The seemingly All-Star game that no one wants to play got its official lists on Tuesday night. The NBA has announced the seven reserves in each conference that will join the 10 beginners in Atlanta on March 7. In the West, Chris Paul, Paul George, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis have been named All-Stars. (Davis will likely be replaced due to injury.) James Harden, Julius Randle, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine, Ben Simmons and Nikola Vucevic will join them in the East. Here are some thoughts on the final selections …
Who got stuck?
The first thing people want to talk about when naming lists is who is left on the list. LeBron James released the first rescue, posting on Twitter his support for Devin Booker. I don’t know if there are any huge squeaks. Someone will always be left off the list. In the West, De’Aaron Fox and Mike Conley (besides Booker) have had good cases … but who would they replace? The conference remains busy despite the recent exodus of talent. Davis’ Achilles injury will create room for at least one more person. A choice by Conley would give Jazz three All-Stars, a nice reward for their surprising first-place growth in the first half of the season.
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In the East, people will most likely be in the arms of including Nikola Vucevic. It is important to note that coaches vote on reserves. Vooch may not be getting national attention, but he has been an incredibly productive player for several seasons now on a Magic team that is always a few degrees scarier than he was credited with. His teammate Aaron Gordon could have stolen several All-Star Weekend titles in his career, but Vucevic is the best player. Having said all that, it’s a little surprising to see Bam Adebayo not on the team. Adebayo may be paying the price for Heat’s up-and-coming-down season, but it would have been a worthy choice in this place. (His teammate Jimmy Butler missed too many games.) Another player with a strong argument to include is Bucks’ swinger Khris Middleton, who averages 6/20/6 per night and is just a few free throws for a 50/40/90 season. But, especially since the East is so tight this season, so by largely eliminating the “team success” rating, these choices have largely stood the test of time.
Julius Randle! And Zach LaVine!
Two players who have upset the apple cart this season are Randle and LaVine, who got a large number for two franchises (Knicks and Bulls) that have been without maximums in recent seasons. Both are more than deserved choices after entering this season without publicity. The Knicks and Bulls would both be in the playoffs if they started today, and Randle and LaVine are the biggest reasons why. If anything, it’s a problem that their first All-Star games will come in a compromised product. The two players have seasons that deserve all the normal bells and whistles that come with All-Star Weekend. We hope that they will have more selections in their future.
Jaylen Brown of the Celtics will also head to Atlanta for her first All-Star appearance. Although Boston is in the middle of a slide that, almost apparently, every time in the East will have this season, he also organizes a spectacular season. It looks like it should be the first time many times both Brown and Tatum will head to All-Star Weekend as a couple.
In addition to the three above, Williamson of the Pelicans will likely make the first of many appearances in this game. Only in his second season, Zion made an average knee kick with 25/7/3 at 61.6% of shooting. If there’s a basketball god, we’ll see LeBron and Zion throw themselves at Atlanta.
So do the rules need to change?
For people upset with the remaining players, there is a decent argument for expanding the number of selections. The NBA’s active scores are 14 players in itself (as opposed to just 12 for All-Star teams.) And with the two two-way contracts awarded to each club, there are more guys than ever who play in the evening, especially compared to the rules. They were established. Personally, I like limited lists! Usually they are also for the included players, after all, this game is largely meaningless. But the smaller number of selections makes the honor much higher. If I were to make changes, I would start with a) removing the conference distinctions, especially considering the team captain format, and b) maybe adding a specialist role for each team as a 13th player. I have no idea how this specialty would work in practice, as opposed to selecting the next best guy, but it would be funny if a shooter like Duncan Robinson or Joe Harris or a dunker like Gordon were thrown into the mix just for to introduce some chaos. No matter what the NBA decides, you’ll be much less concerned about it on March 8th.