Why It's Time To Reexamine The Value of Erie BayHawks' Guard Seth Curry

Elliot Williams is set to join the Utah Jazz. It's in Salt Lake City where he'll team up with fellow D-League alumni Elijah Millsap, who recently signed with the team as well. The likes of Kevin Murphy and Manny Harris each recently departed the minor league to take advantage of more lucrative deals overseas. The sharpshooting Brady Heslip was considering playing international ball, too, as recently as a week ago.

Needless to say, even in a league dominated by backcourt talent, many of the D-League's most promising shooting guards are moving on to greener pastures rather quickly.

While it will be interesting to see which up and coming youngsters rise above and begin to make some more noise in the weeks to come, perhaps one already well-known guard is ready to assume the title of the league's best two-guard after all.

Last season, Seth Curry proved to be a key catalyst in helping lead the Santa Cruz Warriors all the way to the NBADL Finals. While in Surf City, Curry stood tall as the team's point guard, and was encouraged to embrace more of a floor general mentality. Of course, the brother of Stephen can undoubtedly score in bunches. But while playing in a league where development is one of the primary goals, running the floor, orchestrating an offense, and finding his teammates in transition all became things the younger Curry had been working on all season long.

Aside from his team's overall success, his 5.8 assist per game average was also reflective of his continued efforts. Curry earned himself multiple NBA call-ups (one with the Cavaliers and another with Memphis) midseason, but failed to stick.

After spending training camp with the Orlando Magic, Curry's D-League rights were traded to the affiliated Erie BayHawks. Ironically enough, while embracing more of a versatile presence as a potential combo guard is something Curry has obviously been tasked with dating back to his collegiate days at Duke, things are seemingly a bit simpler for the youngster in Erie.

Curry starts each and every game in the BayHawks' backcourt alongside fellow NBA alum Peyton Siva. As Siva thrives while controlling the tempo and creating opportunities for his teammates, Curry is free to otherwise let loose and go to work on offense.

It's one thing to concentrate on creating a more balanced skill-set in one's bag of tricks, but it's another thing to simply embrace one's dominance. Of course, using the word "dominance" isn't too common when referring to minor league players. They're all in the D-League for a reason. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that Curry headlines the cream of the crop when it comes to youngsters who can score the basketball with ease in the NBADL.

As fate would have it, Curry is having an excellent year while playing the two-guard position. He's averaging 26.3 points on 52% from the field, an impressive 93% from the charity stripe, and an all the more eye-popping 53% from deep. All of such marks are improvements from his rookie season in Santa Cruz. He's proving to be more efficient, all the while, taking more shots, at the same time. Quite the consummate teammate, Curry is still averaging 4 assists per game as well.

At 6'2" and 185 pounds, Curry undeniably boasts a physical frame more commonly associated with point guards in the NBA. Still, keeping up this same level of consistency while embracing more of a score/shoot first mentality could, surprisingly enough, go a long way towards settling any and all questions about Curry's identity, not only in the D-League, but in the NBA as well. Any number of teams could find use for a fiery offensive spark plug off the bench.

Perhaps this is why, as he readies himself for the NBA D-League Showcase next week, it's time to reexamine the value of Seth Curry. While he could certainly continue to work on being able to serve as a combo guard of sorts, the fact of the matter is he plays the two-guard position quite well.

It may time to encourage this, rather than resist such a progression, instead.