This year the NBA is going back to the traditional East VS West format for the all star team which is interesting because the all star draft was very popular and the way that the NBA was evolving the draft (originally doing it in secret then televising it then doing it live at the game) I thought that it was something that they were really liking and a part of me suspected that maybe they were going to do away with having to have an even amount of All Stars from the East and the West and just have it be the best 24 players in the NBA or maybe even the best 30 players in the NBA because NBA teams have 15 roster spots and for some reason the All Star teams only have 12. But there must have been some pushback from either the players or some marketing people must have gotten in Adam Silver’s ear because we are going back to the old format.
East Starters
In the East I think there are 4 absolute locks to be starters
Joel Embiid – 35 – 11.4 – 5.9
With a 35 – 11.4 – 5.9 statline right now Embiid is having the best regular season out of anyone in the league and even though the MVP voters were scorned by his performance in the playoffs last year the way he is playing so far this year is going to give them no choice but to award him another MVP. Right now the only thing that stands between Embiid and the MVP is if he can meet that 65 game threshold but that threshold won’t stop him from starting in the All Star game.
Giannis Antetekounmpo – 31.2 – 11.4 – 6
In a year where the Bucks have struggled to integrate Damian Lillard into their longtime core Giannis has put the team on his back and is having another great season highlighted by his highest points per game of his career on the best efficiency of his career. Despite some alarming underlying numbers for the Bucks they are 2nd in the East mostly thanks to Giannis’s star power.
Jayson Tatum – 26.9 – 8.4 – 4.4
Tatum is in such an interesting spot in the league where he is the best player on the best team and every year he’s a lock for starting the All Star game and 1st team All NBA honors and yet he can’t ever seem to get his name into serious MVP discussions. It is possible that he suffers from having teammates that are too good for him to get the amount of credit that Jokic, Embiid and Giannis get but whatever it is he’s still a lock to start this game.
Tyrese Haliburton – 23.6 – 4.1 – 12.6
Tyrese Haliburton’s 12.6 assists per game would be the highest assists per game number since John Stockton in 1991. Unlike the other 3 locks Haliburton’s Pacers are not a top seed in the East but they are much improved as they play a high pace all offense style thanks to Haliburton’s elite ability to set up his teammates without turning the ball over. Also the Pacer’s run through the In Season Tournament is one of the more memorable parts of the first half of the season and Haliburton was incredible in those games.
With 4 starting spots already locked down there is only 1 starting guard spot up for debate. For this last spot there are many contenders.
Tyrese Maxey got off to a hot start this season and is having an incredible breakout year, Damian Lillard has been incredibly clutch and is responsible for many of the Bucks wins in close games and Jalen Brunson has a lot of momentum after leading the Knicks to their first playoff series victory since 2013 but in the end I decided that Donovan Mitchell was the most deserving of the final starting spot.
Donovan Mitchell 27.9 – 5.5 – 5.9
When the voting opened up a few weeks ago Mitchell was probably behind all of those guys that I mentioned but since the Garland and Mobley injuries Mitchell has put on his cape and turned the Cavs season around. Compared to the other contenders to start Mitchell averages more points (a bit simplistic but still matter I think) and he is the clear cut number 1 option which Dame and Maxey are not and as it sits right now the Cavs have won 7 in a row and have clawed themselves up to 4th in the East and for that I’d give him the nod.
2 back Court Reserves
This was an easy choice for me because there were exactly three guys who I considered for the last starting guard spot and they will slot in to the 3 guard reserve spots
Tyrese Maxey 26 – 3.7 – 6.7
Maxey’s leap from a good player who was a fan favorite in Philadelphia to one of the best number 2 options in the league. After it looked like a James Harden trade request was going to detonate the Sixers title hopes before the season even started Maxey stepped up and now this Sixers team looks like the best one since the Process began.
Jalen Brunson – 26.5 – 3.9 – 6.5
Jalen Brunson should have been an All Star last year but the voting didn’t go his way. When you are a second round pick it can be difficult to get people to see you as a star but after his performance in the playoffs last year and now that he has gotten even better this year he should be a lock for the All Star team.
