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GO GET GEORGE HILL

Steph Curry missed a lot of games when he actually was healthy enough to play, the Warriors just held him out extra games which caused some over-speculation of the quality of his ankle health. Hence the overreaction from Bayless.
 
It's also funny how you keep saying a top-15 point guard like that's so convincing coming from the guy who thinks Bobby Portis is the top PF in the draft.
 
However, Dr. Lance Silverman - an ankle and foot specialist in Minneapolis - suggests in a recent blog that perhaps the focus on Curry's ankle is misplaced and that Curry's doctors might need to think outside the box a little.

"Stephen Curry probably doesn't have ankle instability. Instead, he has another joint that is unstable. "All that rolls is not the ankle." His condition hasn't been completely diagnosed or treated, and his ankle arthroscopy surgery back in April did not address the instability. After reviewing the video, it's clear that there is something wrong that needs to be further evaluated. I would start with a clinical examination to find the area that has been incompletely treated...It seems to be in another area outside the ankle like the calcaneocuboid joint."
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IS A ****ING DOCTOR GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU BAGEL BOY?
 
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Stephen Curry shook LeBron James.

It took place at the top of the key, after the four-time MVP switched onto the reigning one, hoping to bottle him up with 3:45 left in the fourth quarter down and the Cavaliers up by one.

Curry planted hard on his right foot, darted left with a crossover through the legs, spun counterclockwise with a back pivot and spun back around again with such force that it sent James stumbling backwards into the paint, as if Curry clubbed him in the jaw.

Curry stood James down. James surrendered. Curry rose. Splash. Warriors up one.

It's moments like these -- when Curry puts defenders in a blender -- that make Curry's past ankle problems harder and harder to remember.

Three years ago, Curry's papier-mâché ankles, not his wet jumper, was what he was known for. Curry played just 26 games in 2011-12 because of ankle problems and, as a result, signed a team-friendly four-year extension that offseason that pays him an average of $11 million annually. The MVP's salary this season wasn't even high enough to place in the top 50 richest in the sport.


With nagging ankle pain behind him, Steph Curry has the mobility to get by the likes of LeBron James. AP Photo/Ben Margot
But Curry played 80 games this season. He missed one game because of a sore ankle back in February and another for rest. That would seem like a pipedream three years ago.

So how did we get here? How did Curry put those ankle worries to rest?

It's all in the hips. Literally.

That's the answer given by the Warriors' director of athletic performance, Keke Lyles, a leading expert in injury prevention and maximizing body potential through the use of cutting-edge technology like STATS LLC's SportVU cameras and Catapult Sports' GPS accelerometers to track movement.

When Lyles joined the Warriors' training staff two summers ago, he asked Curry to perform a simple stationary pose you might find in a yoga book: the single-leg hip airplane.

You can try it yourself. Stand on one leg, tilt your body forward at the hip and get as long as possible with your arms out and opposite leg outstretched to resemble a Boeing 747. Once you have that, slowly open up your hip toward the sky.

Did you struggle? Curry wobbled and swayed at first, too.

"He wasn't awful," Lyles says. "But now the difference is night and day."

Lyles' prognosis was simple, yet perhaps a little counterintuitive. He hoped Curry's issues could be mostly solved not by strengthening his ankles, but his hips and glutes.

Those kinds of herky-jerky movements, at game speed, tax joints like ankles. The remedy is balance and core strength to make those movements fluid and stable. "I think Steph really liked to use his ankles to control everything," Lyles said. "But now he's using his hips instead. You know how everything laughed at Tiger Woods saying he just needed to activate his glutes? Well, Tiger's right."

Lyles likes to say that Curry is the most impressive athlete he's come across in the NBA. That doesn't mean Curry is the strongest. That honor goes to Minnesota Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic, whom Lyles trained as part of the Timberwolves staff years ago. "He's a beast," Lyles said.

But in just about every measure of body control, Curry is off the charts.

"His ability to control his body in space is unlike anyone I've seen," Lyles says. "He's super quick, but the whole time he's in total control. He's doing such high-speed movements, accels, decels -- and he's in total control."

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That James play in the fourth quarter may seem like improvisation, but every moment was calculated.

Same thing when he produced perhaps the Vine of the Year in early March by somehow dribbling his way out of a web of Los Angeles Clippers defenders and hit a stepback 3. Every move, every odd contortion of the body, every sudden jolt was worked on ahead of time.

"That wasn't an accident at all," Lyles says. "We do a lot of things to teach guys how to control their bodies in weird positions. To me, injuries happen in awkward positions and if you can't control yourself in those awkward positions, you're going to get hurt. So we try to teach our guys about awkward positions and extend their limit of range of motion with the body. And Curry just excels."

To leverage those skills, Curry needed to strengthen his core so he could move with conviction and power. Don't be fooled by a lanky body with a listed weight of 190 pounds.

"He's probably 10 times stronger than what people think," Lyles says.

Exhibit A: Curry can deadlift 400 pounds.

The exercise the Warriors prefer is the trapbar dead lift, which is basically a safer way to mimic lifting a giant boulder off the ground. One of the primary muscles that it works? Yup, the gluteus maximus.

"Steph's the second strongest on our team pulling that one," Lyles says with a straight face. "For his size, Steph is ridiculous strong."

