Is Steph Curry Clutch?
Evaluating the common perception in sports media that Steph Curry is not clutch
Homer: Oh my God, Marge. A penalty shot with only 4 seconds left. It's your child versus mine! The winner will be showered with praise; the loser will be taunted and booed until my throat is sore!
Make no mistake about it- I’m a big fan of Steph Curry. In fact, I would argue that he is the GOAT after adjusting for height and weight. But today, I would like to evaluate the claim that Curry is not a clutch shooter. This is a common knock on Curry that I’ve seen repeated over and over again. But is there any truth to it? Let’s steelman the argument that Curry is not a clutch shooter and see if it holds up. Using Stathead Basketball, I compiled Steph Curry’s career playoff statistics for shots attempts to take the lead or tie the game with 2 minutes left in either the 4th quarter or overtime:
Now let’s compare these stats with other players that are widely considered clutch shooters. Unfortunately, Stathead’s Shot Finder only has data coverage back to the 1996-97 season. So we can’t directly compare Curry with the entire careers of all-time greats like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Robert Horry, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Jerry West. But that still leaves plenty of players that are widely considered clutch shooters.
Here is the same query on the Stathead Basketball database on all players with at least 10 field goal attempts in these game situations from the 1996-97 season to the present (sorted by effective field goal percentage):
Admittedly, Steph doesn’t look so great on this list (although fellow splash brother Klay Thompson comes out looking pretty good!). It’s clear that, at least in the playoffs, Curry is not an elite clutch shooter. But there are some interesting names that rank below Curry on this list: Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd, and James Harden. As far as I know, none of these players have been maligned for not being clutch shooters.
Now let’s turn to the regular season. Yes, I know- the playoffs are what really matter for clutch shooting. But maybe Steph is a better clutch player during the regular season? Let’s see how he performs under the same game situations in the regular season:
Significantly better! But how does he stack up against the rest of the league (at least 100 field goal attempts) since the 1996-97 season?
Interestingly, Curry performs as an elite clutch shooter during the regular season. He outperforms other renowned clutch shooters, including Dirk Nowitzki, Ray Allen, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Paul Pierce.
So as it stands today, Curry detractors do have a point. While Curry has been an elite clutch shooter in the regular season, his performance in the playoffs has been far less impressive. Perhaps we’ll get more data points this season if the Dubs make a deep playoff run.