The Golden State Warriors’ current form is a matter of concern for Dubs fans. Aside from their poor ranking in the Western Conference table, their star veteran, Stephen Curry, also seems to be suffering from a slump for the past few games. Fans are worried about this concerning dip in Curry’s form, which has led to a Redditor unearthing a startling detail about the 2x MVP’s performance in the last ten games for the Warriors.
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A post titled “Stephen Curry is now combined -31 in his last 10 games” on the r/NBA subreddit highlighted Curry’s poor splits in the past few games, which is just 42/37/93 with an average of 24 points, 4.4 assists, and 3.6 rebounds in the last ten games. In the 29 games that Curry has played this season, he has a plus-minus rating of -38, with an average of 27.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game.
This stat could be slightly worrying for both Warriors fans and Curry, given the Dubs superstar has almost always maintained a positive plus-minus rating since his third season in the league. It was only in the 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2019-20 seasons in his career, that Steph has had a negative plus-minus rating. Till this point in his career, Curry has averaged a +/- rating of 376.7, which roughly translates to a total of +5651 in his 15 seasons playing in the league.
It seems like the Warriors have as a whole taken a step back in maintaining their players’ +/- rating for this season. On the Warriors roster, Brandin Podziemski and Chris Paul currently have the highest +/- rating, +107 and +97 respectively. On the other hand, Andrew Wiggins has the worst rating of them all, with -98 for this season.
Why does a plus-minus rating matter?
Plus/Minus ratings or PM may seem like a useless advanced stat to many fans. However, it reflects how a team performed while one of their players is on the court. A positive PM rating for a player suggests that the team outscored their opponents while the player was on the court. However, if a player has a negative PM stat, let’s say -30. That would mean that the opposing team outscored the player’s team by 30 points while the player was on the court.
Therefore, Plus/Minus ratings greatly help assess a player’s impact on their teams’ performance. One of the greatest examples of the stat’s effectiveness would be Tim Duncan, who had always maintained a winning record with the San Antonio Spurs during his playing career. This is also one of the reasons why Duncan carries the record of highest career plus-minus in the league’s history.
While Stephen Curry might be facing a slump at this point, that does not mean that he is far behind in his career plus-minus from Duncan. Curry ranks sixth in the league’s highest PM stats, with a PM rating of +5651. Furthermore, in terms of 100+ games played, Curry ranks fourth in highest +/-, with a 6.2 rating.
