In a season where the All-Star Game will be played right here in San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors’ hopes to be contenders again probably depend on whether they actually have more than one all-star on this team.

Your Golden State Warriors open the 2024-25 NBA season Wednesday night, in what is essentially their first game of the post-Splash Brothers era. Klay Thompson of course left for the Dallas Mavericks in free agency over the summer, ending his prolific 13-year Warriors career as a charming fan favorite.

And with the Warriors hosting this year’s All-Star Game at the Chase Center (Sunday, February 16, 2025), this leaves us with the possibility that the only Warriors’ all-star player will be Wardell Stephen Curry.

Yet the 36-year-old Curry has found himself increasingly injured in recent years, and that tends to not reverse itself the older a player gets. Curry could theoretically find himself sidelined for the All-Star Game, as Scott Ostler points out in the Chronicle, which would leave the Warriors with no all-stars when they host the All-Star Game.

Unless one of the younger players can step up, or if there’s some sort of mega-deal right before the February 8 trade deadline?

We will begin to get those answers tonight, when the Warriors open their season against the Portland Trailblazers Wednesday night at 7 pm. In a sign that they are generally no longer considered title contenders, the game is only being carried on NBC Sports Bay Area. Same goes for their home opener Sunday night against the LA Clippers.

The Warriors will not have a nationally televised game until this coming Tuesday night, a 7:30 pm home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Simply put, they are no longer the belles of the NBA ball.

But you cannot count out a team with Steph Curry, as he showed with his dazzling performances at the Olympics this summer. Nor can you count out a team coached by Steve Kerr, who has nine championships over his playing and coaching career. Things are a little less consistently solid with the other remaining dynasty pillar Draymond Green, whose antics last season made him the butt of jokes on Saturday Night Live.  

So if the Warriors can exceed last season’s early play-in game exit, they will need contributions from “The Others.” That may be a lot to expect from Andrew Wiggins, who needs to stop missing stretches of games without explanation. But emerging star Moses Moody was just awarded a $39 million contract extension, while also-emerging Jonathan Kuminga did not get the big-bucks deal he wanted. I’m just saying, that means Kuminga is likely a free agent at season’s end, which might make him trade bait at the deadline.    

Still, there are very high hopes for the sophomore seasons of center Trayce Jackson-Davis, and “the pride of Santa Clara University” Brandin Podziemski (pronounced "puh-JEM-ski", naturally).

But big-picture here, the juiciest plotline of the NBA this season is what is going to happen to TV personality and famed Warriors antagonist Charles Barkley. Barkley is known for his wit and insults on the TNT pre-game and post-game show Inside the NBA, though TNT lost out on the rights to NBA games next year to NBC, Amazon, and current rights holder ABC/ESPN.

TNT (owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) has since sued over losing that bidding war. It’s pretty unprecedented that a network sues over a sports bidding war, so I won’t even try to speculate on how this all ends.

The TNT crew, which also includes Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith, has brought up the possibility that they might still keep the band together and just do scores and highlights shows, without games, and probably Law & Order re-runs between the pre-game and post-game.  

But you can expect that Barkley, the only truly irreplaceable member of this panel, will get the Brink's trucks rolled up to him by NBC, ESPN, or Jeff Bezos’s Amazon. Or rather, an even larger Brink’s truck than Barkley is used to. So Charles Barkley drama is a likely a constant undercurrent to the coming NBA season.

And it would be a real shame to see Barkley go to NBC. After all, that network probably won't let him shout “I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!” on live television.

Related: Steph Curry Posts Emotional Instagram Story After Klay Thompson Departure Announcement [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 11: Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, from left, Stephen Curry #30 and Draymond Green #23 pose for photos during an Olympic Gold Medal recognition ceremony before their preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center on October 11, 2024 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)