There is no one in the league more qualified to lure away a two-time league MVP than Miami Heat president Pat Riley. This summer gives ‘The Godfather’ one last chance to prove himself.
The NBA has been littered with league MVP’s leaving their current team whilst still in their prime.
Wilt Chamberlain changed teams after winning the MVP for both the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Kareem Abdul-Jabaar won the award three times for the Milwaukee Bucks, before winning a further three with the Los Angeles Lakers.
And in more recent times, LeBron James left after winning the award on two occasions with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then another two with the Miami Heat.
It just so happens that the league’s reigning back-to-back MVP, Stephen Curry, has a decision to make.
Curry joined the Warriors’ recruiting contingent who travelled to The Hamptons this past offseason. Their mission: seduce Kevin Durant to the Bay Area. Durant is himself, of course, a former league MVP.
Curry’s selflessness was a key reason the Warriors were able to get Durant over the line, according to Warriors’ general manager, Bob Meyers. Meyers noted this past offseason:
"“…he sent a brilliant text to Kevin that said, ‘If you win MVP or I win MVP, it doesn’t matter. We’re trying to win championships. And if you do win, I’ll be in the front row clapping for you at the press conference.”"
One the surface, this looks like a case-closed, no questions to be asked situation.
Like, why would the reigning back-to-back lack MVP, fresh off the back of consecutive trips to the Finals, even have a modicum of thought to leaving?
Front office insider
It was quite noteworthy when ESPN’s Amin Elhassan raised the topic of Curry potentially leaving the Warriors this off-season on a recent True Hoop podcast. Elhassan details his two primary reasons for placing Curry as a “10 percent chance” of departing this summer via free-agency.
The first being the idea that Curry could be taken for granted. This stems back to the Warriors pursuit, and eventual signing, of Durant. Coming off the back of a 73-win season and leading 3-1 in the Finals, the Warriors didn’t just go all out to entice Durant this past summer. They were recruiting him in the midst of their record-breaking regular season.
Despite crushing the league and having the presence of a back-to-back MVP, the Warriors were still somewhat hesitant as to the direction of the team.
Granted, recruiting a top five player in the league is a no-brainer for any team. But it’s incredibly rare for that team to already possess the current back-to-back MVP. In such an instance, the natural inclination for the team would be usually to add more complimentary players to fit around the resident superstar.
The Heat’s big three comparison can certainly be made, bringing in both James and Chris Bosh to play alongside the team’s resident superstar, Dwyane Wade, but there are a few big differences. The Heat were coming off a 47-win season and a first-round playoff exit. Furthermore, Wade and James were already very close friends. But most notably, it wasn’t Curry, the Warriors’ marquee player, who initiated the recruiting process.
That was left to Draymond Green, the versatile all-star forward, whose role on the team would not drastically change in the event that the reciting process was successful
Furthermore, in contrast to the Heat, the Warriors had led 3-1 in the Finals, with Curry becoming the first-ever unanimous league MVP. In other words, they were already at the top of the mountain.
(Side Note: If you wanted to trace it back in history, the last time an MVP left his team whilst still in his prime to join a 50-plus win team was Moses Malone in 1982. Malone joined a 58-win Sixers’ team fresh off a finals loss. Malone would again win the league MVP in1983, on the way to leading the Sixers to the title.)
So in terms of being taken for granted as it pertains to this offseason, Elhassan explained that the Warriors might not go to the same lengths as they did to land Durant to re-sign Curry. “Oh, we don’t need to do that, ’cause he’s coming back. We don’t need no dog and pony show,” Elhassan said of Golden State’s potential thinking.
This would draw parallels with the Heat and their dealings with Wade this past off-season. Assuming player loyalty, the Heat and its president, Pat Riley, made no formal presentation this past offseason to Wade during the free-agency. The eventual outcome was Wade signing with the Chicago Bulls. As Riley later stated:
"“I didn’t make it happen. Dwyane left, and the buck stops here. I have great regret I didn’t put myself in the middle of it and immerse myself in the middle of it and get in a canoe and paddle to the Mediterranean if I had to, be in New York when he arrived on [July 6] and greet him at the airport. I wasn’t there in the middle of the negotiation, and that’s my job. It’s not going to be the same without him.”"
While Wade was 34 at the time, and Curry will be 29 this summer, the principle is similar. Wade had sacrificed salary for years, only to be rejected when he finally felt he was due.
In this case, the Warriors can be seen to have been overly accommodating in incorporating Durant into their system, at the expense of their resident MVP in Curry.
With and Without Durant
The confidence and comfort level that Curry has shown when playing with and without Durant this season has been quite evident. Here is how Curry has fared this season:
Curry With Durant: 24.4 points per game, 6.2 assists per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, 1.7 steals per game, 46.8 field-goal percentage, 40.2 three-point percentage, 32.9 minutes per game
Curry Without Durant: 26.9 PPG, 7.6 APG, 4.8 RPG, 2.1 SPG, 47.1 FG%, 42.5 3P%
But it’s not just the numbers. Curry’s sense of freedom, knowing he’s the man in charge and not having to defer, has benefited both himself and the Warriors.
