Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson: All-Star Ranking

We know Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are having outstanding seasons for the Golden State Warriors. Curry being named as an All-Star was a mere formality and it was nearly a given that Thompson would be as well. They are the first pair of Warriors to be named All-Stars together since Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin in 1992-93.

But where do Curry and Thompson’s 2014-15 All-Star seasons rank among the Warriors’ all-time?

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In the Warriors franchise history dating back to 1946-47 and spanning Philadelphia, San Francisco and Oakland, they have had 81 All-Star selections. Those 81 selections are divided between 29 different players. Hall-of-Famer Paul Arizin has the most All-Star selections with the team at 10.

Historically, Curry and Thompson are just two players in a long line of past Warrior greats to be named All-Stars, some of which include Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Rick Barry, Jamaal Wilkes and Nate Thurmond.

Ranking one season’s performance over another requires using an all encompassing stat. Win shares would work well if the season were completed. However, using that as a comparison tool part way through the season would hinder Curry and Thompson’s case since win shares is a cumulative statistic and they would be missing out on the last third of the season.

PER, or player efficiency rating, will be used because it combines a player’s impact on the game into one number without penalizing a player for the number of games played. For an explanation of PER, check out John Hollinger’s breakdown of it here. Using PER to rank the seasons isn’t, for lack of a better term, perfect, but it’s a start.

Information from Basketball-Reference.com

Top All-Star Seasons

Below is a chart of the top ten Warriors All-Star seasons ranked by PER.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/13/2015.

You can easily see that the entire list is made of just three players. Stephen Curry’s 2014-15 season ranks seventh and is only below the most statistically dominant player the league has ever seen, Wilt Chamberlain. To be trailing only the guy that scored 100 points in a single game is a pretty impressive feat. It’s easy to know that Curry is having a good year, but that good?

The other player in the top 10 is Neil Johnston, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound center from the 1950s. He led the league in field goal percentage three times, shooting 45.2, 45.7 and 44.7 percent. For comparison’s sake, DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers currently leads the league at 72.5 percent, per NBA.com. The league has changed a bit.

Klay Thompson’s 2014-15 season ranks 25th all-time in PER among Warriors All-Star seasons. That isn’t quite as impressive as Curry’s ranking, but still pretty good when you consider that it is 25th out of 81. To fully understand Thompson’s place historically, it helps to know that the only guard above him on the list is Curry.

Every other player in the top 25 is either a small forward or center. It should also be noted that Curry’s 2013-14 season ranks 15th all-time among All-Star seasons.

Curry, Thompson and David Lee back in 2012-13 are the only Warriors to be named All-Stars since Latrell Sprewell in 1996-97. Despite having 29 All-Stars and 81 All-Star worthy seasons, it had been awhile since the Warriors sent someone to the “Stars’ Scrimmage.”

Best Warriors Seasons

Historically great seasons normally, though not always, coincide with All-Star appearances, so it’s not surprising to look at the top Warriors seasons in general and find a nearly identical list.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/13/2015.

Chamberlain’s 1964-65 All-Star season has dropped off because he only played 38 games and 10-time All-Star Paul Arizin has joined the list. Curry’s 2014-15 has moved to sixth all-time and his 2013-14 season has moved up to 14th.

Klay Thompson drops to 27th with the additions of Chris Webber’s 1993-94 season, Baron Davis’ 2006-07 season and Curry’s 2012-13 season. That means Curry’s last three seasons have all been top 25 all-time in terms of PER for the Warriors.

If we remove repeat years by the same player, we can start to get an imperfect idea of the top 10 players in Warriors’ history.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/13/2015.

Time spent with the team and other accomplishments such as championships, MVPs, All-NBA teams, Defensive Player of the Year awards would need to be taken into account to form a more complete list of the best players in Warriors franchise history. This is a pretty intriguing list however.

Chris Webber, Baron Davis and Tim Hardaway all spent the majority of their careers on teams other than the Warriors. Some may argue for Davis to be included among the best Warriors of all-time because of his role on the eighth-seeded “We Believe” team that took down the No. 1-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the 2006-07 playoffs.

Stronger arguments would be made for including Hardaway as a member of “Run TMC,, the early ’90s Warriors that entertained by running a fast-pace high scoring team.

Interestingly enough, both of those iconic Warriors teams were busted up by trades only a couple of years into their existence. Curry and Thompson could have befallen a similar fate over the summer when rumors were rife about the possibility of trading Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love.

Paul Arizin and Neil Johnston, Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway, both of those pairs had the opportunity to play together at their peaks and as All-Stars. Curry and Thompson are getting that same chance now. Arizin and Johnston won a championship together. Curry and Thompson are fighting for the chance to win one.

The Warriors have had iconic players (Chamberlain), iconic pairs (Mullin, Hardaway), and iconic teams (Run TMC, We Believe). Curry might become the second-best player in franchise history, the “Splash Brothers” are already becoming an iconic pair, could this become an iconic team?

Curry and Thompson have taken the first step by being named All-Stars together. For them, All-Star weekend is a milestone on a longer journey.

Next: Greatest Players in Every Active Franchise's History

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