Derek Carr and the Raiders found an unlikely source of offensive inspiration: Stephen Curry

• The Las Vegas Raiders used Stephen Curry film as inspiration for practicing a good pump fake.
• New head coach Josh McDaniels believes Curry's pump fake has one key feature: patience.

New Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels has found an unlikely source of inspiration for Derek Carr and the Las Vegas offense heading into the 2022 season: Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry.

While Curry's dominance could certainly be useful in on the hardcourt, McDaniels and the Raiders have specifically honed in on his pump-fake as a skill that's replicable and ultimately useful when attempting to throw the ball deep, as NBC Sports' Peter King learned while sitting in with the Raiders at the start of training camp.

According to McDaniels, Curry's pump-fake is illustrative of how the Raiders can get opposing defenses to bite on double-moves, and ideally, get receivers running free on deep routes.

Per King:

"We've just gotta be patient on the double-move," McDaniels said. "If we're not patient with the first part of the route, how can we expect the second part of the route to work? So we're gonna show that film today. The Steph Curry film."

"The way Curry has the patience and the discipline on his pump-fakes before taking those threes … that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about," McDaniels said. "In a double-move, if you don't run the first route well first, the defender never jumps the play, right? Today we didn't even run the first route, so the defender never budged—he knew the [receiver] was going up the field. Curry's pump-fakes are real. They make the defenders go zooming by."

"Flying out of bounds," said Carr, who'd seen the tape of Curry pump-faking, waiting, then burying threes. "It's hilarious."

Indeed, anyone who has watched Curry play is likely familiar with the effectiveness of his pump-fakes. Because of his sharpshooting range, defenders must respect Curry is a potential threat to score from almost anywhere on the court, and when he sells a fake well, he can send his defender flying.

—NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) May 7, 2021

Sometimes, Curry needs just a brief movement and look to get his defender to bite.

—Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) May 8, 2022

With the 2022 NFL season on the horizon, the Raiders should be pretty good at attacking opposing defenses with double-moves, especially with the addition of superstar wide receiver Davante Adams.

Carr and Adams played together for two years at Fresno State, and were quite an impressive combination back then.

—Jason Clay (@j_clay) March 18, 2022

Should they be able to find that magic again, and develop a pump-fake as devastating as Curry's, the Raiders offense should be a joy to watch.