South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
All-Star voting process does not make very much sense
MIAMI — You start here: Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are going to the All-Star Game, so there is no need, or perhaps even reason, for Miami Heat outrage.
What wasn’t accomplished through the combined voting of fans, players and media for starters will be rectified when coaches submit their ballots for the seven reserves in each conference.
So exhale because you can’t make any logical argument that there are seven remaining Eastern Conference players, beyond the five named starters, who are more deserving.
But that doesn’t mean there has been much in the way of logic to this point.
Foremost, why delineate players between backcourt and frontcourt when the NBA has become so position-less.
If the opposition’s best wing is a shooting guard, for example, then Butler defends the opposition’s guard. If the opposition’s best wing is a small forward, then Butler defends the opposition’s forward.
But there he was, limited to frontcourt votes by the NBA during the balloting for starters, when a far clearer path to a starting role would have been at guard, with all due respect to Kemba Walker and Trae Young — an easier combination to crack than East frontcourt selections Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel
Embiid and Pascal Siakam.
And even then, keep in mind that the first 10 players to be drafted for the All-Star teams by Antetokounmpo and LeBron James will be the starters — without positional delineation.
In other words, as starters themselves, it is possible for Antetokounmpo or James to field a first five of nothing but frontcourt players.
“I just think it’s ridiculous that we’re still in these antiquated positions,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So who’s to say what position Jimmy is? Does it matter if I put him [at] No. 2 on my card?
“In many ways, he’s our point guard. So should he be in the All-Star Game as a point guard? These are such antiquated labels. I feel like we’ve moved on from that years ago, when we started talking about [being] position-less.
“But either way, regardless of how you want to label it or discuss it, Jimmy Butler should be a starter at this All-Star Game. It’s a joke that he’s not. Hopefully this will change things in the future.”
Beyond that, because the draft of all 24 selections — including the 14 reserves selected by coaches — will be made without conference delineation, why vote for All-Stars by conference in the first place? If this is about honoring the best of the best, why not the 10
best, regardless of conference, voted in as starters, with the 24 best, overall, chosen as All-Stars?
As far as what’s next, coaches in each conference must submit ballots for seven reserves in their conference, with at least two additional backcourt players, three additional frontcourt players (again, as defined by the NBA) and two additional wild cards at any position. They’re not allowed to select players from their own teams.
Those results will be revealed Thursday.
Going with that framework, the view from here of what should follow:
Eastern Conference starters: Antetokounmpo, Embiid, Siakam, Walker, Young.
Eastern Conference
reserves: Butler and Adebayo should have little to sweat here. Each is the type of two-way player that coaches insist they covet.
Of Adebayo, Spoelstra said, “He better be in by the coaches’ vote with the year that he’s having. That’s an All-Star year, by any measure.”
So that’s two of the seven remaining spots filled with frontcourt players.
The next three seemingly stand as similar locks, Ben Simmons as the constant with the 76ers, Domantas Sabonis as the fulcrum to the Pacers’ unexpected success and Khris Middleton as the next-best player on a dominant Bucks team that merits at least two All-Stars.
So that’s one backcourt
(Simmons) and two frontcourt (Sabonis, Middleton), meaning the frontcourt requirement is fulfilled and at least one more guard must be added.
So fill out the roster with the Raptors’ Kyle Lowry in the backcourt and the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown as a wild card, given the slightest of edges over teammate Jayson Tatum.
That leaves apologies to Tatum, Bradley Beal, Malcolm Brogdon, Derrick Rose, Eric Bledsoe, Andre Drummond and Zach LaVine.
Western Conference starters: James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Luka Doncic, James Harden.
Western Conference
reserves: A far more difficult deliberation than the East, with choices arguably missing out in the West who could make it in the East. (Again, why conference delineations?)
So for the three required frontcourt spots: the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, the Jazz’s Rudy Gobert and the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram.
For the two required addition backcourt spots: the Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard and Suns’ Devin Booker.
As for the two wild cards, based on their teams’ place in the playoff race, Thunder guard Chris Paul and Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell.
That leaves as outsiders Karl-Anthony Towns, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, DeMar DeRozan and Ja Morant.