Just in case anyone wasnt aware by now, JamesOn Curry made sure to display his credentials as a outstanding scoring threat, making baskets from everywhere on the court on the way to an outstanding 34 point, 7 assist effort.
Curry was extremely aggressive looking for his own offense, playing on the ball quite a bit and taking exactly what the defense gave him. He operated a great deal in the mid-range area pulling up sharply off the dribble on a number of occasions, and displaying beautiful elevation to create separation from his defender. He hits tough shots even with a defender draped all over him, coming off screens and going left or right, fading away and flailing his legs out and regardless knocking down many off-balance looks. Hes got picture perfect mechanics on his 3-point stroke as well, looking equally dangerous coming off screens, on the catch and shoot with his feet set, or pulling up with the ball in his hands.
As a slasher, Curry is not the type of player who gets to the free throw line a great deal, as his first step is average and hes a bit on the skinny side. He is smart enough to know how to get past his man, but usually prefers to pull-up before he gets all the way to the rim, which is probably a good idea since hes isnt a terribly explosive finisher. Hed rather drop a beautiful floater in his defenders eye than go up and take contact at the rim. He racked up 7 assists tonight playing a combo guard role, mostly by making the extra pass on the perimeter or finding the open man on the drive and dish, but not really by displaying any outstanding point guard skills. Indeed, hes a scoring guard in the Jannero Pargo mold, which is probably exactly the role Chicago drafted him to play. He was a bit careless at times with the ball and forced the issue on a few select possessions, leading to 5 turnoversalthough this is somewhat expect considering how much ball-handling he was forced to do.
Defensively, Curry is nothing to write home about, possessing average lateral quickness and poor awareness on this end of the floor. Hes really not physical enough, giving up too much space on the perimeter and not doing a very good job fighting through screens on the pick and roll. This might be the biggest improvement hell have to make if hes to eventually stick in the NBA, and although he tried for the most part to make his presence felt (he even fouled out), the results werent really there. Curry did as good of a job tonight making sure that the NBA and International teams are aware of his strengths with the way he played, and at the very least surely earned himself some money overseas if hes eventually forced to take that route.
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