3 Front Court Reserves
While the backcourt reserves were pretty easy with more candidates than can be accommodated by the available roster spots, the east front court reserves are much weaker group. The numbers for a lot of these guys don’t pop off the screen so picking frontcourt reserves comes down to making sure that all the good teams have someone representing them.
Bam Adebayo – 21.5 – 10.5 – 4.3
Bam has been a model of consistency for the past 4 years and averaging around 20 and 10 while providing elite defense. This year his efficiency is down a little but he’s been what has held this Heat team together while the lineup has been changing on a weekly basis. Bam is an interesting player to discuss because he’s kind of an every other year all star/ fringe All NBA guy but he has a playoff resume that a lot of the perceived best players in the league would be jealous of.
Paolo Banchero – 22.5 – 7 – 4.8
I always like when a team takes someone with the number 1 pick and just starts getting better every year as they grow around that guy. There are certain numbers that don’t love Paolo so much but regardless of what some on off defensive numbers or his effective field goal percentage says he is the best play on an ascending team that feels like they are just a point guard away from jumping up a tier in the East.
Scottie Barnes – 20.2 – 8.4 – 5.7
I considered a few different guys for this last spot but I felt that Scottie Barnes is more of a star than other candidates. Even though the now rebuilding Raptors are not very good Barnes has been excellent this season and bounced back from his somewhat disappointing sophomore season. His numbers are up across the board and he looks like the kind of player that will be a problem in the East once the Raptors have built a real team around him.
2 Wild Card Spots
Damian Lillard – 25.5 – 4.3 – 6.3
Dame has had a down offensive season for his standard but still a great offensive season by almost anyone else’s standard. Right now he is the leading candidate for clutch player of the year. The fit with the Bucks has been a little clunky as they adjust from defensive stud Jrue Holiday to not defensive stud Dame but they made that deal because they wanted an offensive killer for when the games get tight in the playoffs and by the time the playoffs come around I think the Bucks will feel good about that trade.
Jaylen Brown – 23.1 – 5.2 – 3.6
The Celtics have a stacked roster and it would feel wrong for them not to have multiple All Stars. The decision of who to include was difficult between Brown, Porzingis and even Derrick White but in the end I went with Brown because his skill set is a star skill set and what makes the Celtics the Celtics is the Jayson and Jaylen 1-2 punch. As far as the year Brown is having it’s a good year by most players standard but a step down for him as he has sacrificed to allow Porzingis and White to have bigger roles in the offense and made the team better. If Tatum has an off night Brown fills in and makes it so the Celtics don’t miss a beat.
West Starters
In the West there is just 1 lock for the starting spot. Not because there is a lack of possible starters but because there is 1 guard and 1 frontcourt player that could start but just won’t fit in the 5 man lineup.
The Lock
Nikola Jokic – 26.1 – 11.9 – 9.1
Nikola Jokic the 2 time MVP and the reigning finals MVP is having yet another great season and the Nuggets are cruising to a top seed in the west. He had a very strange inefficient stretch for about a week that was very out of character but besides that he’s been locked in. If Embiid doesn’t make it to 65 game threshold it feels like Jokic will get the MVP by default because a normal season for Jokic is an MVP caliber season.
The Other 4 Starters
Like I mentioned earlier this was a difficult choice. For the remaining 2 front court spots it was a tough choice between KD, Lebron and Kawhi and for the guard spots it is also a tough choice between Shai, Luka and Steph.
Lebron James – 24.8 – 7.2 – 7.4
The Lakers may be totally underwhelming but what Lebron James is doing in his age 39 season is incredible. He is coming off yet another deep playoff run and if the Lakers manage to get the right pieces around him again it feels inevitable that they will go on a run that gets them into the playoffs where they will be a first round matchup that nobody wants.
Kevin Durant – 29.6 – 6.3 – 5.6
After the playoff series against the Nuggets I thought that going into this season Devin Booker would be the one to carry this team and that KD, now 35 years old, would take it easy and save himself for the playoffs but that has not been the case. KD is going as hard as ever and is the main reason that the Suns are within striking distance of home court advantage in the playoffs despite the fact that their big 3 has not been abel to play together consistently.
