Stephen Curry is arguably in the form of his life this season. Curry is a scoring machine right now and has helped the Golden State Warriors achieve the best record in the NBA with 16-2. All is going well for the Warriors at the moment, but Steph is still not entirely happy.
After the Warriors’ win against the Philadelphia 76ers, in which Steph Curry scored 25 points, Curry spoke about Steve Kerr’s rotations. He voiced his concerns about it, as he feels like it is disrupting his momentum, especially when he gets into a rhythm, but then has to come out of the game to rest.
Steph says he's still not completely 100% comfortable with his current rotation pattern. States specific momentum shifts where he feels a rhythm coming on, but has to be subbed out in the middle of quarters.
— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) November 25, 2021
A player of Steph’s caliber and mindset will want to play as many minutes as possible. And his frustration is understandable, given that a player of his style very much depends on momentum. And feeling like that momentum is being disrupted makes it difficult to find it again at later stages in the game.
But on the other hand, Kerr feels as though Curry is the most important part of the team. And he needs to rest and protect Curry as much as he can. Given Curry’s somewhat concerning injury history, there is always going to be a desire to keep him safe.
On top of that, the way the Warriors are playing, they are not as reliant on Curry as they used to be. And to have Curry playing more than he needs to is an unnecessary risk that doesn’t yield the kind of rewards Kerr and the Warriors are looking for. So it makes sense why Kerr is rotating him as often as he is.
Going into the postseason, Kerr will be relying on Steph a lot more, so it makes sense why he’s rotating him the way he is. Perhaps the two can come to an agreement about how Curry’s minutes are spread out during a game so that Steph doesn’t feel he is losing his momentum when he goes to the bench.
