Warriors First-Quarter Report Card: Grading Curry, Wiggins, and every rotation player

In the early weeks of this 2024-25 NBA season, the Golden State Warriors were one of the biggest surprises in the league.

Despite losing Klay Thompson and Chris Paul during the offseason and dealing with several injuries to key contributors on his new-look roster, Steve Kerr got the Dubs off to a sizzling start.

With Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins leading the starting five and Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga anchoring a reserve unit that was scoring a historic number of points at one time, the Warriors won 12 of their first 15 games and were battling with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot in the Western Conference.

Since then, however, Golden State has lost eight of its last 10 to drop to 14-11, putting them in eighth place in the conference, and blew double-digit or late leads in several of those losses.

While some have maintained the play that helped the Warriors win all those games to start the campaign, others have fallen off a bit as of late, which naturally helps explain the recent woes.

Let's have a look at each player in the Warriors' rotation and see how they've fared thus far this season.

Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like The Whiteboard, share it with an enemy.

Grading every Warriors player getting meaningful minutes in Steve Kerr's rotation

When we did this just over a month ago, we broke things up into the starting five and the reserve unit. But since Kerr is constantly changing the lineup, that seems like a pointless exercise this time around, so we'll just lump everyone in together.

Stephen Curry: A

Despite a couple of rough outings here and there, Steph Curry continues to be one of the top players in this league.

Some might point out that the 10-time All-Star is averaging just 23.0 points per game, his lowest total since 2012-13, but it's important to note that he's also averaging a career-low 31.0 minutes. With some of his teammates taking a step back, don't be surprised if his time on the floor increases a touch over the next few months.

Curry is shooting the ball better than he did a season ago, both from the floor as a whole (.452 to .450) and the three-point line (.421 to .408), and is also connecting on 92.3% of his free-throw attempts.

Andrew Wiggins: A

After a couple of disappointing seasons, Andrew Wiggins is having a strong bounce-back campaign, averaging 17.7 points while shooting 46.7 percent from the floor and a career-best 43.8 percent from beyond the arc, adding 4.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and one steal per game.

These numbers are nearly identical to what they were when he earned his lone trip to the NBA All-Star Game three years ago. As such, the Warriors will have to think long and hard before including him in any of the high-profile trades they're linked to at this point.

Draymond Green: B+

Draymond Green continues to be a force on the defensive end of the floor and has also had some solid offensive outings this year.

Averaging 9.3 points, his highest total since 2017-18, and adding 6.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, one steal, and one block per game, the four-time All-Star still provides an all-around effort night in and night out.

Jonathan Kuminga: B

Just as the Warriors have to think long and hard about including Wiggins in any trade, the same has to be said for Jonathan Kuminga at this point.

After a rough stretch to start the season, which got him taken out of the starting lineup, the fourth-year forward thrived as a reserve and has continued to play solid basketball now that he's back in the starting five.

Kuminga isn't hitting the numbers he did a season ago, but he's awfully close, averaging 15.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and one steal per game. While his shooting percentage is way down from last year, dropping from 52.9 to 45.2 percent, he's connected on 49.1 percent of his attempts over the last six games. So, he's trending in the right direction.

Buddy Hield: B-

Over his first 15 games in a Warriors uniform, Buddy Hield looked like a legit NBA Sixth Man of the Year candidate, and one could argue that he looked like an All-Star at times, as he hit the 20-point mark six times and was one of the league leaders in three-pointers made.

In the last 10 games, however, Hield has cooled considerably. Outside of his 27-point effort against the Wolves roughly a week and a half ago, the veteran has struggled even to reach double-digits, averaging just 9.7 points in the nine other contests.

Hield has long been a streaky guy, though, so Kerr has to hope he heats up again soon.

Trayce Jackson-Davis, Kevon Looney, Kyle Anderson, Moses Moody, Lindy Waters III, Kyle Anderson, Gary Payton II: C

Call us a little lazy here, but we're betting that you're not overly keen on too much in-depth analysis of the guys listed above.

Besides, the truth here is that everyone here has been average for the most part, which is why they're all getting a grade of C.

Looney stands out a touch as he leads the team in rebounding at 7.7 per game, which is impressive as he only plays 16.6 minutes per game.

Moody has had a few strong outings, as has Waters, who was moved into the starting lineup when De'Anthony Melton went down with a season-ending ACL injury. But again, from an overall standpoint, they're playing decent enough ball but nothing to write home about. Or write too much here about, as the case may be.

Brandin Podziemski: F

This might seem a little harsh, but given all the hype surrounding Brandin Podziemski this season after all the reports that the Warriors refused to include him in any trades over the summer, we think it's justified.

A fifth-place finisher in the Rookie of the Year voting a season ago, Podziemski just hasn't blossomed into the player Golden State thought he would be. That said, he's still just 21 years old, so it's not as if he's a complete bust by any stretch, as he's got plenty of time to improve.

But right now, he's earned himself a failing grade, as he's connecting on just 37.6 percent of his field-goal attempts and a dismal 25.0 percent of his attempts from distance. You just can't have that from a guard in today's NBA, and his minutes are likely to go down once Dennis Schroder gets inserted into the mix.