The way defenses used to guard Steph pre-2016 is crazy to see
August 24, 2025
The way defenses used to guard Steph pre-2016 is crazy to see
50 comments
It takes time to adapt
Noone knew he would be fucking the sky endlessly
what’s crazier is that he’s stayed effective despite defensive tightening and adjusting their coverage to stop “Curry” more than “The warriors” a credit to his incredible work ethic
[deleted]
Watching older basketball sereis is just informative in general. Like watching the 2000 Blazers-Lakers WCF and you see some modern concepts like Sabonis dragging Shaq to the FT line, or the Blazers defense not really guarding guys like Harper or Shaw.
What’s funny about this clip it reminds me of the 2022 drop coverage that Boston employed on Curry in the finals. Daniel Li had a good video on it, talked about how Boston did it to try and limit the extra passing from Curry-Draymond PNR.
pretty sure they werent expecting him to pull all those. this looks normal now but it was pretty unorthodox back then
Was he only taking “”normal”” distance threes? I think they got on to him once they realized he could bomb pretty consistently from his jersey number lol
The shot he took 24 seconds into this clip, was one of the most egregious carries I’ve ever seen in my life!
I mean this is Portland defense we’re talking about… it didn’t look like this for him every night lol
Man I miss that old Roarcle Oracle
Fairly casual lol.
They learned their lesson.
The 2010-2019 were such entertaining seasons every year had something different about it
What is interesting to me is how coach Nick from Bballbreakdown called Curry “the greatest shooter we’ve ever seen” back in 2013/14 season against Thunder I believe. I remember people flaming him in the comment section as well, which now feels asinine
If they called moving screens anymore, this would be a very short highlight reel.
I mean look at the bigs on the court for the Blazers. Bringing them up to the level would get cooked too. Steph is one of the few guys who has an answer for every defense. This is why I’ve never understood Ime Udoka getting ragged on for drop coverage, Steph COOKED everything the Cs tried. Can’t double cuz and the Shooters will pick you apart, bring the big up and he’s too quick with handles that are too advanced and it will be layups all day for him. It’s just tough man.
I’d say this clip shows Portland had horrendous defence
This is just shit defense by the Blazers lmao. Every team did not play this lazily. They aren’t even fighting through screens
GS moving screens? No chance
I mean, it’s the blazers…
OP should update the title to “The way PORTLAND defenses used to guard Steph pre-2016 is crazy to see”
This is why I don’t think anybody is breaking his 3s in a season record. If anybody gets even close to being this good they won’t be shooting many 3s unless they start playing like Steph.
I often think about all of the opposing coaches that have yelled “let him shoot”.
They didnt know what type of shit he was on back in the day
Curry has always killed the Blazers. I remember that one sweep we had, where the Blazers made the conference finals, and were up at half time every freaking game, and then Curry just nuked them in the third and we’d pull out a win.
Teams or ass Portland with their ass D and one of the worst defensive PGs of the 21 century.
This was the “those are hard shots, prove you can consistently make them” phase.
Used to have me pissed when away teams were cheering for him too😭 like how good can you be
2019 Portland and 2022 Boston similarly let Curry cook with drop defense schemes that, uh, did not work
I don’t think highlights from one game really support your argument
The way that most of his shots just fall in hardly touching the rim or net is so satisfying.
You mean the Blazers? Lol
Draymond has never set a legal screen in his existence.
Literally just one game, one team
Curry, like most other stars, has become a much better shooter as he’s aged. If he was still covered the same way he was pre-2016 with his current shooting ability, I’d bet a lot of money he’d be 46%+ on threes
I’m watching this trying to see how they used to guard Steph but I don’t see the part where anyone is guarding
Fuck man almost every shot was cash. How do they not get a ha d out by the 10th shot?
Wait, where’s all the grabbing and pulling?
To think that shots like these would get players benched back in the 2010s. Even Ray Allen would get questionable looks from time to time when he does this.
I’m gonna miss Curry man. His shots literally changed an era.
Just for the record, this 2014-2015 Blazers team with Wes Matthews/Batum/Aldridge and Robin Lopez was actually competent at Defense:
Lol you are witnessing the change of the league, no one defended 2 feet outside the 3 point line, guys couldnt hit those consistently like steph could. The game literally changed after he showed everyone it was possible. Now you have plenty of players hitting these shots consistently
The all time record at 273….wow times have changed.
lol this is all the Portland trailblazers
i’m not sure why this became a “lol blazers” thread. you could have a compilation, it would be basically the same. when people say “steph changed basketball”, watching this clip shows exactly how – his offense looks normal because the league adjusted to play more like him, the defense looks abnormal because the league adjusted to stop him.
“Oh hes using a screen i better drop so he doesn-fuck!”
