The NBA All-Star reserves from each conference were announced on Thursday night, and before we get to the the names of who's in and who got left out, a little reminder on the process. First, the 10 starters were selected via a formula weighting 50-percent fan vote, 25 percent media vote and 25 percent player vote. Those names are below.
From there, 14 reserves, seven from each conference, were selected via voting by the league's 30 coaches: Two guards, three front-court players and two wild cards of any position. Here's who made the cut.
- East: James Harden, Darius Garland, Jimmy Butler, Zach LaVine, Fred VanVleet, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton
- West: Luka Doncic, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns
As the two leading fan-vote getters, LeBron James and Kevin Durant will pick their teams from this pool of seven reserves and the other eight starters. Conference affiliation doesn't matter. The teams will be mixed rosters.
Which brings us, finally, to the snubs. Here's the guys who missed the cut who had a legitimate All-Star case.
Eastern Conference Snubs
Ball had a strong case. He's one of just two players averaging 19 points, seven assists and seven rebounds on better than 35-percent 3-point shooting, with the other being Nikola Jokic. Ball has been roughly equal to Garland, but the team success of Cleveland likely settled a pretty close debate.
Garland got Cleveland's lone bid, and a real case can be made they deserved two spots for the season they've had to this point. The Cavs rank No. 3 in defensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass, and Allen -- on top of being an efficient offensive player -- is central to that success.
Being that Cleveland's success is more tied to its defense than offense, you could argue Allen, if only one Cavs representative was going to make it, should've gotten the nod over Garland. But taking Allen over Tatum, Middleton or Harden would've been relatively acceptable in my book.
The good news for Allen is Durant isn't going to play in the All-Star Game, and he would be my bet to take his front-court roster spot.
The Bucks got two in with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton and it's hard to justify a third for a team that has just one more win than the Cavs, who only got one All-Star. It doesn't diminish the season being put together by Holiday, who ranks higher than at least one All-Star in VORP, BPM, WS, Total RAPTOR and RAPTOR WAR.
I'm going to include Herro as a snub, though I cannot make a strong case for who he should've replaced. I'll just say this: If you're a 20-point scorer and 38-percent 3-point shooter and probably the best individual-offense creator on the team that owns the second best record in the Eastern Conference despite missing its two best players for extended time, you deserve real All-Star consideration.
The Pacers are a better team than their record indicates when everyone is healthy, and Sabonis is the only player in the league other than Nikola Jokic averaging at least 19 points and 12 rebounds. But who are you going to take off for Sabonis, whose Pacers, at the end of the day, are a miserable 19-34 entering play on Thursday?
Western Conference Snubs
You can make a case for Mikal Bridges because of Phoenix's success and Anthony Davis on sheer traditional numbers, but to me Murray is the Western Conference player with the most honest snub case, as this conference's roster was much more cut and dried. Murray is the only player in the league averaging at least 19 points, nine assists (fourth overall) and two steals per game. Draymond Green isn't going to play in the All-Star Game, so Murray should get in as a replacement.
Davis is averaging 23.4 points., 9.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game, all up from last season when he was an All-Star. This has not been a great season for Davis, however. He's missed 21 games and is shooting 18 percent from 3. That said, he's taking fewer 3s this season and his overall shooting percentage is the third-highest of his career. The Lakers have been relatively terrible and Davis, again, has been pretty meh for most of the season, but he's a name and plays for the Lakers and his traditional numbers look great. He could very well be the guy who ends up replacing Green, though to me, as stated above, Murray deserves that slot more.
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February 04, 2022 at 09:17AM
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NBA All-Star Snubs: LaMelo Ball, Jarrett Allen had strong cases; Anthony Davis could get in as replacement - CBS Sports
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