The starting line-ups for this year's NBA All-Star game were announced this week, and for once they actually came close to getting it right. The starters are voted on by the fans, with the reserves being picked by head coaches next week.
It's hard to argue with any of the choices in the Eastern Conference. Miami Heat teammates Dwyane Wade and LeBron James will join Bulls point guard Derek Rose, Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire and Magic center Dwight Howard. The group includes 3 of the top 5 scorers in the league, the league's best defensive beast and perhaps the most improved player in the league. The 5 starters also rank within the top 15 players in the league in PER. Each of them is not only deserving of their All-Star selection, but they also will all deserve mention in the MVP race.
There aren't many legitimate gripes with these selections, as LeBron, Wade and Howard were all obvious choices. Stoudemire and Rose come from behind early voting polls to narrowly surpass Celtics stars Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo. While their superior defense and team record puts them in the conversation, each of the Celtics players missed several games with injuries, making the decision for fans a bit easier to justify leaving them out of the starting line-up. They will both likely make the team as reserves, but even with my Boston bias, I can't complain about these selections.
Out West they came so close to avoiding controversy by making worthy selections for 4 out of the 5 starters. Chris Paul is deserving of his spot, as he widely considered to be at the top of the list of elite point guards in the league and is 2nd in the NBA in PER. Despite playing reduced minutes (33 MPG), Kobe Bryant hasn't suffered much of a drop in production and he's 5th in the league in PER, so you can't claim that reputation carried him here. Kevin Durant leads the league in scoring while Carmelo Anthony remains in the top 10 in scoring while also improving his rebounding to a career high 8 per game.
The one fly in the ointment for this unit is the starting center, Yao Ming. Every year that he's on the ballot, Yao gets voted in as a starter thanks to the billions of people from his native China that vote for him, despite that most of them don't actually watch the games or even realize that he's out for the season due to an injury that has limited him to only 5 uneventful games this season. His inclusion in this line-up is a mockery of the system, but one that over the years we've come to grudgingly deal with - at least until they finally agree to make changes to the voting system to prevent this from happening. I like that fans get to vote, since the All-Star game is after all a game for the fans. However, maybe the impact of their vote needs to be minimized, with the other players, coaches or media getting a say in the selections as well. It's not fair that a player's legacy or potential Hall of Fame chances may be impacted by some misguided and uninformed voters.
The silver lining of the votes for Yao is that NBA commissioner David Stern now gets to choose a replacement for the injured center, which hopefully will make up for the voters mistake. Had the votes from China not factored in then we likely would have been stuck with another undeserving starter due to the leagues outdated balloting procedure that requires voters to select a true "center." The lack of candidates that actually fit this description out West would likely have meant we'd be stuck with a selection of Andrew Bynum, as his popularity as a Laker would likely carry him to the top of a list of underwhelming options. With Stern able to make the selection instead, we can at least hope he'll have the sense to make a more deserving selection, such as Pau Gasol, who has often played the center position, but is listed on the ballot as a forward.
This is just another example that supports the theory that the current process of being forced to select 2 guards, 2 forwards and a center is outdated and unreasonable. Instead, they should change it to a vote that selects 1 point guard, 2 wings (SG or SF) and 2 bigs (PF or C). This eliminates a situation where we could conceivably have a line-up that lacks a point guard, the primary ball handler. It also means that we'd be allowed to pick from a much deeper pool of forwards, many of whom are capable of filling in at center. Taking Yao out of the equation, we'd be better off selecting someone like Gasol or Tim Duncan as a starter over struggling to justify a pick for Bynum or Tyson Chandler.
An interesting note about the starters is that none of the star players from either of the top seeds in each conference (Spurs, Celtics) are represented in the starting line-up. That will most likely be rectified with the coaches votes for the reserves, with Rondo, Garnett, Pierce, and Ginobili looking like solid bets to make the team. Tim Duncan is having a down year due to limited minutes and a change in offensive philosophy that takes him away from being the main option, but he's still the most important player on the league's best team, so if he makes it on reputation then we can't really complain. Tony Parker and Ray Allen each have an outside shot of sneaking in as well, especially if injury replacements are needed.
The reserves won't be announced for about another week, but just for fun, I've listed below my choices for who should be selected to join the starters for the game in Los Angeles. When the coaches vote they have a little more flexibility in terms of the positions they select, so I'll list my choices under the categories of the previously mentioned system of point guards, wings and bigs.
East:
Point Guards: Rajon Rondo, Raymond Felton
Wings: Paul Pierce, Josh Smith
Bigs: Al Horford, Kevin Garnett, Chris Bosh
Apologies to: Carlos Boozer, Ray Allen, Danny Granger
West
Point Guards: Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Russell Westbrook
Wings: Manu Ginobili, Rudy Gay
Bigs: Kevin Love, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol* (should replace Yao as a starter)
Apologies to: Tim Duncan, Monta Ellis, Kevin Martin, Blake Griffin
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