What I see are a lot of moving screens lol
What’s so crazy
hurts me to see this :’(
This is part of why I think 2021, even if it was less efficient, was in near-empty arenas, and had a much worse win rate, was Steph’s true best season over 2016 (the other part is obviously the team around him, also yes I know these highlights are from 2015)
50 comments
It takes time to adapt
Noone knew he would be fucking the sky endlessly
what’s crazier is that he’s stayed effective despite defensive tightening and adjusting their coverage to stop “Curry” more than “The warriors” a credit to his incredible work ethic
[deleted]
Watching older basketball sereis is just informative in general. Like watching the 2000 Blazers-Lakers WCF and you see some modern concepts like Sabonis dragging Shaq to the FT line, or the Blazers defense not really guarding guys like Harper or Shaw.
What’s funny about this clip it reminds me of the 2022 drop coverage that Boston employed on Curry in the finals. Daniel Li had a good video on it, talked about how Boston did it to try and limit the extra passing from Curry-Draymond PNR.
pretty sure they werent expecting him to pull all those. this looks normal now but it was pretty unorthodox back then
Was he only taking “”normal”” distance threes? I think they got on to him once they realized he could bomb pretty consistently from his jersey number lol
The shot he took 24 seconds into this clip, was one of the most egregious carries I’ve ever seen in my life!
I mean this is Portland defense we’re talking about… it didn’t look like this for him every night lol
Man I miss that old Roarcle Oracle
Fairly casual lol.
They learned their lesson.
The 2010-2019 were such entertaining seasons every year had something different about it
What is interesting to me is how coach Nick from Bballbreakdown called Curry “the greatest shooter we’ve ever seen” back in 2013/14 season against Thunder I believe. I remember people flaming him in the comment section as well, which now feels asinine
If they called moving screens anymore, this would be a very short highlight reel.
I mean look at the bigs on the court for the Blazers. Bringing them up to the level would get cooked too. Steph is one of the few guys who has an answer for every defense. This is why I’ve never understood Ime Udoka getting ragged on for drop coverage, Steph COOKED everything the Cs tried. Can’t double cuz and the Shooters will pick you apart, bring the big up and he’s too quick with handles that are too advanced and it will be layups all day for him. It’s just tough man.
I’d say this clip shows Portland had horrendous defence
This is just shit defense by the Blazers lmao. Every team did not play this lazily. They aren’t even fighting through screens
GS moving screens? No chance
I mean, it’s the blazers…
OP should update the title to “The way PORTLAND defenses used to guard Steph pre-2016 is crazy to see”
This is why I don’t think anybody is breaking his 3s in a season record. If anybody gets even close to being this good they won’t be shooting many 3s unless they start playing like Steph.
I often think about all of the opposing coaches that have yelled “let him shoot”.
They didnt know what type of shit he was on back in the day
Curry has always killed the Blazers. I remember that one sweep we had, where the Blazers made the conference finals, and were up at half time every freaking game, and then Curry just nuked them in the third and we’d pull out a win.
Teams or ass Portland with their ass D and one of the worst defensive PGs of the 21 century.
This was the “those are hard shots, prove you can consistently make them” phase.
Used to have me pissed when away teams were cheering for him too😭 like how good can you be
2019 Portland and 2022 Boston similarly let Curry cook with drop defense schemes that, uh, did not work
I don’t think highlights from one game really support your argument
The way that most of his shots just fall in hardly touching the rim or net is so satisfying.
You mean the Blazers? Lol
Draymond has never set a legal screen in his existence.
Literally just one game, one team
Curry, like most other stars, has become a much better shooter as he’s aged. If he was still covered the same way he was pre-2016 with his current shooting ability, I’d bet a lot of money he’d be 46%+ on threes
I’m watching this trying to see how they used to guard Steph but I don’t see the part where anyone is guarding
Fuck man almost every shot was cash. How do they not get a ha d out by the 10th shot?
Wait, where’s all the grabbing and pulling?
To think that shots like these would get players benched back in the 2010s. Even Ray Allen would get questionable looks from time to time when he does this.
I’m gonna miss Curry man. His shots literally changed an era.
Just for the record, this 2014-2015 Blazers team with Wes Matthews/Batum/Aldridge and Robin Lopez was actually competent at Defense:
[**Off Rtg**](https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#off_rtg): 108.2 (9th of 30) [**Def Rtg**](https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html#def_rtg): 103.7 (**10th of 30**) **Net Rtg**: +4.5 (6th of 30)
So basically one game against the blazers.
Damn ,Portland!
Dame has always been a horrible defender
Lol you are witnessing the change of the league, no one defended 2 feet outside the 3 point line, guys couldnt hit those consistently like steph could. The game literally changed after he showed everyone it was possible. Now you have plenty of players hitting these shots consistently
The all time record at 273….wow times have changed.
lol this is all the Portland trailblazers
i’m not sure why this became a “lol blazers” thread. you could have a compilation, it would be basically the same. when people say “steph changed basketball”, watching this clip shows exactly how – his offense looks normal because the league adjusted to play more like him, the defense looks abnormal because the league adjusted to stop him.
“Oh hes using a screen i better drop so he doesn-fuck!”
What I see are a lot of moving screens lol
What’s so crazy
hurts me to see this :’(
This is part of why I think 2021, even if it was less efficient, was in near-empty arenas, and had a much worse win rate, was Steph’s true best season over 2016 (the other part is obviously the team around him, also yes I know these highlights are from 2015)