My official, unofficial NBA All-Star ballot
Good morning. Everyone good? Good. Let’s basketball.
I do not have one of the official media ballots for the NBA All-Star teams, and I don’t usually participate in fan voting for NBA All-Star teams outside of joke tweets containing the #NBAvote hashtag. So frankly, the NBA All-Star ballot I’m going to present here means absolutely nothing. It’s just one dude’s opinion. But hey, you signed up for this newsletter, so you must be interested in my opinion on some level, right?
Let’s go.
Western Conference
No-brainer starters: Luka Doncic (G), James Harden (G), LeBron James (FC), Anthony Davis (FC)
Third frontcourt starter after much internal debate: Kawhi Leonard
This comes down to Kawhi, Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert, all worthy All-Star starters. The knock on Leonard is that he has played fewer games than the other two (he’s missed 10 games). When all are available, there is no question that Kawhi is the best of the three. He’s played just about 75 percent of his games. I think that’s enough to get the nod. Tie goes to the reigning Finals MVP, I suppose.
Reserves: Nikola Jokic (FC), Rudy Gobert (FC), Paul George (FC), Damian Lillard (G), Devin Booker (G), Karl-Anthony Towns (WC), Donovan Mitchell (WC)
There are some tough decision points here. I don’t think Gobert will be a universal pick and he might not even get on there, though coaches vote for reserves and coaches love defense and winning teams.
The second reserve guard spot is, in my opinion, a battle between Booker and Mitchell, and it’s close. Here’s my rationale for taking Booker: both guys are scorers first and foremost, and Booker has been a better scorer by some margin (volume and efficiency) this season. Yes, Mitchell does that for a winning team. But the difference between the Jazz and Suns has less to do with the difference between Mitchell and Booker than the difference between everything else. I think Booker is the guy.
I don’t think we need to penalize Booker or Towns for being drafted by nightmare franchises. And yes, I realize that picking three centers as reserves creates some boring minutes in the All-Star Game. I’ll take it to reward the right guys.
That last wildcard spot came down to a few players: Mitchell, Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, Russell Westbrook, Lou Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. I eliminated Westbrook because there’s no way you’d take him over CP3 this season given how each has played (sorry, Houston). I eliminated CP3 and Shai because taking one seems like a minimization of the other, and both have been great. Lou is off because he is inseparable from Montrezl Harrell. Ingram came close, and would be a deserving All-Star if he made it. But Mitchell plays for a top-6 team in the conference. He gets the nod.
Eastern Conference
This conference is intractable!
No-brainer starters: Giannis Antetokounmpo (FC), Joel Embiid (FC), Kemba Walker (G)
Third frontcourt starter after much internal debate: Jimmy Butler
Second backcourt starter after much internal debate: Bradley Beal
Oof. Pascal Siakam should be the third frontcourt starter but he’s missed 11 straight games and by the teams are actually selected by coaches, that could be up toward 20. That’s enough to matter, for sure. So I’m projecting that he will have missed too much of the season to beat out the other contenders, including Jimmy, who I’m not sure should be in there over teammate Bam Adebayo, but is. I think both are huge positive impacts for Bam, and as the face and leader of the team, Butler gets a nudge.
Beal goes in over Kyle Lowry, Jaylen Brown, Trae Young, Spencer Dinwiddie, Zach LaVine, Ben Simmons, and Malcolm Brogdon. The Wizards are frisky, Beal has been spectacular in mostly losing efforts, and it’s clear he’s a would-be NBA superstar if he only had a competitive roster around him.
Reserves: Lowry (G), Brown (G), Siakam (FC), Adebayo (FC), Domantas Sabonis (FC), Young (WC), Simmons (WC).
Intractable! I’m comfortable with Lowry and Jaylen making this team, and have no qualms inking in Pascal and Bam. I feel good about taking Sabonis over Tobias Harris, Jayson Tatum, Andre Drummond and Khris Middleton: all of them have had really strong seasons, but Sabonis is the biggest reason the Pacers are competitive without Victor Oladipo.
Trae Young plays less defense than Steve Nash in traction, but Steve Nash won two MVPs playing no defense, I think we can let Trae get an All-Star nod even though his team stinks. But if we let Trae on, that last wildcard spot is going to break my heart by making me choose between Ben Simmons, Malcolm Brogdon and Spencer Dinwiddie. I landed on Simmons because I think he impacts the game more and while he’s the lowest scorer of the three, he’s the best playmaker and defender and is far more efficient as a scorer than they are.
