5-Minute Breakdown: The Stephen Curry Relocate

Maybe you can’t shoot it like Stephen Curry, but you can get open like him.

This will mark the third time I’ve written about Stephen Curry in the past 3 months. Back in August, I looked at his pregame warm up routine. Then in October, I talked about why he’s one of my favorite players to watch. Now, I want to take a quick look at how he gets some of his open shots.

Stephen Curry is the best shooter on the planet. This is a fact even your grandmother most likely knows. How then, does he continue to get wide open shots seemingly every game?

Is it poor defense? Sure, I mean when the best shooter on the floor gets an open look, the defense must’ve had a breakdown somewhere.

But what about the times when the defense was pretty good and he still got an open look? How exactly is he getting open?

Stephen Curry is great at moving without the ball. He’s especially great at moving after a drive-and-kick. Defenders seem to relax a little after the kick out, just enough to give Curry time to find the open spot. And when you can shoot it like he does, finding open areas on the floor is no chore at all.

Here’s how he does it.

Rotations Are Going to Happen

Playing defense is hard. It’s inevitable that during the course of a game — whether it’s a high school game or in the NBA — players are going to get beat off the dribble. When this happens rotations need to be made. And that’s where Curry finds his openings — when the other team is switching.

On this play we see Curry getting a screen from Andersen Varejao up top, and because Draymond Green is trailing so far behind the play, his man (LeBron) jumps out to stop Curry, but Curry gets past him on a quick crossover. As he’s driving to the basket he now has Tristan Thompson (who was guarding Varejao) in front of him and LeBron trailing him.

After getting past Thompson, he kicks it out (wildly) to Shaun Livingston in the corner. Livingston makes a move to the basket, while Curry wastes no time sprinting to the corner (the spot where Livingston just was). Neither Thompson or LeBron stayed with him after he kicked it out and he gets a wide open three.

A lot of times when guards drive-and-kick, they stand or move without much purpose after they’ve passed it. Curry is mindful about not standing around. Again, maybe it’s because he’s the best shooter on the planet, and is always looking to get a shot off.

Here’s another one. Watch how he does the same thing to the Grizzlies.

He doesn’t let the defense off the hook — even when he’s being double- or triple-teamed.

Here we see him draw in three defenders (Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Jeff Green) as he drives to the basket on this play.

Once he get around them he kicks it out to a wide open Draymond Green.

Jeff Green sees that Draymond is wide open so he runs out to him to prevent the shot…

…but neither Gasol nor Z-Bo stay with Steph as he sprints out to the 3-point line…

…where he gets a wide open shot.

Steph is excellent at taking advantage of any confusion on defense.

Klay Does it Too

Curry isn’t the only one to get easy buckets this way. Teammate Klay Thompson knows how to exploit these defensive lapses as well.

Maybe you can’t shoot the ball like Steph Curry, but you can definitely get open like him.

My name is scott smoker and I write about basketball and other stuff every week on my website roundballsupply.co. You can also find me on Twitter.