Seth Curry is a professional basketball player, but that doesn't mean he's made it. The former Duke guard, like so many others, has been working tirelessly since his final game with the Blue Devils to improve his craft and make it to the show. Curry has had a couple of tastes of NBA life now, but for now he is still pressing forward, working toward to his goal of lasting in the league.
Curry has played the majority of this season with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League. There are a few ways in which players can move to and from the D-League. For Curry, who is not on an NBA roster, the path to the NBA is that of your average free agent, who can be signed by any NBA club.
In the early portion of the season, two players from Santa Cruz were signed from the D-League ranks to play with the Golden State Warriors—Santa Cruz's exclusive affiliate. Centers Dewayne Dedmon and Hilton Armstrong both caught the attention of Golden State, while Curry continued to ply his wares in the minor leagues.
“Everybody’s just happy for the guys when they get called up," Curry said. "When they get called up it’s their opportunity. Nothing really changes. Everybody else just goes about their business.”
Seeing teammates get the nod to play in the NBA while others continue to live life under the radar in the D-League is a difficult situation for some players. It's a situation that must be monitored by the coaching staff very carefully.
"The way that you manage a call-up by another player with the rest of the team is a pretty fragile process," first-year Santa Cruz head coach Casey Hill said. "The way you have to communicate it to them is that someone got that opportunity and now it’s time for someone to step in and take advantage of their opportunity here.”
The second way players move up and down from league to league is when the NBA club assigns a player to the D-League. That situation is perhaps just as delicate as explaining that a teammate is being called up. Players on assignment aren't free to sign with any NBA team the way Curry and others are. Instead, they are players on NBA rosters who are playing in the D-League either for extra seasoning, increased playing time or rehab.
Many teams utilize their D-League affiliates for young players—Curry's former Duke teammate, Ryan Kelly, was sent on assignment by the Lakers before breaking through in Los Angeles as the starting power forward. Golden State has been no stranger to the assignment process. Rookies Nemanja Nedovic and Ognjen Kuzmic have made multiple trips back-and-forth between Golden State and Santa Cruz, and guards Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks have recently been shuttled to Santa Cruz as well. Despite NBA players encroaching on their roster, the Santa Cruz Warriors have shown no signs of jealousy toward assignment players.
"Our team has been very, very welcoming with that stuff," Hill said. "I usually try to tell them as early as I possibly can about an assignment. A lot of these guys get excited. They watch the Golden State Warriors play, they see these guys on the bench and when they get in at the end of a game, whatever it is. So they get excited to play with them."
After 12 games in Santa Cruz, watching teammates earn promotions and NBA players join his roster, Curry finally got his call. The 6-foot-1 guard was putting up eye-popping numbers before reaching an agreement with an NBA team, averaging 21.3 points, 7.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds—ranking in the top 10 in both scoring and assists.
“My agent called me and told me, ‘Get ready to get on a flight out to Memphis,’" Curry said. "Once I found out I was excited by the opportunity and I was ready to go.”
Curry agreed to terms with the Memphis Grizzlies Dec. 24. He had been in Memphis earlier that month for a workout that included NBA veterans Darius Morris and Reggie Williams, as well as former North Carolina standout and current Lakers starting point guard Kendall Marshall. Curry knew he had a good chance at landing in Memphis after his strong performance in front of team officials.
Less than two weeks later, Curry was back on a flight to rejoin his teammates in Santa Cruz. He was waived by Memphis after making one appearance in the NBA, during which he logged four minutes of action. He stayed in Memphis for a few days after he was officially released due to confusion about a new contract.
"They told me they were going to sign me to a 10-day [contract]," Curry said. "So that was the reason I stayed in Memphis for the couple of days after they officially released me. It wasn’t too much uncertainty, it was just false information.”
The day after landing in Las Vegas for the D-League Showcase, Curry returned to the court with his old team without missing a beat. Just like Dedmon and Armstrong before him—though Dedmon returned to the NBA and just recently finished a second 10-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers—Curry was once again on the Santa Cruz roster.
“There’s two ways that they’ll go," Hill said regarding players returning from the NBA. "They could be let down if they really liked where they were and they developed really good relationships with the guys on the team or the coaches. The other way could absolutely be a motivation where they come in and they’ve seen what it’s about, they’ve felt it, and now it’s time to work even harder and get that second call up and go into it with the right kind of expectations. I think all three of them have had the latter of the experiences. I haven’t seen a letdown in any of them after the call-ups.”
It's now been eight games since Curry's return to Santa Cruz. The guard has seen a slight dip in minutes, which has led to a subsequent drop in numbers. However, Curry's season averages still sit at 19.6 points and 7.0 assists per game—where he is among the leaders in both categories. On Monday, Curry was named an All-Star along with both Dedmon and Armstrong.
With teams always looking for an influx of talent, and the looming trade deadline sure to open up some roster spots, Curry remains focused on honing his skills with Santa Cruz for another shot at the NBA.
“I definitely got some good experience being in the league… and I’m trying to bring that back here and get better,” Curry said.
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