There has been a lot of talk about Stephen Curry breaking Ray Allen’s record for most threes in the regular season. Many players including Ray have already started praising Curry for a potential record. Both Stephen Curry and Ray Allen have been an integral part and a game-changer for their respective teams.
Ray Allen remembered a specific time when Steph and Seth used to visit Bucks shoot-around. Steph’s father Dell Curry was with the Bucks and teammate of Ray Allen at that time. He said, “They’d come and we’d go through drills and they’d be right there with us, and they’d hold their own,”. Dell Curry was in his 12th season and a good shooter while Ray was into his 2nd year in NBA at that time.
Ray Allen And Stephen Curry 3 Point Shoot Out (Theoretical)
To compare these two special players we might need more than wordy statistics, but let us go through the stats first. Ray Allen played 1300 regular-season games for various teams. Steph has been with Warriors only for his 787 games. This puts Steph ahead of Ray as Curry averages 3.8 three-pointers per game against 2.3 for Ray.
Talking about attempts, Allen has 7429 attempts in 1300 games while Curry has 6874 tries from 3 point range. Now here, Ray Allen is attempting around 6 shots per game and Steph is going for nearly 9 attempts per game. But even with 9 attempts for 4 (nearly) 3 pointers, Curry edges past Ray Allen’s efficiency. Curry shoots just above 43% and Ray possess exact 40% accuracy. Curry tops, here again, not only against Ray Allen but the entire league (players with at least 1000 3 pointers). Steph 2-0 Ray.
Not just statistically, but Curry is a better shooter than Ray in every aspect
Now those were the statics talking where Steph has a clear advantage over Ray Allen. Now let us go on to the style of play. Both players are capable of shooting 3’s but Curry has gone the extra mile and improved his range to around 35~40 ft from the rim. Ray was an impressive shooter, but most of the plays were around 3 point line and rare shots from “the Curry range”. This can’t be found in any standard stats but is a very crucial factor too.
While Ray Allen was in the ‘catch and shoot’ category, Steph has better ball-handling capabilities and primarily shoots off the dribble. People have witnessed lots of so-called “circus shots” from Steph while Ray relied more on the traditional approach. Though this cant be considered as a point of comparison but surely highlights the variety Steph possesses.
Considering opposition defenses, both players played in a different era, but Curry with his range has even negated the point of defense. I mean common, no opposition team plans to defend from half courts unless it’s last minutes of the game or quarter.
So obviously Steph has a huge upper hand in the comparison, defeating Ray in all departments of the discussion. But still, Ray remains one of the top shooters in league history, and maybe Steph is the top shooter in the game.
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