Luka Doncic – 33.6 – 8.5 – 9.3
Luka is having an incredible season from an individual numbers perspective averaging almost a 30 point triple double which is the kind of thing that most years would get you an MVP trophy and he might very well win if the Mavericks can get further up in the standings. Either way MVP or not he is a no brainer to start in the All Star game.
Shai Gilgeous Alexander – 31.1 – 5.6 – 6.4
Shai is another MVP candidate who is leading the young up and coming Thunder to a top seed in the west. I think that the 3 year arc of bad team to just miss the playoffs to top seed who gets to face a softball opponent in the first round is a good formula for eventually breaking through (hello 2017-2019 Nuggets) Anyway Shai has been awesome this year and I felt like both his individual numbers and the fact that he’s leading one of the top teams in the West was enough to edge out Steph Curry for the last starting spot.
2 Guard Reserves
Steph was under heavy consideration for one of the starting spots so he was obviously going to get the first reserve spot. For the remaining reserve guard spot there were a lot very good candidates, I considered Devin Booker, James Harden (crazy turn around), Paul George who I guess is a guard, De’ Aaron Fox, Desmond Bane but I finally landed on Anthony Edwards.
Steph Curry – 26.7 – 4.2 – 4.9
Steph is so good and I respect him so much that I considered giving him a starting point even though both Luka and Shai have been objectively better. (I think that to unseat a long time starter you have to really earn it over them) The Warriors have been a mess this year and Steph’s clutch play has been all that stands between them being totally out of playoff contention. Not that his play in the last few minutes has been flawless but he’s overcoming a lot.
Anthony Edwards – 25.5 – 5.5 – 5.2
Similar to with Paolo I love to watch a down in the dumps franchise make a draft pick and immediately start to rise and the Timberwolves have been steadily rising ever since they drafted Anthony Edwards. There are a lot of good players who deserve credit for the Timberwolves being the 1 seed for the last 2 and half months of the season but Edwards is the star and he’s the reason that anyone gives them a shot at making a deep playoff run.
3 Front Court Reserves
Kawhi was almost in the starting lineup so he was a lock for a reserve spot but the other 2 spots were a tough decision. I considered KAT, Gobert, Chet, Brandon Ingram, Zion, and Lauri Markkanen but I eventually landed on Sabonis and AD to fill out the front court reserves.
Kawhi Leonard – 23.7 – 6.2 – 3.8
Kawhi is having his most durable season in years and whether that is because of the new rules or because he is a contract year he has been very good and very consistent. Similar to with Timberwolves there are a lot of very good players on the Clippers who deserve credit but Kawhi is the star and whether or not he is healthy will be the determining factor on if the Clippers are a serious threat in the West.
Domantas Sabonis – 20.2 – 12.8 – 7.9
I remember when Drew Hanlen posted Sabonis’s stats and made a comment about how similar they were to Jokic’s as a way to dig at Jokic but I think that being diet Nikola Jokic is a pretty high bar for Sabonis to be clearing. He is a super productive offensive hub who shows up every night for the Kings. I also think that his struggles in the playoffs are overblown because last year they caught a bad matchup against the warriors.
Anthony Davis – 25 – 12.1 – 3.7
It feels weird to have 2 players from a sub .500 team on the all star team but AD and Lebron are an elite duo surrounded by a bunch of meh. Disappointing team or not there just aren’t many 2 way players on AD’s level and he’s been focused and available for this Lakers team that won the In Season Tournament.
2 Wild Card Reserves
De’Aaron Fox – 27.4 – 4.1 – 5.6
I couldn’t have Sabonis on and not also have the best player on the Kings make the All Star team. The Kings might be having a slightly disappointing year but Fox is better than ever. The biggest thing for Fox is that he has been lights out from 3 this year. The kind of improvement that Fox has had as a shooter over the past few years is incredible, it’s the kind of thing that will get fast guard who can’t shoot drafted for years because teams will say that Fox managed to figure it out.
Rudy Gobert – 13.2 – 12.5 – 1.2
There were a lot of really good players up for this last spot but I ultimately decided to go with Gobert because so much of the Timberwolves success is based on the their defense and Gobert is the straw that stirs the drink when it comes to the defense. After a weird year last year where he looked like he might have fallen off he has bounced back and helped propel this Timberwolves team to the top of the standings.
The Dishwasher 
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