Sports
Here’s Why Stephen Curry Is A Deserving All-Star Starter

After a one-year hiatus, Stephen Curry was again named an All-Star starter this season. Aside from last year, he’s started in every All-Star game since 2013. But this season, the consensus around Curry’s status feels different. Fans lament his inclusion as a starter, viewing it as due to his popularity rather than his play this season.
I polled my Twitter following on this topic and the results bared out as expected. Of the 883 votes cast, 71.2 percent (628) felt Curry isn’t a deserving All-Star starter, compared to 16.3 percent (143) who felt he is a deserving starter (12.5 percent of the polled honorably chose “results”).
does stephen curry deserve to start in the all-star game this season, solely based on his play this season? if not, who would you have picked to start over him?
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) January 27, 2025
A sample of nearly 900 is far from representative but reflects the temperature of the discourse surrounding him. But Curry, based solely on his performance on the court, is a deserving All-Star starter in a Western Conference without many other sure inclusions at the guard spot.
It’s easy to understand the case against Curry as a starter built on team success and counting stats, two factors that mainstream media undoubtedly values. His Golden State Warriors are the Western Conference’s 11th seed, one spot out of the Play-In tournament. Curry this season ranks 32nd in points per game (22.2) and 23rd in assists per game (6.4).
Curry’s Offensive Impact Remains Elite
Basic counting stats often don’t tell the full story, as basketball impact goes so far beyond basic box score numbers. Those can’t account for contextual factors like a player’s roster and role or a team’s scheme and rotation. Impact metrics, which better account for these factors, still view Curry as an elite player.
This season, he ranks 13th in Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), 11th in DARKO Plus-Minus and 33rd in Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus. His Value Plus-Minus, a stat blending other impact metrics (per NBA RAPM), ranks Curry 11th this season.
Explained more simply, his combination of floor spacing, off-ball value, on-ball creation and passing make him one of the league’s most valuable players. He’s maintaining elite offensive production with a weak Golden State supporting cast. Aside from Curry, the only other Warriors this season with a positive Offensive EPM are Andrew Wiggins, Quinten Post (84 minutes played) and Gui Santos.
While it’s true Curry has declined as a pure creator, especially on drives, volume scoring doesn’t fuel his impact. His efficiency, relative to the league average, is its lowest since his rookie year, but still is excellent relative to other, more human guards. His burst and vertical explosion aren’t stellar anymore, leading to an inefficient season of shooting at the rim (58.5 percent).
Still, he’s one of five guards this season to eclipse averages of 20 points and six assists on 60 percent or better true shooting. Joining Curry in that company are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Darius Garland, Jalen Brunson and Damian Lillard. No other Western Conference guard outside of Gilgeous-Alexander matches his scoring, efficiency and playmaking production.
Playmaking Leap
As he’s aged, Curry compensates for a decline in volume scoring with upgraded passing production. He’s playmaking at his highest level in over a half-decade. The Warriors are reliant on his ability to capitalize on his scoring gravity as a facilitator. He’s posted his highest assist rate (29.3 percent) since 2016, his most assists per 100 possessions (9.6) since 2015 and his most potential assists per 100 possessions (15.6) since 2017.
Defenses blitz, hedge and trap him on most nights, fearing his pull-up jumper enough to sacrifice constant advantage situations for the offense. Curry is seeing the floor as well as ever, especially considering Golden State’s lack of secondary creation. He’s spraying skip passes to the opposite corner on drives and keeping his attacks alive to locate cutters to the rim.
steph curry is quietly having one of his best playmaking seasons, spraying all sorts of high level passes while facing constant blitzes as usual
tallying his most potential assists per 100 (15.6) since 2017 and most assists per 100 (9.6) since 2015! pic.twitter.com/VK66W3g38g
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) January 27, 2025
His outside shooting is staunchly dangerous. Curry’s converting 40.3 percent of his 10.6 long range attempts per game, ranking third in the NBA in 3-point volume. He’s the league’s best shooter when combining volume, efficiency and degree of difficulty, as he’s been for nearly his entire basketball life.
This season more than ever, his one-man offense is keeping Golden State afloat. The Warriors are 10.3 points better overall when he’s on the floor, the type of swing we’re accustomed to for him. But offensively, the gulf is reaching his MVP-level heights. Their offense improves by 15.5 points per 100 possessions with Curry on the floor, the largest difference since 2017.
The Warriors’ half court offense improves by 15.5 points per 100 possessions with Steph Curry on the floor, the highest differential of his career, according to @cleantheglass
They’re more reliant than ever on his on-ball creation pic.twitter.com/NRJ6A42nJi
— Sportscasting NBA (@SportcastingNBA) January 28, 2025
These numbers tell us as much about Curry’s supporting cast as they do about him. But that should factor in heavily to his All-Star case. Few offensive players are making a larger difference for their team’s efficacy than Curry is this season.
Is The Defense Bad Enough To Sink His Case?
It’s fair to criticize his defense, which has slipped this season. He’s not expending as much effort off of the ball and his quickness has weakened his on-ball stopper potential. Defensive metrics reflect this decline; his minus-0.6 Defensive EPM places him in the 31st percentile and he doesn’t generate many turnovers this season.
However, none of his Western Conference guard competitors fare particularly well on the defensive end either. Anthony Edwards, Kyrie Irving, De’Aaron Fox and Devin Booker all rank below neutral in Defensive EPM. The only West All-Star hopeful among guards with a positive Defensive EPM is James Harden, who most would agree isn’t nearly as effective a defender as metrics suggest.
Defensive numbers are often noisy and struggle to represent true ability. But outside of Edwards — who’s taken a bit of a step back on defense from last year — none of Curry’s peers are needle-moving defensive players. All of them build the majority of their All-Star case on offensive production.
A Close Race
Of the five West guards mentioned, Curry sports the best efficiency numbers and the best playmaking numbers aside from Harden, but the lowest scoring volume outside of Harden. Impact metrics don’t view it as a particularly close race, with Irving the only player to match Curry’s production there.
Regardless of what basic statistics, advanced metrics or the “eye test” tells us, some will exclude Curry based on winning. Success in the modern NBA goes far beyond collecting All-Stars. These are individual awards, not team awards, and nearly every NBA player can’t drive winning completely on their own.
Fans will acknowledge the failures of a team like the Phoenix Suns, which constructed a top-heavy roster without considering depth or defense. A team like the Oklahoma City Thunder, which might only receive one All-Star, thrives on the back of their collective defensive power boosted by one transformational offensive star in Gilgeous-Alexander.
Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves, for example, have won three more games than Curry’s Warriors. That shouldn’t make the difference between starting in the All-Star Game or not.
We can ignore winning bias (as we should) and still make coherent cases for guards other than Curry to start. Irving’s work as a floor-raiser amid the Dallas Mavericks’ horrific injury luck compares to what Curry has done this year. Edwards’s 3-point explosion and advantage creation build a solid case for him as well.
None of the West’s guards have made a strong enough case to vault themselves over Curry, though. We shouldn’t overvalue basic counting stats when all of the other evidence points strongly to Curry driving winning as much as any other guard, especially considering team context. He isn’t the perennial MVP candidate he once was, but even a post-prime version of Curry is one of the NBA’s best guards and a deserving All-Star starter.
All stats are accurate prior to games played on Jan. 28.