarrely low for someone who’s literally breaking records. Curry has become the first player in league history to make at least four three-pointers in each of his first eight games. He’s currently averaging 30.9 points on 53% shooting from the floor, 47.5% from three-point range, and 91.3% from the free-throw line.

Is Steve Kerr harming Stephen Curry’s early MVP chances?

Curry’s astonishing efficiency is only magnified by the fact he’s had very little scoring help from teammates to start the season. Fellow splash brother Klay Thompson is yet to explode for a big game, while Andrew Wiggins is straight struggling having shot the ball at just 17.6% from three through the first eight games.

In fact, only one other Warrior has a 20-point game this season — backup big Dario Saric who tallied exactly 20 against the Oklahoma City Thunder last Friday. It’s impressive that Golden State have built a 6-2 record as a result, and it’s largely been down to the brilliance of their nine-time All-Star.

Yet despite the urge to do so, head coach Steve Kerr is playing Curry for a career-low amount of minutes. He’s currently averaging 31.8 per game, the lowest of any season outside 2019-20 where he was limited to just five games through injury. The addition of Chris Paul is evidently having an effect, with Curry having averaged over 34 minutes per game in each of the past three seasons.

Curry was named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday, and who knows what kind of numbers he could have been putting up with an extra 2-3 minutes per game. Regardless, there’s little doubt that he should be well above sixth in early MVP calculations.