Those are my All-Star ballots. Tell me how wrong I am in the comments.
Peak Jimmy
The big game between the Heat and Pacers on Wednesday night got extra spicy when Jimmy Butler and T.J. Warren got tangled up on a drive and “had to be separated” (in other words, trash-talked the ever-loving hell out of each other from a safe distance neither tried to close).
It remains one of the great features of the modern NBA that Jimmy Butler is so easy to lip-read.
It got better, though: Jimmy got called for an offensive foul on the next possession for putting his shoulder into Warren, and Warren clapped in the vicinity of Butler’s head, earning his second technical. Jimmy blew him kisses on the way out. Warren flipped Jimmy the bird.
Thaaaaat’s a fine.
After the game, Jimmy dropped some more bon mots.
Holy s—t, Jimmy. Tell us how you really feel.
Miami won in a blowout, by the way.
Scores
Spurs 129, Celtics 114 — Boston seems very upset Kemba Walker got ejected for arguing a moving screen by LaMarcus Aldridge during a huge Celtics comeback. The refs say Kemba let out a string of expletives directed at the officials. The second tech seems pretty soft and should probably be rescinded — Walker had stopped talking after the first tech. Kemba is not typically a problem for refs. That should count for something. After the ejection, a fan threw a beer that landed next to the Spurs bench. The fan was arrested and has been banned from Celtics games. Good.
Rockets 122, Hawks 115 — 40-point triple-doubles for two players in the same game for the first time ever. Congratulations to P.J. Tucker and Kevin Huerter! (Kidding, it was James Harden and Trae Young, of course.)
Nuggets 107, Mavericks 106 — Clutch win for Nikola Jokic and Denver, very sloppy finish by Dallas.
Schedule
This is a good Thursday schedule. [looks at first game on schedule] This is a mostly good Thursday schedule.
Cavaliers at Pistons, 7 ET
Celtics at Sixers, 7 ET, TNT
Blazers at Wolves, 8 ET
Rockets at Thunder, 9:30 ET, TNT — Russell Westbrook homecoming! This is going to be a great moment.
Links
Woj reports that Cavaliers coach John Beilein had to apologize individually to his players after saying in a video session that the team was no longer “playing like a bunch of thugs.” Beilein claims he meant to say “bunch of slugs.” It’s not clear whether players believe him, and frankly, that’s what matters most. Woj reports a hush fell over the room when Beilein said the t-word and GM Koby Altman began investigating before approaching the coach. The Beilein era has already been going poorly. This is, uh, not going to help.
Bojan Bogdanovic had a 35-point game earlier this week with zero rebounds, zero assists, zero blocks and zero steals. Legendary. Mike Schoppmann writes about ‘80s player Terry Eagle, who had multiple 20/0/0/0/0 games and seemed particularly allergic to assists.
Very good Dan Devine piece on the Thunder doing it well.
The best and worst fictional sports. I’m a Harry Potter mark but Quidditch is a competitive mess. May I recommend Dazzleball from Sofia the First?
Twitter is raising the difficulty level of getting ratio’d. I’m always up for a challenge.
The WNBA has just one former player as a head coach and no black women in those positions.
Word to my man Christian Rivas, who was hired by SB Nation to help run the California blogs. It’s bittersweet because the California blogs should not have been stripped of the people who built them. But Christian is an ace, and I’m happy for him.
Kirk Goldsberry on what makes the Bucks different.
Mike Prada on Brandon Ingram’s emergence.
The Wizards are accidentally a lot of fun.
And finally: Trae Young spent $10,000 to cancel $1 million of medical debt in the Atlanta area. First, what a hero. Kudos. Second, nice system we have here in the richest nation in the history of the world.
It’s almost Friday! Smile at the sky today. Thanks for the support. Be excellent to each other.
It'd be nice for Booker to have something good happen to him for once. I hope he gets in to the real thing.
I've wondered about the logistics of banning someone from an NBA arena. I haven't been to a game in a while but I assume they don't ID people to get in. If they're a season ticket holder I spar their tickets could be revoked but that wouldn't stop getting them elsewhere. Is banning actually just putting out a statement for positive PR while figuring no one will notice the same person back on Saturday?
Color me skeptical any NBA team would permanently turn away someone with enough money to sit close enough to affect the court, especially season ticket holders.