The 10* All-Star starters will be ...

The verdict on whether we're giving LaMelo Ball the honor or not.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Self-Portrait With Horn; Max Beckmann; 1938

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NBA All-Star voting closed on Monday. The league will announce the 10 players chosen as All-Star starters on Thursday before TNT’s doubleheader. There will actually be 15 NBA All-Star starters eventually given the change in format for the All-Star Games but let’s not get into that right now.

Last week, the NBA released the latest ballot totals from fans before the final four days of voting. Fan voting makes up half of the overall ballot for selecting the starters, with 25% of the vote coming from player ballots and 25% coming from the media.

Here’s who the fans had in each category before the final few days:

• WEST FRONTCOURT: Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Kevin Durant with Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Davis in range and everyone else far behind

• WEST BACKCOURT: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander way out front, followed by Steph Curry and Luka Doncic close together, followed by Kyrie Irving and Anthony Edwards a good distance back

• EAST FRONTCOURT: Giannis Antetokounmpo (who will be the overall leading vote getter), Jayson Tatum and Karl-Anthony Towns substantially out front with Paolo Banchero and Jaylen Brown trailing

• EAST BACKCOURT: LaMelo Ball in front followed by Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard and Jalen Brunson before a big drop-off to Trae Young

I suspect the fan voting results will hold unless there is some international movement for a particular player. Curry is likely to hold off Doncic, who hasn’t played in almost a month. Brunson was really close to Lillard for No. 3 in the East backcourt and has a significant market advantage. Wembanyama could catch Durant for No. 3 in the West frontcourt.

Now that we are reasonably sure about how fan voting will end up, we need to predict how players and the media will vote.