Curry, Durant, Pachulia lead six Warriors on early All-Star results

The Golden State Warriors have six players appear on the early All-Star results as Steph Curry and Kevin Durant lead Western players.

The Golden State Warriors are the most hated team in basketball. It turns out, people also love them an awful lot. Six Warriors appear on the first returns of the All-Star voting.

The usual suspects are on top. Kevin Durant leads all Western Conference players as he sits comfortably on top of the forwards. Stephen Curry, despite all of the criticism and talk of his drop off, leads all guards in the West as well.

If you look at the list and just go down one name from Durant’s you’ll see a very interesting inclusion. Warriors’ center Zaza Pachulia is second in the Conference in frontcourt votes with a little less than 100 thousand votes more than Kawhi Leonard.

Pachulia is getting a huge push from his fans overseas. A native of Georgia, all of his votes are very organic. The Warriors’ are only promoting the Core Four of Curry, Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson and Pachulia still has managed to get over 439 thousand votes.

The NBA has changed the voting system this year, partly due to the fact that Pachulia almost made the team last year. A last minute push by Spurs’ fans gave Leonard just 14 thousand more votes than the big man. Now, the fan vote only counts for 50 percent of the total vote with players and media making up the other half.

Green is fifth in front court voting, 110 thousand votes behind the third spot. Klay Thompson is fourth in the backcourt, ahead of Chris Paul and Damian Lillard. Andre Iguodala’s 64 thousand votes earned him the ninth spot on the list.

The Warriors will have at least two All-Stars. Durant seems to be a lock as a starter and Curry will definitely be in the game. If Russell Westbrook makes a late push and knocks him off, then Curry will just come off the bench. Green, a DPOY frontrunner, is worthy and Thompson’s scoring could get him in despite a competitive backcourt in the West.

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LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are first and second in total votes respectively. Kevin Love is also in line to start the All-Star Game. If Pachulia is somehow allowed to stay in, then 60 percent of the starters would come from two teams.

You can vote on social media using the player’s full name (Stephen, not Steph) and the hashtag #NBAVote. You can vote on Google if you type in the team’s name and “NBA Vote.” Voting ends on January 16 and the All-Star Game is February 19.