2020 NBA All-Star Starters Revealed

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Welcome to the NBA Hangover. We jot down NBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.

LeBron James is an all-star for the 16th straight season.

(PHOTO CREDIT: USA Today.)

So NBA All-Star Weekend is in three weeks. On Thursday night we learned who was voted in for the all-star game.

Remember that fan vote counts for 50 percent, players count for 25 percent, and the media panel counts for 25 percent.

Also, starting in 2018, the teams were no longer divided by conferences. The leading vote-getters from each conference get to be captains and they select from a pool of all-stars. First, each captain gets to pick from the pool of the starters voted in and then they get to pick from the reserves that were picked by the coaches. The reserves will be revealed next week.

First off, let’s check out the starters from the Eastern Conference pool.

Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL, PF): He will be captain again this year. Averages of 30.0 points, 12.9 boards, and 5.6 assists. He has even better numbers than last year’s MVP season. He’s on pace to win his second straight MVP award. Heck, you could even say he’s a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. He does it all for the #1 seed in the East.

Joel Embiid (PHI, C): Sure, it’s a down season by Embiid but he’s still having a ridiculous year (23.4 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game). He’s still one of the better defenders in the game. The Sixers are currently 6th in the East but it’s really a dogfight between teams from #2 to #6 (only separated by 3 games). Embiid is currently hurt with a messed up finger but hopefully, he can play even if it’s for limited minutes.

Pascal Siakam (TOR, PF): Honestly, this was surprising to me but it’s not like he didn’t deserve it. He was in the discussion for MVP earlier in the year and he may still be in the discussion for actually winning a second straight Most Improved Player award. You can still see his game still isn’t the most polished but if 23.5 points and 7.7 boards ain’t polished, the finished product is going to be terrifying. He’s also led Toronto a surprising third place in the East.

Kemba Walker (BOS, PG): Another surprise but also deserving. This Celtics team has better chemistry with the addition of the calm and collective Kemba, who is averaging a cool 21.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. Boston is 4th in the East but, again, #2 through #6 is very close in the standings. And Kemba deserves credit for keeping Boston in the mix.

Trae Young (ATL, PG): It’s easy to dismiss Trae because his team is currently last in the East (11-34). But then you realize Trae is the reason the Hawks are even resembling an NBA team. It’s hard to ignore 29.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 8.6 assists. Sure, you can call them “empty stats” but watch Hawks games and you would learn that it’s quite the opposite. Trae Young makes the Hawks go and he’s pretty much mostly the only reason that team competes most of the time. He should be an all-star.

Now let’s check out the West:

Anthony Davis (LAL, PF/C): Like Giannis, Davis is in the running for both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. The man with the unibrow actually made it clear that he wanted to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. You can make a case for both; 26.3 points, 9.2 boards, and 2.5 blocks speak pretty loudly. AND the Lakers are #1 in the West. Easy pick for the midseason exhibition.

Luka Doncic (DAL, PG): I DON’T think most people predicted the leap to happen in his sophomore year. Suddenly, Dallas is in the playoff mix and it’s because of Luka. 29.1 points, 9.6 boards, and 9.0 assists per contest for the Slovenian sensation. Plus he leads the league with 12 triple-doubles this season. He was a shoo-in for this game.

James Harden (HOU, SG): He’s slowed down a bit in terms of his scoring. Harden is only down to a lowly 36.6 points per game. How dare he! To add to that incredible scoring, he’s also averaging 6.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 1.6 steals. His play isn’t the most aesthetically-pleasing but he easily should get a spot on the team.

LeBron James (LAL, SF/PF): 16 times on the All-Star team. Also the captain of the West. Age 35 yet here he is with averages of 25.2 points, 7.7 rebounds, and a league-leading 10.8 assists. I don’t know how he does it, man.

Kawhi Leonard (LAC, SF): People get frustrated by his “load management” but when he plays, he’s incredible. 27.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. It’s crazy how this mid-first-rounder went from being predicted that he might be Luc Mbah a Moute at his peak to arguably the best player in the NBA. He rounds out the L.A. all-star frontcourt.

You wanna see a breakdown of the vote? Well, here it is.

East:

West:

If we went by the old rules of just fan voting, the West would stay the same while the East would have Kyrie Irving replacing Kemba Walker. For all the complaints about the fan voting, they mostly got it right. Kyrie getting in may be egregious to some people but there’s no doubt that Kyrie is a bigger name than Kemba.

If it was the players voting, the West would also stay the same and the East would have Bradley Beal taking Trae Young’s place. If it was the media, the West again would stay the same and the East would have Jimmy Butler taking Pascal Siakam’s spot.

But as you can see, Tacko Fall is STILL in the Top 10 for voting in the East frontcourt. How?

So to those that argue that the PLAYERS should be the one voting, let me show you this thread from Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports. I’ll put in a couple of images here but if you want the whole meat, click on that thread.

The players aren’t honestly that much different from us. Tacko Fall got 7 player votes. Thanasis Antetokounmpo got 6 player votes. Doug McDermott got 2 player votes. Players CAN vote for themselves, apparently, but if people think the players take this seriously then they’re in for a rude awakening.

Like Udonis Haslem. He has a single player vote. But if he voted for himself, who am I to tell him to vote for someone else?

So if you’re looking for that all-star “voting fix”, having the players alone isn’t probably the best way to do it. And the fans got it right for the most part, anyway, so why are YOU complaining?

Anyway, all 10 deserved their spots on the team. Good for them, especially the first-timers.

Bullet Passes

Every time I see the Barclays Center court, it feels like watching an alternate reality and high stakes are on the game. Like the winning team gets to go home and the losing team is off to the guillotine.

LeBron, a man of routine, is fed up that he couldn’t find his powder that he usually throws before a game.

I would be frustrated, too!

Kevin Love resuscitates Bradley Beal after he didn’t make the all-star team (I’M KIDDING).

Damian Lillard will likely make the all-star team but every time he gets snubbed, he usually puts on a revenge tour of some sort. Anyway, he scored 47 points in a loss. That followed his 61-point performance from Martin Luther King Day. So he’s averaging 54 points in his last two games. Dame Time may never stop.

The Scoreboard

WAS 124 (15-29) @ CLE 112 (12-33)
LAL 128 (36-9) @ BRK 113 (18-25)
DAL 133 (28-16) @ POR 125 (19-27)

Watch This Play

Things aren’t all rosy in Cleveland but COLLIN SEXTON BRINGS THE SEX.

That description too much for you? No apologies; this is an R-Rated site. R as in Rey-Rey. Thanks for the facial, Collin.

Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.

TNLP on FaceBook.

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