When Christmas comes, the NBA opens the All-Star voting process. While the process yielded some unusual situations in the past, it is usually a fair assessment of how the season has gone for certain players. After having a few seasons with multiple All-Stars, the Golden State Warriors are hoping to come back strong to the All-Star Weekend. They had four All-Stars two years in a row, fell to three in 2018-19, and then paused for a year before Stephen Curry put them back into the event last season. This season, with their great start, the team is hoping to have multiple selections once again. To support their cause, here are two Warriors players who need to be All-Stars.
Warriors All-Star players
Stephen Curry
Surprise, surprise, it is the former two-time MVP that opens the list. Obviously, he will be a starter, but we can take this opportunity to really hammer how much of an impressive run Curry has been on this season. Going on impressive runs is not something Curry is estranged from, as he has been changing the NBA landscape ever since he really hit his prime in 2013-14. While the Warriors have been this good before, it is still worth looking over Curry and his season in detail.
Pure numbers say that Curry is averaging 27.7 points, 5.9 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals, on 43% shooting from the field and 39.7% from three-point land. The last number is especially impressive, as Curry shoots a whopping 13.5 threes per game. This is rounded off by a 92.3% clip from the free-throw line, meaning that if he can get more efficient from the field, Curry might have his second 50-40-90 season. That way, the Warriors star would join an exclusive club of players with multiple 50-40-90 seasons, only inhabited by Larry Bird and Steve Nash.
However, the most historic part of this season for the Warriors and Curry is his three-point shooting reaching new, record highs. In a game versus the New York Knicks, Curry hit his 2974th three in the league, breaking the record previously held by Ray Allen. It was not the only record, as he hit his 3000th three against the Denver Nuggets. Both of these feats are incredibly impressive, and they will remain written in NBA history books.
Warriors' success is also relevant for both the All-Star starter and MVP case for Stephen Curry. Right now, the Dubs are 27-7, which is good enough for the top of the Western Conference and the entire NBA. They are followed closely by the Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz, but they are still ahead. Curry has been the starting point and endpoint for this success, and while his teammates played a role, it was his leadership and historic season that led the team that did not make the playoffs last season to a championship contender this season. Curry will definitely be an All-Star, and he should be the surefire starter for the West.
In a different way, Jordan Poole also contributed a lot to this early Warriors' success. He seemingly came out of nowhere to absolutely dominate in the absence of Klay Thompson, the second biggest star of the Dubs. This is Poole's third season in the league and it is very impressive how he has been able to take a leap forward in every season he played in the NBA. The 22-year-old took all opportunities given to him and he should be considered for the All-Star bench.
This season, Poole is averaging 17.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.0 steals, on 44% shooting from the field, and 33.8% from beyond the arc. He is the third scorer on the Warriors roster, behind Curry and Andrew Wiggins. Also, he showed a ton of improvement, as said above. Poole was averaging 12.0 points last season and while his efficiency fell behind a bit, the guard took full responsibility to replace Thompson as much as he can. He cannot do it fully, due to Thompson's defensive prowess, but he was able to take a huge part of what Thompson has done offensively and replicate it.
What can go for Poole as well is his consistency. He has not had ups and downs, rather Poole has been able to have a few poor games that are far between. Truth be told, he did not have huge runs of great games as well, but the consistent output that the Warriors can rely on might be more impressive than a great run followed by a few bad games in a row. Poole can say that he consistently helped Curry and Wiggins lead the Warriors to wins and to this impressive record.
The Warriors have other players that might also become All-Stars, other than Curry and Poole. Wiggins and Draymond Green are options as well but Poole truly came out of nowhere to have this kind of season. As Klay Thompson is coming back soon, he will probably fall behind in shots and minutes, but he will always have the last two seasons to look back to and say that he was great. Hopefully, for him, he will be rewarded with a spot on the bench in Cleveland in February.
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