Only center Festus Ezeli, who stands about seven feet and 270 pounds, can top Curry on that particular lift. That may be hard to believe, but that core power is the secret that unlocks Curry's magic.

"We knew he was strong," Lyles says, "but when he started pushing that kind of weight, I was like 'This guy is just a freak.'"

Curry and the Warriors don't think they can prevent a sore ankle with 100 percent certainty. That stuff happens no matter how strong your core is. But they've found ways to ensure Curry isn't so dependent on his ankles like he used to be.

Now, as Curry weaves through defenders, he's not counting on his ankle to provide all the stability -- instead the larger muscles of his core are doing a lot of the work to hold his leg in place.

The more Curry doesn't rely solely on his ankles, the less we'll hear about them wearing down.
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It's crazy what NBA strength and conditioning programs do if you put the work in. Curry's ankle issues are in the past.
 
Cy said:
The overreaction to Curry's 1 season of ankle problems is hilarious in hindsight.

Educate yourself: Curry has played over 74 regular season games every year of his career but one. He also played in numerous playoff games. He played over 100 games this year. He also hardly missed any games during his college career.
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You're missing the point, my friend. ANY team can go through what okc did this year, and unprotected picks are few and far between. Arguing over the odds of any one player being injured is ****ing stupid, because none of us have a crystal ball. I can't tell you how many times fans on this board insisted that there was no way in hell NY would stay bad long enough for that pick to pan out for us, and yet we ended up with Hayward and Paul George as options on draft day. Had we traded it, the value would have been that of late teens/early twenties, just like you are assuming the value of the GS pick will be 23 at best. You may very well be right, but it's FAR from a given as you are trying to pass it off.
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Also, the last time I argued the value of a GS pick with you was when Utah had a chance to cash in on a high pick, and I argued it would be much worse the next year in a weaker draft. You insisted they would suck and it would be a good pick again, and I think we all know how that turned out.:p
 
Survey: NBA personnel rank top 30 point guards

2q9f40g.jpg


- ESPN, March 25th, 2015

Oh shoot man.. Seems to me like NBA personnel ranks George Hill as the 22nd best PG in the league.

EDUCATE YOURSELF.
 
Cy said:
How old are these things you are quoting?

Doctors can be wrong. Curry has not had ankle problems since the tank year.
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Lmao, you are defending yourself by saying "Doctors can be wrong". Stick to baking, son.
 
Cappy_Smurf said:
You're missing the point, my friend. ANY team can go through what okc did this year, and unprotected picks are few and far between. Arguing over the odds of any one player being injured is ****ing stupid, because none of us have a crystal ball. I can't tell you how many times fans on this board insisted that there was no way in hell NY would stay bad long enough for that pick to pan out for us, and yet we ended up with Hayward and Paul George as options on draft day. Had we traded it, the value would have been that of late teens/early twenties. Just like you are assuming the value of the GS pick will be 23 at best. You may very well be right, but it's FAR from a given as you are trying to pass it off.
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Also, the last time I argued the value of a GS pick with you was when Utah had a chance to cash in on a high pick, and I argued it would be much worse the next year in a weaker draft. You insisted they would suck and it would be a good pick again, and I think we all know how that turned out.:p
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There is no comparission between the NYC teams and this GSW's team.

The pick is going to suck. Package it with assets while it still has some value.
 
White Chocolate said:
Nah you are dumb as ****, Durant had no injury history and he got injured this year didn't he? Did OKC make the playoffs? But but but they are good and have Westbrook and Durant nothing bad will ever happen their pick will be late 20's.

You know what kind of offers the Pacers got for Hill at the draft? Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed contract and #24. FOH with your nonsense, educate yourself before you try to argue with people.
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I think Cy point is you can't project with a pick is going to be. If you think Hill is the missing piece than trading the fully unprotected pick isn't insane. Could be top 3 could be the last pick. If you can find a guy that's "perfect" fit wise today you should go for it.
 
White Chocolate said:
Survey: NBA personnel rank top 30 point guards

2q9f40g.jpg


- ESPN, March 25th, 2015

Oh shoot man.. Seems to me like NBA personnel ranks George Hill as the 22nd best PG in the league.

EDUCATE YOURSELF.
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They also rank Trey Burke as the 30th best, so can we really trust these rankings as having merit?

Other highlights:

Rajon Rondo @ 15
Kemba Walker @ 16
Reggie Jackson @ 19
 
da ThRONe said:
I think Cy point is you can't project with a pick is going to be. If you think Hill is the missing piece than trading the fully unprotected pick isn't insane. Could be top 3 could be the last pick. If you can find a guy that's "perfect" fit wise today you should go for it.
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Trey Lyles and the GSW 2017 unprotected first round pick is too much to give up for George Hill.

You can take that to the bank.
 
Cy said:
Yeah, a list that has Rajon ****ing Rondo as the 15th best PG.

These dudes know their stuff.
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They know more than your dumbass. Rondo was a top-15 pg before he got traded.

Dude you think Bobby Portis is the best pf in this draft class, you have no room to talk. You bake for a living, these guys are ****ing NBA personnel.
 
The only reason you don't ****ing throw a celebration parade to get George Hill with Lyles and the GSW 2017 pick is because you have Exum and it's probably a good idea to see what kind of improvement he can make in his 2nd year before you start limiting his minutes a little bit for the betterment of the team.
 
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