Seth Curry is enjoying a strong season with the Philadelphia 76ers and, upon arrival, the 30-year-old guard helped to transform his new team’s offense with his perimeter shooting. Given that Curry converted 45.1 percent of his three-point attempts in the two previous seasons and Philadelphia was desperate for floor spacing, the partnership always made sense, and the 76ers are bearing the fruits of the acquisition to the tune of the East’s best record.
On the flip side, the Dallas Mavericks aren’t faring quite as well this season after sending Curry to Philadelphia in a swap for Josh Richardson. To that end, Dallas lost to Philadelphia by a 111-97 margin at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening and, after the game, Curry sent some positive vibes to his old team, all while making it clear that he feels the Mavericks made an error by dealing him.
Seth Curry on playing his old team tonight: “I got a lot of respect for those guys over there. I just think they made a bad business decision.”
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) February 26, 2021
The wording of “bad business decision” is tremendous here, even if it makes total sense that Curry would feel that way. Dallas isn’t suddenly a struggling offensive team, as most of their issues are on the defensive end, but the Mavericks were the No. 1 offense in the NBA last season and they haven’t been able to replicate that level of success on a grand scale. Some of that is the absence of Curry as one of the league’s best shooters, and Richardson hasn’t been fantastic in Dallas, even with some recent improvement.
On paper, the Curry-Richardson swap made perfect sense for both teams and it filled needs on each side. So far, though, Curry and the 76ers have to be the ones feeling pretty fantastic about the deal. For good measure, Curry scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting with a perfect 3-of-3 mark from long distance on Thursday evening, and he got the last laugh with an apt quote after the final buzzer.