The Golden State Warriors will have superstar guard Steph Curry back on the court following a long layoff due to injury, and Curry is excited to get the Warriors back on top of the NBA.
Curry is set to start playing again for the first time in over nine months, and following a brutal season for the Warriors, Curry, who played in just 5 games last season, is ready to start.
“To kind of have a fresh reset from the five-year run was — I wouldn’t call it necessary because I would have loved to have been playing last year, but it was useful,” Curry said during an interview on “Damon, Ratto & Kolsky” on KGMZ-FM 95.7 The Game in San Francisco (h/t ESPN’s Nick Friedell). “And now it’s about turning that into momentum coming in this season. And I think a leader, and with me [and] Draymond [Green] and what we have to accomplish this year, hopefully gives us a little chip on our shoulder, a fresh perspective, and understanding what the challenge is ahead of us. We’ve had a lot of successes, a lot of experiences these last five years, [it’s] been a crazy roller coaster. It almost feels like we’re starting at ground zero again which is kind of awesome.”
With Klay Thompson lost for the season due to his season-ending Achille tendon injury, Curry will lean on fellow long-time Warrior Draymond Green, who will be 31 in March.
“This guy, Draymond Green, who we’ve known has been counted out before he even stepped foot on the NBA level, has always found a way to figure it out and found a way to be impactful at the highest level, that defensive monster and impact winning games, so I have the utmost confidence in the way he’s kind of been talking to be personally and just understanding what we have to accomplish left together.
“And I think it’s about just for him getting out there on the floor and doing it. We can talk all we want to, but we got to get out there and do it and show. Everybody’s in that recency bias, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ I belong to that camp sometimes, but it’s all about what we do.”
Curry is also excited about playing with rookie big man James Wiseman, who has been held out of the start of the team’s training camp.
“He’s just going to be a force, man,” Curry said. “To the point of all the things we need to learn as fast as possible, I can’t imagine for a 19-year-old to be able to ingest all that information, go out and play, but the things that he does well, you really can’t teach. His size, his athleticism, his presence to protect the paint, the speed to run up and down the floor, put pressure on the rim, we can use that right away. So you’re going to see a different player probably from Game 1 to Game 72, but early in the season he should be able to show what he’s about and provide a lot of value for us on the interior and play Warrior basketball. So I’m excited, man. You can see the look in his eyes. He’s chomping at the bit right now.”
Curry also spoke about Thompson’s injury, and understanding the hard work it takes to get back on the court following a major injury.
“Klay’s situation makes you understand in sports and in this profession you can’t take anything for granted,” Curry said. “And you understand that I’ve played 12 years and hopefully many, many more, but you can’t really coast through this situation because there’s so much that can happen positively and negatively and you kind of got to deal with it all. So it’s a subtle approach and a subtle change in how you see your role as a leader and balancing that with still being the killer and the competitive guy that I plan to be.”
