Stephen Curry has enjoyed having great teammates while playing for the Golden State Warriors over the years. Along with Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the greatest shooter in the NBA went on to win four NBA championships. Between 2015 and 2022, the GSW established themselves as the modern day Dynasty. During this phase, for two years, there was another modern-day great, who had played alongside the three-pointer King. Without Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018, the Dubs would have found it difficult to win the championships. Moreover, KD won the Bill Russell Award in both the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals. But then, the Warriors had to let their Finals MVP go to the Brooklyn Nets.
However, several fans believe that if KD had stayed with the Dubs, he would have won many more championships. Finally, in 2022, Stephen Curry led the Dubs to win against the Boston Celtics in the Finals, and he eventually won the Finals MVP that year as well. However, in the current offseason, Curry got the news that his ‘Splash Brother’ left the Dubs to join the Dallas Mavericks. It was a shocking news for the fans as well as for Steph to see his Splash bro leave. Despite being a great teammate, there have been a few players who didn’t want to play alongside Curry.
Why Some Players Refused To Team Up With Stephen Curry?
It seems like a no-brainer for most of the players to say “Yes” to the idea of joining the Golden State to play alongside Stephen Curry. For instance, one of the all-time greats, LeBron James has been contemplating the idea of playing in the same NBA team with Steph. Lately, they teamed up for Team USA to win the Olympic Gold. The James-Curry duo was successful enough to win gold in Paris, France, this year. Albeit, KD and LeBron, being two modern day greats, had great time teaming up with Stephen Curry, some players have turned down offers to do so. Seth Curry, brother of Steph, wanted to carve his own path. He turned down the offer to be in the same team as his brother because he didn’t want to live under Steph’s shadow. It is important for the NBA fans to respect that decision. On the other hand, Seth worked his way into the NBA teams after going undrafted back in 2013.
So far, he has played for several teams, including Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets, Dallas Mavericks and so on. Other than Seth Curry, Monta Ellis did not like the idea of teaming up with Stephen Curry. Back in 2009 when Warriors drafted Steph from Davidson, Ellis felt the team can’t win in the Western Conference with two small guards. Later, the Dubs traded Ellis for Andrew Bogut. Kelly Oubre Jr. was another player who had trouble teaming up with Curry. He was struggling to find the role in the offense. Moreover, Kelly felt that he can do better than just setting screens for the three-point King. Oubbre even blamed the Dub’s game plan for his struggles, saying that it was catering too much to Stephen Curry.
Warriors Need A Superstar Shooting Guard To Play Klay’s Role
Since Klay Thompson left the Dubs, there has been a huge void in the roster. The Warriors don’t look like a title contender in the current offseason. They were looking to land players like Lauri Markannen, who could play alongside Stephen Curry. But those plans have not worked out for the Dubs. There were some speculations regarding the GSW trying to sign LeBron James from the Los Angeles Lakers or Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks.
But none of these rumors turned out to be true. Now, who can replace Klay Thompson as the Splash Bro of Steph? The Dubs will have to depend on their young stars, like Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski to provide quality support to Curry in the following seasons.
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