Who deserves All-Star spots?
We make our picks for the NBA All-Star roster
Eastern Conference ZILLGITT
Backcourt: Kyle Lowry, John Wall. Frontcourt: Kevin Love, Paul George, Paul Millsap. Wild cards: Isaiah Thomas, Kemba Walker.
In selecting All-Star reserves, NBA coaches have a difficult decision. An All- Star-caliber player will be left off the team, and it’s not so much a snub as it is an imperfect process. The league is filled with great players, and there are only 12 spots per conference.
This is my plea to the league moving forward: There are 13 active players on an NBA roster each game. Adding another AllStar to each conference won’t resolve every issue, especially in this year’s Western Conference where multiple deserving players will be omitted, but it will ease the difficulty.
In the East, the toughest decision was whether to put rookie Joel Embiid on the team. The top guards in the East have been great, and leaving Wall, Lowry, Thomas or Walker off the team would be more egregious than leaving off Embiid. It came down to minutes played and my appreciation for what those guards have done for their teams.
AMICK
Backcourt: Lowry, Thomas. Frontcourt: George, Millsap, Love. Wild cards: Wall, Walker.
Embiid nearly earned himself a spot, but it’s just too tough to justify giving an All- Star spot to someone who has spent half as much time working as his contemporaries. No matter how dominant Embiid has been, and even with the clear correlation between his play and the Philadelphia 76ers morphing into a decent team, we’re still projecting his potential impact at this point.
Walker, whom I saw as the final selection among the wild cards, has led the Charlotte Hornets for 1,485 minutes and is averaging 23 points, 5.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Millsap, whom I came close to excluding in exchange for Embiid, leads the Atlanta Hawks, who are fourth in the East, in minutes (1,427) and has a tremendous two-way impact when he plays, with a swing of 12.8 in net rating when he’s on the floor compared to when he’s off (+4.6 compared to -8.2).
Western Conference AMICK
Backcourt: Russell Westbrook, Klay Thompson (injury replacement for Chris Paul). Frontcourt: DeMarcus Cousins, Marc Gasol, Draymond Green. Wild cards: Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert.
There is no foolproof formula for making these selections, no rule that doesn’t have an exception. Emphasize team success in a player’s candidacy (i.e., the Gold- en State Warriors getting four players; the Utah Jazz getting two and Gasol being selected while the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, whose team is 19-27, gets left out), and I’ll show you a case where that simply didn’t matter (Cousins, whose Kings are 17-27). But in terms of growing trends in the NBA, there’s no mistaking the fact that defense is being valued more than ever.
That was a tipping point when it came to the Warriors, who are not only full of explosive offensive talent but boast the league’s No. 1ranked defense. The same goes for Gobert and Gasol, who anchor their respective defenses in different ways stylistically (one above the rim, the other below) but deserve immense credit for the results (the Jazz and Memphis Grizzlies are Nos. 2 and 4, respectively, in defensive rating). The fact that both big men are vital to their team’s offense was a must as well.
Gasol is having a career year offensively, in part because firstyear Grizzlies coach David Fizdale inspired him to add the three-point shot to his game (Gasol has hit 59 of 152 threes, a 38.8% clip, after taking three all last season). Gobert is on pace to become the second player in league history to average at least 12 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks while shooting at least 63% (the Los Angeles Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan did it in the 2015-16 season).
ZILLGITT
Backcourt: Westbrook, Thompson. Frontcourt: Cousins, Gasol, Hayward. Wild cards: Green, Gobert.
Do the Warriors get four play- ers? Yes, they do. Thompson’s scoring average and three-point shooting, and Green’s all-around game, including his facilitating and defensive responsibilities, earned them spots on my list. I can’t wait to see Warriors coach Steve Kerr put Green, Thompson, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Westbrook on the court together. All in jest. All in good fun.
Can I justify two players from Utah? I can. Hayward (career highs in points and rebounds and 39.5% on threes) and Gobert (career highs in points, rebounds and shooting percentage and a major reason why the Jazz are No. 2 in defensive efficiency) get in. Does Memphis deserve a player because of its record? Yes. Mike Conley or Gasol? I lean toward Gasol because of his steady hand, especially offensively, while teammates were sidelined.