3 Bold predictions for the Warriors entering the 2024-25 NBA season

The time has finally arrived! The NBA season is back, albeit the Golden State Warriors will have to wait until Wednesday for their season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center.

Tuesday's opening night will tip off with the Boston Celtics celebrating their 2024 championship before hosting the New York Knicks, while the Minnesota Timberwolves will travel to Los Angeles to face the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

3 Bold predictions for the Warriors ahead of the 2024-25 season

The Warriors blazed through their preseason campaign in impressive fashion, finishing with a 6-0 unbeaten record despite little impact from superstar guard Stephen Curry. The team's form has certainly raised optimism on what they could achieve this season, having missed out on playoff action after finishing 10th in the Western Conference in 2023-24.

With just hours until the NBA season gets underway, and with just over 24 hours until the Warriors opener against the Trail Blazers, let's look at three bold predictions we could see over the coming months.

1. Warriors will have two players finish top five in Sixth Man of the Year voting

It's not overly easy to even identify who Golden State's sixth man actually is, with bench minutes likely to shift on a game-by-game basis. That could ultimately prevent any Warrior from winning the award, though it doesn't change the fact they could have multiple potential candidates.

Brandin Podziemski, De'Anthony Melton and Buddy Hield are all expected to hold significant roles, and could all be in line to fill in as starters when injuries hit or if the form of others goes awry. It's rare that two players from the same team could figure in the top five of Sixth Man of the Year voting (or any award for that matter), but the combinations of Lou Williams/Montrezl Harrell and Jordan Clarkson/Joe Ingles have already proved it possible in the last five years.

2. Warriors finish top four in both three-point attempts and three-point percentage

If there's one thing we learnt from preseason, it's that the Warriors will continue to rely on three-point shooting despite the departure of Klay Thompson. Golden State ranked first in three-point percentage and eighth in three-point attempts during the preseason, with Curry accounting for just 7.2% of the Warriors made threes, having shot just 28% from beyond the arc.

Kerr has spoken about the depth of shooting Golden State has and their emphasis on being better in transition. Combine that with a new offensive coordinator in Terry Stotts and this prediction could certainly come to fruition.

3. Stephen Curry averages less than 25 points per game for the first time in a decade

This prediction may sound pessimistic, and also a little contradictory to the above prediction -- surely the Warriors will need huge output out of Curry to finish top four in three-point attempts and percentage?

Maybe not necessarily. While they may not have the second legitimate offensive star just yet, the Warriors are hoping that their depth will help take the burden off Curry throughout the regular season.

Kerr has already outlined his plans for Curry to average around 32 minutes per game -- the last time he did that (not including the 2019-20 season where he played just five games) was in the 2017-18 season.

The 2x MVP hasn't averaged less than 25 points per game (again excluding 2019-20) since his first MVP year in 2014-15. It may actually be a good thing if he averages less than 25, suggesting that other players have stood up and that the Warriors have got roster-wide production as we saw in preseason. If other players can't stand up, there's a chance the Warriors go out and find another star to pair with Curry to lessen the burden anyway.

There's also a chance that Curry averages less than 25 points because of his own natural decline at age 36, but no one is hoping for that to be the case.