The Golden State Warriors have been perfectly mediocre through the opening portion of the 2024-25 NBA season, currently sitting at an even 16-16 ahead of Thursday night's game vs the Philadelphia 76ers. Stephen Curry has seen his play taper off slightly this year, no longer putting up Herculean stat lines as consistently as he was during previous junctures of his career.
Still, this slight drop-off evidently hasn't diminished Curry's popularity among NBA fans, as it was recently revealed that he came in third place in the Western Conference All-Star initial fan vote, behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks (per Tim Bontemps of ESPN).
There are still more rounds of fan voting left to go, and Doncic's prolonged injury absence could increase Curry's chances of earning a starting nod if that Mavericks superstar is unable to go.
The All-Star game this year is slated to take place in the Warriors' home arena, the Chase Center, in San Francisco, which would give an added layer of meaning to Curry potentially starting the game.
Can the Warriors get back on track?
Similar to the 2023-24 season, the Warriors got off to a hot start to this campaign, quickly racing up the Western Conference standings with some elite play from Curry and solid contributions from supporting pieces like Buddy Hield.
However, Hield has cooled off as of late, and the Warriors as a whole have seen their production fall off of a cliff, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
Various injury absences, including Curry himself, have contributed to that, as has some significant regression from second-year guard Brandin Podziemski.
The Warriors recently attempted to rectify some of these issues by swinging a trade with the Brooklyn Nets for point guard Dennis Schroder at a relatively low price, but the move hasn't made any immediate dividends so far, as Schroder has struggled through the first few games in his new threads.
Still, there is time for the Warriors to turn things around, as well as to potentially swing another trade for more help.
Golden State and Philadelphia are slated to tip things off at 10:00 PM ET on Thursday.
