The NBA landscape might look vastly different had one or two chips fallen a different way during the 2009 Draft. According to a report by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports, newly-crowned MVP Steph Curry and his agent initially had the New York Knicks as his preferred landing spot coming into the league. Here’s what Curry’s agent Jeff Austin told Spears:
“The Knicks had eight and we thought in New York he’d be a great fit. We really wanted him to drop to eight,” Austin said. “Once we got to seventh, we were like, ‘C’mon man, don’t pick him with [Golden State].’ At the time, the Warriors were not in our mind as a preferred destination.”
A deeper exploration of the “what if” game is best left to Bill Simmons and his 5,000 word column. You’ll start veering into some serious Sliding Doors territory if you allow yourself to consider how one or two seemingly minor decisions could have drastically altered the course of NBA history.
But just for fun, let’s pretend for a moment there is a multiverse in which all of these infinite possibilities are playing themselves out alongside our known universe. Some of the greatest scientific minds of our time (e.g. Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, etc.) are huge proponents of the idea, so who are we to argue?
To start with, it’s curious that Curry and his camp wanted to end up on a Knicks team that had just gone 32-50 the previous season and still included players like Chris Duhon, Eddy Curry, and Jerome James on its roster. The only logical rationale is that they believed Curry could thrive under Mike D’Antoni the way Steve Nash did all those years in Phoenix. It also bears mentioning that the Warriors had just come off a similarly bad season in which they finished 29-53. They were also coached by Don Nelson, who was notoriously averse to awarding rookies any significant amount of playing time.
Still, there’s no reason to think the Knicks would’ve fared any better with a rookie Curry. The Warriors certainly didn’t. So the Carmelo Anthony trade probably still goes down, but instead of just giving up a bunch of spare parts, it’s reasonable to think a promising young Curry could have been snatched up by the Nuggets in that deal.
Curry’s agent went onto tell Spears that the Memphis Grizzlies had expressed interest in taking Curry with the number two pick. Mike Conley was just coming into his own as the starting point guard for the Grizz after Kyle Lowry was dealt to the Houston Rockets at the trade deadline. What happens if Conley is once again forced to compete for the starting point guard spot against Curry?
Surely it’s Conley’s development that gets stifled in this scenario and likely results in him getting jettisoned the following summer, not to mention never landing that $40 million contract. What would a Grizzlies team led by Steph Curry look like? It certainly wouldn’t have been a bad move considering the fact that they ended up taking Hasheem Thabeet with the number two pick.
The Oklahoma City Thunder supposedly had interest in Curry with the third pick, too, but ended up taking James Harden instead, in no small part because Austin declined the team’s invitation to Curry for a pre-draft workout, just as he declined the Grizzlies’ invitation. What happens if Curry goes to that workout and impresses the Thunder, and he and sophomore point guard Russell Westbrook end up competing for the starting spot?
In order for Curry to fall to the eighth spot in the draft and get snatched up by the Knicks, the Warriors, who were in desperate need of a point guard at the time, would have had to choose Brandon Jennings instead. A backcourt comprised of Jennings and Monta Ellis doesn’t exactly scream chemistry, and considering all the different ways that scenario could have played itself out is a whole other can of worms – one we’d prefer not opening, obviously.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, however, pulled the biggest boner of the draft by far when they selected two – count em, two! – point guards ahead of Curry in Ricky Rubio and Johnny friggin’ Flynn. This is the point where you ask yourself, “I wonder whatever happened to Johnny Flynn?” The Wrath of David Kahn strikes again.
Golden State, obviously, couldn’t be more pleased with how things panned out and should count themselves lucky that they took a chance and drafted Curry despite his agent’s vocal protestations against it. Curry took home the 2015 Kia NBA MVP award Monday, and his one-seeded Warriors currently lead the Grizzlies 1-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals. Game 2 starts at 10:30 PM ET Tuesday on TNT.
