In 2015-16, Stephen Curry posted the best offensive box plus/minus in NBA history. He was so dominant that he was able to rest for the entirety of the fourth quarter in 19 of his 79 games, and the Golden State Warriors won a league-record 73 regular-season games.

Curry wasn't alone, of course. That season, Klay Thompson averaged 22.1 points and shot 42.5 percent from three. Draymond Green added 14.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and a team-leading 7.4 assists. But there's a reason that campaign made Curry the only unanimous MVP in league history. He was the system.

Something funny happened to Curry's legacy over the next half decade, though. The Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 Finals. Kevin Durant joined Golden State and won the Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018. When he went down with an injury in 2019, the Warriors lost in the 2019 NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors.

And when Durant gave in to wanderlust again, this time heading to the Brooklyn Nets, analysis of Curry's place among the all-time greats took on a different spin.

With KD gone and Klay recovering from a torn ACL, the 2019-20 campaign suddenly became something of a prove-it year for Curry. He didn't need one, but plenty of voices sure wanted one. However, a broken hand limited Curry to only five games in 2019-20 and delayed the one-man show for a year.

Well, we're here now. And everyone who might have been on that "he's a system player" or "he needs a monster season for his legacy" nonsense is getting what they asked for (or, in some cases, what they believed wasn't possible).

Curry is reminding everyone that he is the system.

On Tuesday, he went for 32 points and four threes in a 114-91 win over the San Antonio Spurs. He played only two minutes in the fourth quarter. And this wasn't the first time he's put a game to bed before the final frame this season.

Roughly a third of the way into 2020-21, Curry has been able to rest the entire fourth quarter of three wins. He's played fewer than four minutes in three others.

These Warriors won't be mistaken for the 2015-16 squad anytime soon, but they're blowing opponents out. After Tuesday, they're 13-12 and firmly in the hunt for a playoff spot.

That felt far from likely two-and-a-half months ago, when news of Klay's torn right Achilles tendon broke. It felt even less likely five games into the season, when Golden State was below .500 and Kelly Oubre Jr.—whom the Warriors ostensibly acquired to replace Thompson in 2020-21—was 1-of-25 from three (4.0 percent).

Slowly but surely, though, Curry has willed this team to respectability. And as he's grown accustomed to a role that looks more like his days at Davidson than what he did in the Golden State dynasty years, his production has taken off.

In his first 11 games, Curry averaged 27.8 points, shot 36.9 percent from three and posted a 59.9 true shooting percentage (still strong). Over his last 14, he's at 31.1 points, with a 47.5 three-point percentage and a 70.4 true shooting percentage (truly outrageous).

The extended hot streak has pushed Curry's season-long marks to 29.6 points on a 65.6 true shooting percentage. If you're wondering how many players have matched or exceeded both marks for an entire campaign, the answer is, well, one: Curry in 2015-16.

The difference between this season and that one is, again, the supporting cast. With all due respect to Oubre, Andrew Wiggins, 2020-21 Draymond and James Wiseman, they are most assuredly not Klay, prime Draymond, Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut.

Teams can focus on and scheme for Curry in a way they couldn't back then. Run a box-and-one or constantly double-team Curry in 2015-16, and Thompson would light you up. Draymond would carve you up going downhill as a pick-and-roll playmaker. Defenses aren't as scared to run gimmicks like that at this version of the Warriors. And Curry might still the most impactful offensive player in the NBA.

When Curry is on the floor, Golden State scores 114.3 points per 100 possessions. It drops to just 96.6 without him. Among players with at least 200 minutes, that 17.7-point swing is the biggest in the league.

Beyond the numbers, Curry remains perhaps the game's most entertaining individual player. He may never captivate the basketball world quite like he did in 2015-16, but this "Curry vs. the world" campaign has a similar feel.

Even as much of the league has remade itself in Curry's image (in 2014-15, 26.8 percent of all attempts were threes, compared to 39.4 percent in 2020-21), no floor-spacer bends the court's dimensions and the opposition's defense quite like Curry.

He can still fill an entire lineup with sheer terror and send them scrambling to find him in transition, off screens or after a pump fake.

On Tuesday, he sent Rudy Gay a good 10 feet from the three-point line to the paint on a step-back:

On Saturday, he casually pulled up from the Dallas Mavericks' half-court logo for a three in the middle of a third-quarter run that felt eerily similar to those from the Light-Years era:

"If we could only watch Steph Curry via pay-per-view, I'd pay the bread every night to watch him," 95.7 The Game's Bonta Hill tweeted Tuesday. "He's that entertaining."

Before KD left and Klay's two-year (and counting) bout with injuries began, Curry was already an all-time great. After 2018-19, he trailed only Michael Jordan and LeBron James in career offensive box plus/minus. He had three titles, including one without Durant. He had two MVPs, including the only unanimous one.

Like MJ or Dirk Nowitzki before him, Curry was a paradigm-moving superstar. The greatest shooter of all time showed teams just how valuable threes are. Yet some still wondered about his legacy.

He didn't need this campaign to secure his place in NBA history, but Curry is elevating his place among the greats anyway.