Stephen Curry's Rookie Year Was All That And Then Some

Warriors' rookie point guard Stephen Curry's career started amidst trade rumors.

If you remember back to draft day 2009, his name was being floated in trade talks with the Phoenix Suns in a deal for Amar'e Stoudemire. In fact, many draft prognosticators figured the Warriors drafted Curry for the Suns because they already had a diminutive guard in Monta Ellis.

But the Curry trade never happened. In the end, it was probably for the better. Amar'e's a soon to be a free agent and while he would've made the Warriors' better record-wise this year, they wouldn't have been able to sign him and we would've been back at square one. You may say that the Warriors always seem to be at square one. But I'd argue that point guards like Curry aren't a dime a dozen. He has a chance to be special. Win one for the Warriors?

If you look at Curry's year-long stats, they look good, but not superb. Over 17 points a game and nearly 6 assists is nothing to sniff at, but those numbers don't knock your socks off. If you dig deeper, you'll find that he had a gem of a season. To really see Curry's growth not only as a scorer, but also a distributor, you have to look at his monthly splits.

In his first full month in the league, he was averaging roughly 10 points a game and 5 and a half assists a game. Stephen Jackson was also on this team. Wow, that seems like eons ago.

In December, you notice an upward tick in his play, but in January he really seemed to blossom. In the month of January, he averaged just over 19 points a game and 5 assists, but his shooting was spectacular. He shot 48% from the field, 89% from the free throw stripe, and 49% from the three point line.

His next two months were very consistent, and then in April, he exploded again. Some of the explosion could be attributed to Monta Ellis being off the court just as much as he was on it, but I see it as a sign of maturity that was forced upon a young player. When Ellis was out, Curry was able to change his role of second banana into being the alpha dog on the court. In eight games in April, he averaged 26 points a game and over 8 assists along with 6 rebounds. Those numbers are near LeBron-like.

It's obvious that statistics don't tell the whole story and Curry does play in an uptempo system. But Steve Nash does too, and has been knocked similarly, but who wouldn't want Steve Nash on their team? Curry will probably never be a great defender unless he adds some size and just works doggedly at it. But he can shoot, distribute, and has a knack for making the right play at the right time. He didn't take care of the basketball as well as he should've, but you can also blame some of that on the uptempo system.

The Warriors have such an unpredictable air about them because of the current ownership situation and decisions about the team and coaching staff probably won't be made until the sale occurs. It's hard to gauge what they'll do with their team. But after this season, one thing is certain; Stephen Curry can play and this franchise has a better outlook because of him.