Stephen Curry: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Sharpest Shooters (Basketball Biography Books) by Clayton Geoffreys

Stephen Curry: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Sharpest Shooters (Basketball Biography Books) by Clayton Geoffreys

Author:Clayton Geoffreys [Geoffreys, Clayton]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Calvintir Books, LLC
Published: 2014-04-09T16:00:00+00:00


2014-15 Offseason and Early Seasonxx

Despite leading the Warriors to consecutive playoff appearances, Mark Jackson was fired just three days after their first-round exit at the hands of the Clippers. The players publicly voiced their support for Jackson, but ownership had seemingly made up their minds as reports of dysfunction in the team’s coaching staff came out before their playoff run. Assistant Coach Brian Scalabrine was reassigned to Santa Cruz, the team’s D-League affiliate because of “philosophical differences” with Jackson. Then, two weeks later, another assistant, Darren Erman, was fired because he secretly recorded conversations between coaches, staff, and players. The firing of Jackson, even though he instigated the turnaround of the franchise, showed the fickle nature of head coaching jobs in the NBA. He was a master motivator and helped to improve Golden State’s once non-existent defense immensely. However, many observers felt that Jackson’s offensive sets were too stagnant and led to isolation plays most of the time. He did not use Curry as an off-the-ball shooter that much, and also failed to utilize Andrew Bogut’s exceptional passing skills from the post.

The head honchos of the team were looking to go in a different direction, and on May 14, 2014, they announced the hiring of TNT analyst Steve Kerr to a five-year contract reportedly worth 25 million dollars. Kerr had won multiple titles with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs as a player before serving as the President and General Manager of the Phoenix Suns from 2007-10. But he had never had the pleasure of working as a coach. He had zero experience at the job. Nevertheless, Kerr owns the NBA record for career three-point percentage with a clip of 45.5 percent. Curry was one of the most vocal supporters of Jackson, but the appointment of one of the best three-point shooters of all time and an offensive-minded coach in Kerr could potentially lead to maximizing the potential of one of the league’s most potent offenses, and even improve Curry’s individual game as well.

The Warriors made some minor moves in the offseason, including the signing of combo guards Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa to relieve the “Splash Brothers,” further strengthening the Warriors’ already powerhouse backcourt. But perhaps the biggest move of the summer for the Golden State Warriors was not giving up Curry’s Splash Brother Klay Thompson in exchange for Kevin Love.

Before the Cleveland Cavaliers got Love via trade, Golden State was one of the teams actively involved in the Kevin Love sweepstakes. But Love’s former team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, were only interested in discussing the trade with the Warriors if the latter included Klay Thompson in their trade proposal. However, instead of getting lured into getting the sharpshooting Love as their new power forward, the Warriors believed that keeping the Splash Brothers intact and making them the cornerstones of the team was the right way to move forward. Golden State then went on to re-sign Thompson to a four-year, $70 million contract extension.

Keeping Thompson was a no-brainer, although



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