SH Blog: Something is off with Curry’s shot, Deng upset with contract rumors, Wallace blasts teammates again

Something is wrong with Stephen Curry’s shot this season.

When the Golden State Warriors guard shoots, it’s almost never considered a bad shot. The reason behind that logic is simple: it’s not considered a bad shot if you make it. In past years, Curry almost always made shots that would be considered a bad shot if anyone else took it, like this one, for example.

This season, however, Curry has simply been off his shooting game. For the first time in his career, he is shooting under 43.7 percent from the 3-point line. In fact, he is nowhere near that number. The 39.6 percent (and that will go down even further after shooting just two-of-10 against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday) shooting from long-range makes Curry no better than very good with all things considered (attempts per game), and that’s a far cry from the “best shooter ever” label that many have put on him over the years. In comparison, he shot a whopping 45.3 percent from beyond the arc last season – over six percent better than what he’s shooting now.

An argument can be made that the loss of a secondary ball-handling point guard like Jarrett Jack plays into Curry’s struggles this season. The Warriors have been scrambling to find a legitimate backup to Curry all season long, and have found no answers in Toney Douglas, Nemanja Nedovic and Kent Bazemore. But from what I’ve seen, this is not the only reason for Curry’s struggles. Simply put, he has missed a boat load of shots that he would normally make – wide-open ones, even – that he has not missed on a consistent basis in the past. The ability to “make shots from anywhere” has somewhat become more of a myth than reality this season. It’s easy to see the difference when you compare his shot chart from this season and last – particularly from the right side. 

Even his free throw shooting has taken a hit: he is shooting just 86 percent from the stripe compared to 90 percent from last season. Whereas it would be a surprise to see him miss a free throw last season, it’s now almost expected of him to miss at least one.

There isn’t a clear-cut answer as to why this is happening, and it’s not necessarily a big worry as of yet because the team has been on a 10-game winning streak. He could also simply flip a switch and turn the corner on his shooting as the season goes further along. It is worth monitoring, though, and if this is the version of Curry that we’re going to get in the playoffs, don’t be surprised if their run gets cut short. Everything he is able to do largely stems from his ability to be a threat from anywhere once he moves past the halfcourt line, and that includes his ability to create favorable mismatches for his teammates. If he is suddenly unable to hit the “bad shots” that he normally makes, they actually become bad shots and those will only get you in trouble when it matters the most in the postseason.

LUOL DENG UPSET WITH $15M-PER-YEAR RUMOR:

When Deng was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the word was that the small forward wanted $15M per year on his next big contract. He explained how that was far from the case, and that the Bulls gave him one option and one option only. K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune has details:

“My thing is in the summer, I never came with a number,” Deng told the Tribune. “I heard on the radio that I asked for 15 (million). I would never ask for a number. We came to (general manager) Gar (Forman) last summer and we wanted to sit down and talk. And Gar didn’t want to talk. They felt like they wanted to wait and see how everything goes with Derrick (Rose).

“Three days before the trade, Gar called me upstairs and put three years, $30 million on the table. Take it or leave it. No negotiation. I said no and that was it. But 15? That’s the only thing that upset me. I’m not upset with the organization. I want everyone to understand that. If I was a GM, would I make that move? Maybe.

“I wanted to be in Chicago. I thought I was going to end my career there. Not talking during the summer, did that hurt me? Yeah. And then you come back with 10 (million). Who knows what I would’ve taken in the summer? That’s the part that is really bothering me. Other than that, I have no issues at all.”

If what Deng says is true (and there is no reason to assume otherwise), this makes the Bulls look bad. As if low-balling a player that has been a glue piece for them for so long wasn’t bad enough, they even floated out a false rumor about his asking price. And yes, offering a take-it-or-leave-it, $10 million a year for three years to a guy expected to receive plenty more than that in the market is a low-ball offer.

Nonetheless, the forward moves on. He wouldn’t go into much detail about what’s in store for the future, but did point to a possibility of re-signing with the Cavaliers, from Tom Withers of The AP:

Deng is in the final year of his contract worth $14 million this season and is eligible for free agency this summer. He’s willing to discuss a long-term contract with the Cavs, who are just 12-23 and currently out of playoff position.

”I’m definitely open to talking about it,” he said. ”I have no problem with that.”

How the deal turns out for Cleveland will largely depend on whether they can keep Deng, so it will be a big upcoming summer for a team that suddenly looks much stronger in the weak Eastern Conference. And yes, they do want to keep Deng long-term, according to Bob Finnan of The News-Herald:

“We’re bringing him here and we’d like to keep him here long term,” Cavs General Manager Chris Grant said at an afternoon news conference at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “He’s 28 years old. We see him as part of our core and our youth moving forward. We’ll get through the season and get into those conversations at the appropriate time.”

THE J.R. SMITH DRAMA:

After winning the Sixth Man of the Year award and scoring a big contract with the Knicks, Smith has been back to being the inconsistent, immature version of himself this season. The current Smith is what  made teams think twice about signing him when he was playing overseas in China, and it seems Mike Woodson can no longer get through to the highly-volatile guard. His production has been terrible since coming back from offseason knee surgery – he is shooting a career worst 34.8 percent from the field – and his decision-making has been highly questionable at times.

To top if off, the league investigated him recently for this stunt. He was let off with a warning, but tried to pull off the stunt again in the very next game. For this, the league fined him a hefty $50,000 and left Woodson searching for answers. Brian Mahoney of The A.P. has details:

“I’ve always said I don’t condone things that I know you shouldn’t do and no, I’m not happy about this, because again, he was warned, he comes back and he makes the same mistake and it’s not right,” Woodson said during a radio interview with ESPN New York.

“I’m going to address it tomorrow when he comes in here for work, because it’s unacceptable, I mean it really is. I mean, it’s unprofessional. That’s the only word I can use, or two words. It’s just, you can’t do that. You just cannot do that.”

Then came this news, from Ken Berger of CBSSports:

J.R. Smith’s recent hijinks with shoelaces didn’t help, but league sources told CBSSports.com that the Knicks began exploring possible trade options for the mercurial guard several days or perhaps as long as two weeks prior to his latest episode of mindlessness.

And given his reputation — not to mention his lack of production — the Knicks so far are getting nowhere fast in this challenging endeavor.

“Good luck with that,” one rival executive said of the Knicks’ predicament.

“I hear Shanghai has a spot,” one rival GM said Wednesday when polled about potential takers for Smith.

Another executive, when asked about teams that might be interested, texted, “Erie?”

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, it’s just a ploy to scare Smith:

Knicks trying to scare J.R. Smith straight with public, but empty trade talk. Of course, they understand there’s no market for him.

Smith has officially become a distraction for the already-struggling Knicks, but he can still right the ship simply by playing better. Oh, and stop trying to untie other  players’ sneakers.

CLIP OF THE DAY: