Seeing as how many of us are lusting after Curry and what might have been since reviewing the latest Hoopus scores, I thought I'd look a bit more at their numbers and see if anything interesting shows up. Using Queen City Hoops' player swapper thing as an arbitrary starting point one unexpected prediction has already emerged: the Wolves would be -1.6 wins worse with Curry this year, while the Warriors would be +3 wins better if they had Flynn. That is definitely not what I was expecting, so what gives?

Looking at their numbers, two main distinctions stand out between the two players: scoring style and backcourt mates, and I think we would be remiss in our discussions about Flynn/Curry if we didn't keep these under consideration.

Consider these numbers:

Jonny Flynn: 70% of attempts are jumpshots, and only 24% of FGAs are assisted on.

Steph Curry: 80% of attempts are jumpshots, with 46% of his FGAs assisted on.

In other words, both players are what we thought they were (to quote The Sheriff) - Curry's a jumpshooter who is more reliant on others to generate his open looks, whereas Flynn is more of a driver who is more dependent on his first step (or simply puts his blinders on and calls his own number). Furthermore, if you look at Hoopdata's shot location info, we find that across the board (from all distances from the hoop) Curry has greater assisted fga numbers than Flynn, and in some cases significantly so. To me this suggests two things, and I think it is reasonable to assume that it is a combination of the two (which I'll get into more a bit later): one, that Curry plays with better passers; and two, Curry is better at this point at playing within the system (he allows the shots to come to him vs. Flynn forcing his own shots).

Besides the difference between the number of field goals assisted on, one other difference stands out between the two players. Adjusted per 36 minutes, Curry attempts just over half of his within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock or the last few seconds, and just under half of his shots in the meat of the shot clock (11-20 seconds in). Flynn, on the other hand, attempts far more shots at the end of the shot clock as Curry (around .6 more FGA per 36 minutes more than Curry in the final seconds). Again, the picture that emerges is one of Curry as a rotational target of the offense and Flynn as either a one man initiator early in the clock or a one man finisher late in the clock.

So what about their back court teammates? The longer that I've looked at and considered these stats, the more I am convinced that it can't be underestimated the impact of playing with a playmaker of Ellis' caliber has on Curry's role and play this year. Curry has played a huge number of minutes next to Ellis, usually as the point guard to Ellis' SG. Ellis, as we all know, loves to shoot (to the tune of an astounding 19.2 FGA per 36!), and the numbers show that he's comfortable taking it to the hoop, taking jump shots, attempting threes (a career high in 3PA's this year) - and all throughout the shot clock. The point, as far as this post is concerned, is that Ellis represents more than just a dynamic offensive element for Curry's passes (and for creating space for other guys on the floor as well). Curry, operating within the offense as he does, is the perfect jumpshooting outlet/safety valve for Ellis' drives or double team outlet passes.

Curry and Ellis lead the Warriors in assist rate (amongst players with significant PT) at 22.6 and 21.6.

Flynn, on the other hand, has no Ellis to play against. The closest he has is Brewer, but Brewer is far worse as a passer and at setting up guys to score. Consider that 65% of Brewer's FGs are assisted on - and watching him play it's becoming clearer and clearer that Brewer's a finisher, not a creator. The assist rate leaders for the Wolves are Flynn at 24.5 and Sessions at 23.6, with Brewer trailing far behind at 12.0.

One begins to wonder, then, what effect playing next to Sessions might have on Flynn. They would form an odd backcourt - two guards who's preference is taking it strong to the hoop. But if you were to allow Ramon to play to his strengths of driving, drawing fouls, and organizing the offense with Flynn as the followup safety valve (Flynn's actually developing into a pretty decent shooter in addition to his strong at the rim game) and playmaking compliment - well, it might actually be kind of interesting. Unfortunately for Flynn, however, he rarely gets the chance to play with someone who can set him up, especially since Love has started coming off the bench.

The last tidbit that I'll throw out there as the final piece context to consider for this little comparison between Flynn and Curry is each team's relationship with its big men. We attempt nearly 42 FGAs per game between our PF and C positions (with our 4/5 extraordinaires Love and Al), whereas Golden State is far more dependent on its SF and PF (almost 42 FGA - led in no small part by 3/4 Corey Maggette). In other words, our team and our offensive flow is centered around a couple of guys down low (incidentally our best players), whereas the Warrior's offense is centered around their two best players who happen to be 1/2's in Curry and Ellis, along with some capable 3/4's in Maggette and Morrow. Biedrins and Randolph at the 4/5 are role players at best for them, just as Wilkins and Gomes are role players at the 3/4 for us.