Recover his confidence
Missing an entire season can hurt a player’s confidence and basketball touch. Curry sat for all of 2017-2018, losing his momentum from the successful campaign with Dallas.
On top of that, he has minimal NBA experience to fall back on after the long hiatus. Curry played two games in each of his first two seasons, then suited up in 44 and 70 matchups the following two years, respectively.
Historically, players who suffer stress reactions or fractures in their legs take a while to return to form.
Jrue Holiday had surgery for a tibial stress fracture in February of 2014. His 4-6 month recovery timetable passed, but he still encountered trouble with the leg. Holiday said he was only at 75% strength seven months later, which led to re-aggravating the injury and sidelining him for three weeks in February of 2015.
The All-Defensive guard has since returned to form, but the process was slow and painful. Curry is now six months removed from the surgery, the back-end of his timetable.
He and the Blazers organization need to be smart with handling the injury. He must recover his 2016-2017 lights out shooting, but also be wary of any unusual pain that could become a bigger issue if left untreated.
Curry will be asked to make an immediate impact on Portland’s bench unit’s scoring, so hopefully he’s prepared himself for the stress of playing 20 or more minutes per contest.