Thought I’d give this discussion its own thread. This will be the most competitive All Star race of my lifetime, I think. A very high percentage of the top talent in the NBA play out West. Until they change the rules, only 12 get in. Right now the super duper locks are Klay, Curry, Dray, Durant, AD, and LeBron. It’s also fairly safe to lock in Dame, Harden and Jokic. That leaves only THREE spots open from this pool of elite talent: DeRozen Westbrook Mitchell Gobert CP3 Towns Butler Fox Murray Aldridge Doncic T Harris G Harris PG13 M Gasol Not to mention our guys Nurkic and McCollum. What do you all think? There are going to be a lot of very disappointed “superstars” come February.
The west is very full. I still believe just on past performance Westbrook gets the nod as well as Chris Paul.
I wouldn't even necessarily list Klay as a lock. Curry, Durant, Lebron, AD are the only guarantees, IMO. Harden and Westbrook, health dependent. If WB misses much time, PG13 will probably put up sufficient numbers to get a spot. Dame and Derozan, if current performance continues. Jokic too. Mitchell will get one if he plays 40+ games.
I wouldnt be surprised if Dame doesnt get in. I know we dont want to hear that, but Im already prepared for it.
Locks: Curry, Durant, Lebron, AD Highly Probable: Harden, Jokic, Dame Probable: Klay, Draymond, Westbrook Really, only 2 open spots.
Dame will NEVER get the fan vote. Just won't happen. All-Star game isn't about who "deserves" it. Never has been unfortunately .
Lillard only gets in on coaches or replacement situations. When Portland wins a few games in the playoffs that might change but not until. I'm good with that.
At the end of the day, winning matters. If Denver somehow keeps up this crazy winning, will they only get one star? Right now the top 8 out west are the following: 1. Golden State (Curry/Durant/Klay or Draymond? 2. Denver (Jokic and.... who?) 3. Portland (Dame) 4. San Antonio (LMA and DeRozan) 5. Clippers (who would get it?) 6. Sac (Hield?) 7. OKC (Westbrook? PG13?) 8. Grizz (Gasol?) I think the West will stabilize. I don't see Houston and Utah and New Orleans remaining out of the top 8. Starters will most likely be Curry/Harden/Durant/LeBron/Davis The West will be an All-Star bloodbath. Based just on scoring here are the top 20 scorers in the West 1. Curry 2. Dame 3. Harden 4. Durant 5. DeRozan 6. LeBron 7. Booker 8. Westbrook 9. AD 10. PG13 11. Donovan Mitchell 12. Butler 13. Mirotic 14. Tobias Harris 15. Klay 16. Gallinari 17. LMA 18. Hield 19. Doncic 20. Lou Williams If you were to go off PER 1. Curry 2. Dame 3. Boban (LOL) 4. Durant 5. Jokic 6. Noel 7. LeBron 8. Dwight Powell 9. Harden 10. DeRozan 11. Russ 12. Butler 13. McGee 14. Nurk 15. AD 16. Gobert 17. Randle 18. Mirotic 19. Harrell 20. Diallo If you break it down just by positions, the top 5 in scoring at each position is PG 1. Steph 2. Dame 3. Harden 4. Russ 5. Holiday SG 1. DeRozan 2. Booker 3. Mitchell 4. Butler 5. Klay SF 1. Durant 2. LeBron 3. George 4. Harris 5. Gallinari PF 1. AD 2. Mirotic 3. LMA 4. Kuzma 5. Randle C 1. KAT 2. Jokic 3. Gobert 4. Ayton 5. Cauley-Stein Based on the early results I could see Starters Steph Harden Durant LeBron AD Reserves DeRozan Dame George LMA Jokic Mitchell or Booker? Russ Edit - apparently ESPN has a "qualified" option (god only knows what that means) which removed Harden and Booker from their leaders because of injuries.
@KingSpeed you should consider asking the mods to allow you to add "East" also to this discussion. I mean why not? Eventually it all comes into the conversation and this thread could just be the NBA All-Star watch thread? Just a thought.
Eff that. I am getting in on the action: http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/2019-north-all-stars.337492/
