The picks for Eastern Conference All-Stars
The Starters:
Backcourt: Kyrie Irving
Backcourt: James Harden
Frontcourt: Kevin Durant
Frontcourt: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Frontcourt: Joel Embiid
Yes the entire Nets big 3 gets the start in this scenario despite all of them missing some ample amount of time and one not even being on the roster until over a week into January. Kyrie and Harden have been carrying a massive offensive load with KD and look elite in doing so:
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/kyrie-irving-stats-on-the-nets-this-season-without-kevin-durant
(sources if you need it)
Meanwhile Durant is looking just as good if not better than prevoius years fresh off the worst injury can have in basketball, quite impressive if you ask me.
Giannis yet again earns another start in the annual big game despite having radio silence in MVP discussions (curse you salty national media). Speaking of MVP conversations, Joel Embiid earns his second consecutive start in the ASG with by far his best regular season ever to this point.
The Bench:
The starters were pretty simple to me, but this is where the tough part began. So many individuals are well deserving of the merit of all star this year and only so few can get it. It sounds weird to say, but the pool in the East was genuinely harder to make cuts on than the pool in the West, despite having only 5 teams at over .500 at the moment. That being said, lets look at these picks and I’ll list my rational out after that some (most) of you will probably have SOME disagreements with
Backcourt:
Zach Lavine
Jaylen Brown
Frontcourt:
Khris Middleton
Julius Randle
Jayson Tatum
Ok, so you’re probably thinking
A. SO GLAD ZACH LAVINE AND JULIUS RANDLE GET THEIR DUES
and
B. WHERE IS BRADLEY BEAL? WHY IS KHRIS MIDDLE-
Let me stop you in the middle of B real quick and hop back to A. Lavine and Randle are 2 guys who have seriously improved and expanded on their skillsets this year, dragging their teams to wins that they really don’t have business having. I never thought I’d see it, but these 2s impacts are truly positive within their volume numbers, and are well deserving all stars. As for Boston's star young duo, they’re pretty simple slot ins here despite the team heavily underachieving. Brown has taken a giant leap forward with his on ball creation and Tatum with his lead playmaking ability. As for point B, picking Middleton isn’t picking him over Beal considering one is backcourt and one is frontcourt. Middleton is yet again deserving of the spot and is massively efficient in his high perimeter creation and high level playmaking role in the Bucks offense. When will they ever learn?
2 spots left and plenty well deserving candidates. Who gets the spots? Drum roll please…….
Wildcards: Bradley Beal and Bam Adebayo
Beal is an easier justification. He’s the top volume scorer in the league and shoulders a massive offensive load for a hot mess of a squad. Why wasn’t he picked over any of the other 4 backcourt players in this conference? Well, he certainly has a tendency to relentlessly chuck bad shots at times, it definitely would not be a bad thing if he can be a bit more picky with his shot selection, and well… his defense plain and simple sucks. Despite the flaws his creation value on ball has been too good to leave Beal off the roster
Bams case is a harder sell and I can’t disagree totally with anyone who goes with like any other one of the 6–7 others that truly deserve this spot as well. Miami is underachieving, we know that, but Bam is better than he was a season ago when he made his first all star appearance, and that’s not being talked about enough. Despite playing around what has seemed to be an ever-changing cast of characters each game up until about 2 weeks ago, Bam has been a much improved scorer adding a midrange game and more faceup ability to his offensive arsenal while maintaining that high level playmaking for a big. His efficiency has taken a jump from all areas in the half-court while his volume numbers are on the rise as well.
Notable Snubs:
Domantas Sabonis
Trae Young
Ben Simmons
Yeah I’m just gonna say it, I literally snubbed all 3 of these guys straight up. It’d be so cool if there were 15 spots per conference but even then there’s another 3–4 guys I’d feel like I snubbed as well. The East is so deep with all star talent this year despite being a much inferior conference in terms of competitive teams, but these 3 were the ones I feel like I really did one over on. The thing is, I just can’t seem to justify any of these 3 over any of the 12 listed, yet they’re all star caliber players and very deserving of the merit. Maybe 15 spots can be a future happening? That’d make these easier