Marcus Thompson, Warriors’ beat writer for the Mercury News, had a great summation of Curry’s struggles this season in assimilating to Durant’s presence following his substandard game on Christmas Day:
"The price for integrating Kevin Durant has been Curry’s brilliance. He’s shown flashes of his usual self. But he has no doubt absorbed the greatest sacrifice of the Warriors’ incumbent stars."
Mind you, at the time of this statement, Curry was averaging 24.1 PPG, 5.8 and 1.8 APG, which included a 39.7 3P%. Hardly terrible numbers, which shows the extent to which both Curry has sacrificed and suffered as a result of Durant’s arrival.
And it comes as no surprise that Curry’s best stretch of the season was enjoyed during Durant’s recent absence with a knee injury. In the midst of Durant’s recent 19 game absence was a season-best 13 game streak, which has now extended to 14 games following Durant’s return. During this winning streak, Curry posted 27.4 PPG, 8.5 APG, 4.3 RPG, 2.3 SPG while shooting 51.8 percent from the field and 48.8 percent from downtown.
Notably, Curry’s usage rate rose from his average of 28.4 prior to Durant going down, up to 30.2 during this streak.
Under Armour vs Nike
This is the other, somewhat unspoken, area in which Curry has suffered with Durant’s arrival.
Just a month into the season, Under Armour announced that they had lost nearly $600 million in value, equating to 4 percent of the company. This was primarily blamed on the release of the Curry 3 line of sneakers, which had “started off a bit slower than previous models.”
Of course, Durant is signed to Under Armour’s biggest rival, Nike. As Darren Rovell, ESPN’s Sports Business Reporter, noted “At Nike, you can have more losers than Under Armour.”
Prior to Durant’s arrival, Curry had the Bay Area covered in terms of basketball apparel with Under Armour. The presence of Durant, combined with the bombing of the Curry 3 release, adds another wrinkle to the Curry situation.
With megastars such as Curry, their on-court earnings are just a fraction of their entire earnings.
Therefore, such a hit is certainly going to have some effect.
Best in the World
On a ESPN True Hoop podcast recorded in mid-January, Utah Jazz radio play-by-play man David Locke was discussing with host Kevin Arnovitz the various challenges facing the Warriors in adjusting to the shadow of Durant.
Here is what Locke stated as it pertains to Curry, both in general and playing alongside Durant:
"No superstar in the history of the game, or any sport, or any business, who’s not a little bacon short of a BLT. And whose not got a little bit of a screw loose, that’s driving them, to this level of greatness, And people, always me, when I’m living with an NBA team for the season and I’m always like – they’re great, they’re gracious, they’re polite. Until for ONE MINUTE they believe you’re preventing them from being great. And the first second that they think there’s anything out there preventing them from being great they are IMPOSSIBLE to deal with. So Steph’s copacetic as long as he can be the best player in the world. But the minute whats going on in his mind is preventing him being the best player on the world then he is going to have a huge problem with it – BECAUSE he’s a superstar and there’s no superstar in the history of the game that’s ever been anything else."
Perhaps the most significant line from Locke was that Curry would be copacetic “as long as he can be the best player in the world.”
Having just completed his best and possibly most enjoyable stretch of the season sans Durant, this is going to be strongly put to the test with the playoffs awaiting.
A New Beginning
The question is: if Curry were to leave Golden State, where would he go?
During the aforementioned podcast, Elhassan suggested that the most likely destination for Curry would be to sign with the Charlotte Hornets.
Curry grew up in the area, along with his wife, Ayesha. Elhassan explained that not only would they like to raise their children there one day, but his father, ex-NBA player Dell Curry, continues to broadcast Hornets games for Fox Sports.
But, according to Elahassan, there is potentially one major hitch. Through the Hornets’ majority owner, Michael Jordan, the Jordan Brand has heavy influence within the Hornets franchise. The Hornets’ home, the Spectrum Center, is littered with the Jordan Brand logo. The influence is so large that as of next season, the Hornets’ uniforms will feature the Jordan brand over the league’s new apparel outfitter, Nike.
As Elhassan pointed out very succinctly, Curry is “a sneaker salesman playing basketball.”
By this he means that Curry’s current and future playing salary somewhat dwarfs in comparison to the riches he can make off the field with his apparel range. Jumping from Golden State to Charlotte would simply represent the same issue, just in a different market. And a much smaller market at that.
Furthermore, jumping from the Warriors to the Hornets wouldn’t help Curry’s chances of competing for future titles.
Splashing in South Beach
Which leads us to the Miami Heat.
Pat Riley needs no introduction for what he has accomplished and brought to Miami in his time in charge. Alonzo Mourning. Shaquille O’Neal. LeBron James. Chris Bosh. Whether they’ve been acquired via trade or free-agency, Riley has always sought after super stars.
Now, at age 72, Riley likely has one more title run left in him. With the big three era officially over, the time is perfect for a new megastar to arrive in town.
Curry could own South Florida on and off the floor, and the fact that an MVP in Durant would choose to play with him in Oakland is simply music to Riley’s ears. The lure of Riley, Curry and South Beach is a formidable trio to attract even more free agents.
Next: The best moves of the Pat Riley era
Curry already has one Riley in his life – his four year-old daughter. A second Riley could help him complete what he’s missing.