(Unofficial) NBA All-Star Reserve Selections
Want to know how Eastern and Western Conference coaches should have voted when filling out their seven-player ballots? Read on
NBA coaches turned in their All-Star reserve selections to the league office on Monday.
Those choices will be officially revealed Thursday night on TNT.
Who most deserves those seven spots in each conference?
Let's break it down in this Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza after a quick recap of your All-Star starters …
Eastern Conference: Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard in the backcourt; Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, Boston's Jayson Tatum and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid in the frontcourt.
Western Conference: Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas' Luka Dončić in the backcourt; the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, Phoenix's Kevin Durant and Denver’s Nikola Jokić in the frontcourt.
Here's how I would vote for reserves in each conference following the guidelines that the coaches must adhere to …
Eastern Conference backcourt reserves: New York's Jalen Brunson and Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell.
Eastern Conference frontcourt reserves: Miami's Bam Adebayo, Boston's Jaylen Brown and New York's Julius Randle.
Eastern Conference wild cards: Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey and Orlando's Paolo Banchero.
Randle's shoulder injury will almost surely prevent him from participating and thus necessitate a replacement selection from NBA commissioner Adam Silver should East coaches vote him in. Perhaps Banchero would get that call as Randle's replacement if East coaches don't agree with me and decline to select him outright … but remember that the league typically chooses its injury replacements based on who came closest to making it via coach vote rather than focusing on position. Trae Young's play in Atlanta is certainly All-Star worthy, so he might snag a wild-card slot, but I was moved to reward the Magic for their superior record (24-23 to the Hawks' 19-27 entering Tuesday’s play) by choosing either Banchero or Franz Wagner. Instinct tells me Young will be in Indianapolis one way or another; Boston's Kristaps Porziņģis, Toronto's Scottie Barnes and Cleveland's Jarrett Allen are also sure to get consideration from the coaches.
Western Conference backcourt reserves: Golden State's Stephen Curry and Minnesota's Anthony Edwards.
Western Conference frontcourt reserves: The LA Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, Minnesota's Rudy Gobert and the Lakers' Anthony Davis.
Western Conference wild cards: Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis and Phoenix's Devin Booker.
The West, as usual, has about 15 worthy candidates for seven reserve slots. The most painful exclusions for me: Sacramento's De'Aaron Fox and the Clippers' Paul George. I only managed to make room for one King (Sabonis) and one Clipper (Leonard) and openly concede that you might disagree. I wouldn’t be shocked if Fox and/or George bumped someone out of my top seven, while Denver's Jamal Murray is another worthy nominee who I strained (and failed) to make room for. The competition is so fierce that Houston's Alperen Şengün, Utah's Lauri Markkanen, New Orleans' Zion Williamson, Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns and the Clippers' James Harden are likely to be snubbed. San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama has also certainly delivered All-Star production as a soloist, but rookies rarely break through … especially from a 10-37 team.
Please weigh in below in the comments section with your own selections.
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Numbers Game
🏀 10
The league's club of 70-point scorers has expanded to 10 thanks to the scoring outbursts last week by Philadelphia's Joel Embiid and Dallas' Luka Dončić.
🏀 6
Wilt Chamberlain scored 70+ six times (highlighted by his famed 100-point game in March 1962) and nine other players have crossed the 70-point threshold once: Kobe Bryant (81), David Thompson (73), Dončić (73), Elgin Baylor (71), David Robinson (71), Donovan Mitchell (71), Devin Booker (70), Damian Lillard (70) and Embiid (70).
🏀 10
Thursday will mark 10 years as NBA commissioner for Adam Silver, who succeeded David Stern as commissioner on Feb. 1, 2014. Trivia question: How many commissioners has the NBA had?
🏀 10:33
The Bucks formally announced the hiring of Doc Rivers as their new coach at 10:33 PM ET on Friday night.
🏀 14
Adrian Griffin, fired by the Bucks after just 43 games as their coach, told my podcast partner Chris Haynes of Turner Sports last week that he interviewed for 14 head coaching vacancies in a span of 13 years before Milwaukee hired him.
🏀 75
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich celebrated his 75th birthday Saturday, padding his lead as the oldest coach in NBA history.
🏀 2019
Embiid last played in Denver early in the 2019-20 season on Nov. 8, 2019. Saturday's road game against the Nuggets was the fourth in a row he has missed.
🏀 1,463
On Saturday night in San Francisco, in his 1,463rd career regular-season game, LeBron James hauled in 20 rebounds for the first time.
🏀 6
My fellow Substacker
informed us that the Lakers’ James, at 39, thus became the oldest player to record a 30-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist game by nearly six years. The previous oldest player to amass a triple-double like that, per Kubatko, was Elgin Baylor at 33 years and 185 days old.🏀 22
More from Kubatko: 22 of LeBron's 110 career triple-doubles have been registered since he turned 35. Next in line: Current Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd with eight after his 35th birthday.
🏀 5
Trivia answer: Silver is only the fifth commissioner to hold the role across the NBA's 78 seasons. He was preceded by Stern, Larry O'Brien, J. Walter Kennedy and Maurice Podoloff.
🏀 1
Our #thisleague UNCUT podcast that I so proudly co-host alongside the aforementioned Mr. Haynes turned 1 years old today. Our debut episode ran on Jan. 30, 2023.
🏀 97.1
I’m on the radio Saturdays from noon to 1 PM CT on 97.1 (FM) The Freak in Dallas with an hour of live NBA talk presented by Panini Trading Cards and Collectibles. Join us online by clicking the link embedded in this sentence or via the iHeart radio app to listen to The Saturday Stein Line on this or any Saturday ... or catch the podcasted version of the show once it drops via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or #whereveryougetyourpodcasts. And we repeat: Click the microphone icon on the 97.1 (FM) The Freak feed on the iHeart Radio app to leave a 30-second message or a question for me to answer on an upcoming show.
It’s appalling that the 9 seed Lakers are going to get two All stars and the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 seed teams get one and the 8 seed gets zero.
I was expecting more of the Yao Ming effect on Wenby (international vote help making him an all-star) but then again, china population is way bigger.