There are high-reaching goals for the 2024 Miami Dolphins, a team aiming to win its first playoff game in nearly a quarter century.
To get there, focusing on fundamentals and technique is paramount during the here and now of training camp.
As Mike McDaniel sees it, he and his squad are aspiring to be elite, and there are few with resumes as sterling as Steph Curry, a 10-time All-NBA selection who's won four NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors and just won his first gold medal with Team USA.
As it turns out, McDaniel is in line with Curry's outlook of practicing like a champion.
"Got a chance to talk to him this offseason and he talked about every time he shoots, his focus is the same on the front of the rim as in games," McDaniel said Monday, via team transcript. "Well, then you can do some elite stuff, but it comes back to his practice and preparation for those moments are why he can do things that no one else can."
In a career rife with clutch performances and championship memories, Curry is coming off another one for the storybooks. His 36-point effort against Serbia in the Olympics semifinals lifted the U.S. into the gold medal game, as Curry keyed a remarkable 13-point comeback in the fourth quarter. Though not as dramatic, Curry and Team U.S.A. had plenty more to celebrate on Saturday when they defeated France to win gold, 98-87. Curry poured in 24 points and memorably tucked his hands to the side of his head as he ran down the floor, having symbolically put the game – and the gold – to bed.
Long before that, McDaniel had a chance meeting with Curry in Orlando, Florida, and picked the 10-time NBA All-Star's brain.
"I think Golden State was on a road trip to play the Orlando Magic, and I ended up talking to him a little bit," McDaniel said. "My wife got a picture of us having a conversation. I think he got a picture of us, but I was too rattled to ask for his phone number. If he's listening to this press conference, I would love to get that picture. But yeah, it was pretty cool. He's the extreme version of everything I believe in in training for athletics, so when you bump into a guy when you have maybe five to 10 minutes, I don't even know what I said. I just rattled off a bunch of stuff and just remember what he talked about focus."
One of the deepest and most enthusiastic minds to have graced an NFL sideline, McDaniel believes training camp is critical in developing what his football team looks like, approaching technique and fundamentals and balancing that with the long view of the campaign ahead.
In addressing his mindset toward training camp, he arrived on his meeting with Curry and the future Hall of Famer's tireless work ethic.
"The practice today with various constraints at certain specific positions, we had to frontload with our full-speed reps and we kind of have to have an in-between walkthrough and light practice, jog-through at the tail end of it," McDaniel said. "That's something that you guys aren't used to seeing all the time, but that's an adjustment to protect the way we train our fundamentals and technique, which if you want to be a good football team or the best football team or anything that falls in the bucket of where we're trying to go, you have to train those, much like I was talking to the team today about Steph Curry."
Another all-time great once coined the phrase, "to be the man, you gotta beat the man."
It doesn't hurt to emulate the best, either, as it seems McDaniel is doing with Curry.
As for how McDaniel was received by Curry, the Dolphins head coach said the three-point sharpshooter recognized him – something McDaniel is still trying to get a grasp on.
"He did know who I was, which made no sense, much like every person in public that – people identify me a lot and it never gets normal," McDaniel said. "It's always – maybe I'm delusional, I don't know, I just don't ever expect it."
After back-to-back playoff trips with one-and-done conclusions, McDaniel is expecting 2024 to be the year the Dolphins take their shot at becoming a part of the NFL's elite.
