Community NBA All-Star voting

We'll do the starters in both conferences this week and the reserves next Tuesday

The request came in via Substack Chat and I promised we would spend two Tuesdays in a row talking All-Star Game selections.

And I promised we would do it community-style.

What that means, on this Newsletter Tuesday, is that you are requested/invited/implored to name your five starters in the East and your five starters in the West in the comment section below. Please make three frontcourt choices and two backcourt choices in each conference just as the actual All-Star ballot requests.

Official fan balloting ended Monday night at 11:59 PM ET. Players and media members were also required to submit their votes by Monday so the NBA can announce its five East and West starters on TNT's Thursday night pregame show.

I will lock the comment section on this story Thursday at 6 PM ET. We will then tabulate the votes here to see how The Stein Line's starting fives compare to the fivesomes chosen in real life.

The NBA's formula for starters, remember, breaks down thusly: 50% fan vote and 25% each decided by the respective player and media votes.

We'll do the same thing next Tuesday with the seven reserves in each conference before they are formally named by East and West coaches.

Image from the Chase Center website.

My East starters:

FRONTCOURT
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee)
Jayson Tatum (Boston)
Evan Mobley (Cleveland)

BACKCOURT
Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland)
Jalen Brunson (New York)

My West starters:

FRONTCOURT
Nikola Jokić (Denver)
Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio)
Anthony Davis (Los Angeles Lakers)

BACKCOURT
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City)
Anthony Edwards (Minnesota)

Now we just need 99 more people to share their preferred starters.

Some of you will surely say that New York's Karl-Anthony Towns deserves the last starting spot in the East ahead of Cleveland's Mobley. I went with Mobley in a nod to the Cavaliers' ridiculous 36-6 start, but I can certainly understand the inevitable support that will be forthcoming for KAT. He's been tremendous as a Knick.

The West is even more likely to spark debate because there will surely be calls for Golden State's Stephen Curry, Phoenix's Kevin Durant and the Lakers' LeBron James to be starters ahead of my choices in those spots (Edwards, Wembanyama and Davis).

Have your say in the comments below. Hopefully we generate at least 100 responses — like we did in the offseason when we did community standings projections for East and West — to ensure we get a suitably wide array of views.

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As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.

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Chat Announcement

Another invitation: Please join Jake Fischer and me in my Substack Chat room Friday at 11:30 AM ET for an hour of NBA Trade Season discussion.

Jake and I will join forces to field your questions about the trade deadline.

We also have a $100 e-gift card from Wingstop to give away because, as we all know, Wingstop loves young Mr. Fischer. Anyone who participates in Friday's chat with a comment or question will be entered into a random drawing to win the gift card.

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Numbers Game

🏀 4

Of the nine games he's played in January, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has only played in four fourth quarters.

🏀 0-3

One curious flaw in the Thunder's 35-7 start: They're 0-3 in games decided by three points or fewer.

🏀 28

Twenty-eight of the other 29 teams have won at least two one-possession games this season. Indiana is the only other exception at 1-0.

🏀 49.0

During the Celtics' recent 9-8 funk, they have reduced their 3-point frequency slightly to fall below 50 3-point attempts per game. The Celtics were taking 49.0 3s per game entering Tuesday's play.

🏀 4

The Celtics were last season's only team to cross the 40-3s-per-game threshold at 42.5. There are four others this season: Chicago (42.9), Golden State (41.6), Cleveland (40.8) and San Antonio (40.0).

🏀 65

2025 is Year 65 for the legendary sports simulation Strat-O-Matic game. Enclosed is our annual season preview simulation that we ask our Strat-O friends to conduct for us every October:

🏀 50

We are up to nine NBA players this season who have scored 50 points in a game after Minnesota's Anthony Edwards (53) and New Orleans' CJ McCollum (50) joined the club this month.

🏀 4

Four of those players have reached the 50-point plateau against Washington: Denver's Nikola Jokić (56), New York's Jalen Brunson (55), San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama (50) and McCollum.

🏀 60

The others on the list: Sacramento's De'Aaron Fox (60 points), Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo (59), Charlotte's LaMelo Ball (50) and Orlando's Paolo Banchero (50).

🏀 21

Wembanyama turned 21 on Jan. 4.

🏀 19,328

Bronny James didn't play in the game, but the South Bay Lakers' recent visit helped the Mexico City Capitanes set a single-game NBA G League attendance record: 19,328. My good friend Alvaro Martin sums the occasion up well here.

🏀 5

The Bulls announced earlier this month that Derrick Rose's No. 1 will be retired next season, making it the fifth jersey number in franchise history to be taken out of circulation alongside Jerry Sloan's No. 4, Bob Love's No. 10, Michael Jordan's No. 23 and Scottie Pippen's No. 33. Bill Russell's famed No. 6, of course, has been retired leaguewide.

🏀 4

There were four coaching changes in the NHL this season (Boston, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis) before the NBA's first (Sacramento's dismissal of Mike Brown).