Casting My NBA All-Star Ballot

by Julian Spivey
The first results of NBA fan balloting for the NBA All-Star game, which will be held on February 20 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, were released on Thursday, Jan. 6 and they were somewhat of a mess, especially in the Western Conference.
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Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic would currently be one of the starting guards from the West despite missing quite a few games due to illness and injury during the first half of the season. But that’s not even the worst of it as fans have Klay Thompson, who will compete in his first game today (Jan. 9) for the Golden State Warriors in more than two seasons, in the fourth spot in voting. Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies is between Doncic and Thompson in voting despite missing a handful of games, as well.

While things aren’t as bad in the Eastern Conference voting there is one noticeable head-scratcher with Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving placing sixth in the guard voting despite playing only one game thus far this season due to being held out because he won’t receive a Covid vaccine and can’t play home games in Brooklyn due to local mandates.

Despite these curiosities I do believe fans have gotten four of the five starters in the East right this far into the season. I’ll get to that in a bit. Fans are three out of five when it comes to the West starting players.

I just voted for the first time for this year’s All-Star choices before sitting down to write this piece and wanted to cast my ballot using only the statistics given to me by the ballot itself on NBA.com. The only statistical categories offered on the ballot are points per game (PPG), rebounds per game (RPG), assists per game (APG) and fantasy points (which I don’t care about and didn’t really consider in my voting). I did do some research when it came to games played this season because I do think those players who competed in more games are more deserving of a spot.

Here’s my All-Star choices thus far:

Western Conference

The Los Angeles Lakers are toiling around in sixth place in the Western Conference standings. They’ve suffered through injuries and not gelling as a unit thus far, but I can’t blame LeBron James for any of that. His numbers are among the best in the league this year with 28.7 PPG, which is second in the league and he’s 37 (ancient in NBA years). He was my first of three frontcourt choices. James has received the most fan votes thus far of any West frontcourt player.

My second frontcourt choice for the West is the NBA’s reigning MVP, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. “The Joker” is ninth in scoring this season with 26 PPG and is second in rebounding with 14.1 RPG. Jokic’s Nuggets are scuffling thus far this season, like the Lakers, but he’s deserving of an All-Star slot. The fan vote also has him second in the Western Conference frontcourt.

The third spot on the West frontcourt is where I differ with the fan vote. The fans currently have Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George in the starting spot. George is a good choice. With 24.7 PPG he is third on the frontcourt ballot in scoring. George is currently injured though and has played six fewer games so far than my third choice Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Towns is just behind George in PPG at 24.1 and, honestly, KAT just needs something good right now after all the hell he’s been through over the last couple of years.

Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry leads all NBA players in the fan vote with over 2.5 million votes. Curry is an easy decision for the West’s first guard spot as he’s likely the league’s front-runner for Most Valuable Player right now with the Warriors as a somewhat surprising, best team in the league thus far. Curry has averaged 26.8 PPG this season and recently broke Ray Allen’s record for most career 3-pointers made. Doncic has been very good when he’s been on the court for Dallas, but I feel he’s missed too many games so far to deserve the second guard spot. I’m not sure why Devin Booker is only fifth in the fan voting for West guards thus far, but he’s got my second spot. Booker is the star of the reigning Western Conference champion Suns and has averaged 23.5 PPG this season for a team that’s been going back-and-forth seemingly daily with the Warriors for best in the league. Give Booker some love fans!

Eastern Conference

As I said earlier in this piece the fans are doing a rather good job when it comes to selecting the East starters for the All-Star game. The leading vote getter in the East is Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant, who is leading the league in scoring with 29.9 PPG and has the Kyrie Irving-less Nets (well, mostly) second in the East. He’s my first choice, as well. Second for the fans is two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led the Milwaukee Bucks to their first championship in half a century last season. Antetokounmpo is averaging 28 PPG and is an easy decision. He’s my second choice too. The fans went with Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid as their third frontcourt option and that’s a no-brainer for me, as well. Embiid has kept the 76ers afloat in the East this season with the team currently fifth in the standings and has scored 26.8 PPG, fifth in the league, while bringing down 10.7 RPG.

DeMar DeRozan has been making sure folks don’t forget about him this season in his first year with the Chicago Bulls. The veteran is a big reason why the Bulls are currently atop the Eastern Conference standings averaging 26.5 PPG. DeRozan has a pretty big lead for guards in the fan voting and is the only one to top 1 million votes thus far.

Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden has a slight lead ahead of Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young right now in the fan vote and maybe it’s a bit bias on my part, as I don’t care all that much for Harden and think his game is a bit boring, but I think Young, who is third in the league (second in the East) in scoring at 28.3 PPG should have the other East guard spot. That being said Harden’s Nets are 7.5 games better in the standings than Young’s Hawks.