NBA

Stephen Curry Is Having the Worst NBA Finals By an MVP Ever

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Jun 10th, 2016
Curry's NBA Finals performance has been, in a way, historically terrible. How bad is it?

Everybody loves Stephen Curry.

I mean, could you imagine if LeBron James won the NBA's MVP award and then failed to hit 20 points in any of his first three NBA Finals games?

Can you imagine what Twitter would say if LeBron put out these shoes?


Well, never mind. Steph is getting toasted for those things. But with how bad he's been in the NBA Finals, perhaps the attention those are receiving is preferable to an analysis of his on-court performance.

Don't worry. We got that covered.

Curry Has Been Awful

There's just no other way to put it. Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green were all bad in Game 3, but Curry -- for being an NBA MVP -- has performed at an unprecedentedly below-MVP level in the NBA Finals.

Look at his scoring drop (per 36 minutes) relative to other MVPs who played in the Finals.

Steph Points per 36

His scoring rate is down, and he isn't picking up the slack elsewhere.

Check out his Offensive Rating compared to other NBA MVPs in the Finals (just to be clear, Offensive Rating only includes seasons during or after the 1973-74 season).

Steph ORtg
He was even bad -- compared to his regular season performance -- last season, but this year is another story altogether.

His scoring has plummeted, and what's really dragging down his Offensive Rating, too, is a Turnover Rate of 26.9%, the worst NBA Finals mark among the MVP class since 1973-74. The second-worst NBA Finals Turnover Rate from the above group of elite players? That would be Curry's 17.3% from last year's championship.

Make no mistake. Curry is a phenomenal talent and has dominated the regular season, but his offensive decline in the NBA Finals has been immense.

However, thanks to a struggling Cavaliers team to start the series and some great defense by Golden State, they own a 2-1 series lead. Although the Cavs have a 53% chance to win Game 4, the Warriors still own an 80.4% chance to win the NBA Finals.

But Steph's name shouldn't be in the MVP discussion this time around.