Krueger hit me up last week asking me who my NBA All stars were. Now that we’re at the halfway point of the NBA season and voting ending tonight, This seems like a good time to do a deep dive and see how the teams should play out.
Beginning with the East
Starters:
Kemba Walker
Ben Simmons
Jimmy Butler
Giannis
Pascal Siakam
Bench:
Kyle Lowry
Joel Embiid
Jason Tatum
Kris Middleton
Trae Young
Bam Abedayo
Damontis Sabonis
Last 5 off:
Devonte Graham
Tobias Harris
Eric Bledsoe
Jaylen Brown
Zach Lavine or Fred Van Vleet
Man the East guards are weak. All off candidates were either guys putting up all star scoring numbers, but with bad defense on unsuccessful teams, or secondary guys on good teams. Life would’ve been much easier if I could put Butler in as a guard and get Embiid starting. Alas, we’re left debating A bunch of low level alphas vs. above average betas. Kyle Lowry might be the only guy who has been doing more than that, and he missed a lot of time with injuries.
Ultimately I prefer to reward guys who are on more successful teams rather than points per game warriors. Kemba Walker is probably the best example of this. He’s the exact same player he’s always been, but his role in Boston is smaller and he’s seen his points per game drop by about 5 points this year. I think he should be commended for adapting his game to his situation rather than point out the lower productivity.
Ben Simmons is as polarizing as a player as you’ll find in the league, but sharing a team with Joel Embiid is always going to take away from him posting dominant box score totals. Even then he’s a potential triple double guy every night and a versatile, monster defensively.
The other starters were super easy choices. The first 4 spots on the bench were locks as well. The last 3 spots I changed my mind on which 3 to pick between Young, Graham, Adebayo and Sabonis. Ultimately the scoring and passing ability of Trae Young was too much to look over even though the Hawks are a dumpster fire and he’s a mess defensively. I don’t think he’s been one of the 30 best players in the league this year, but the East guards lack so much star talent that he gets the nod anyways.
Graham is my favorite to win most improved player in the league right now, but even then he’s not getting 20 a night on a bad team, and I don’t buy some of the advanced numbers claiming he’s an above average defender.
Ultimately I rewarded winning teams. Of top 6 teams that have taken a commanding lead in the conference, all got 2 players except Indiana (this is why ultimately went Sabonis with my final spot. They needed at least one). Enjoy the experience Trae Young
West Starters:
Luka Doncic
James Harden
Lebron James
Kawhi Leonard
Anthony Davis
Bench:
Damian Lillard
Donovan Mitchell
Rudy Gobert
Nikola Jokic
Montrezl Harrell
Chris Paul
Paul George
Last 5 out:
Karl Anthony Towns
Devin Booker
Brandon Ingram
Jamal Murray
Dennis Schroeder or C.J. McCollum
Unlike the East, the starters out west were pretty easy (although Gobert is closer to AD than most probably think). The other 4 guys are either guys who are top 4 in the current MVP race or was the best player in the playoffs last year who improved his playmaking skills over the offseason. I don’t think any of these are controversial and need to be explained.
The first four bench guys were no doubters, but things got tough towards the end. Harrell comes off the bench for the Clippers, but just dominates his minutes for an elite team. Likewise George hasn’t played a run of minutes, but the ones he has have been top 10 player in the league good. Chris Paul does a lot more deferring these days, but still is so smart and best player on a surprisingly good team that he needed a spot.
Towns would be on the team in the East, but the lack of defense in addition to the games missed ultimately put him behind a guy like George. Murray, Ingram and Booker are all still a year away, although I’d probably take them all over Young if they played back east. Booker and Ingram in particular fall into what I’m going to call the “Lavine class” as guys putting up huge numbers on teams that just aren’t quite good enough to overcome their lack of playmaking and defense.
In all this years All Stars feel a little weak compared to years past. Some of that’s due to injuries (Curry, Klay, Durant, Wall, Kyrie, Blake, Zion) that are making the “Lavine class” a little closer than they’d be most years.
Another hypothesis I’m thinking could be is that as teams do more of letting their best guy go to work James Harden style every time on offense, that maybe in turn that’s deflating the second tier guys a little bit.
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