All Star Starters (Popularity contest)

[[Q]]

First returns are in and barring any crazy twists, it's obvious how thing will shake out. Will Kobe give up his spot like Jordan did? Is Jimmy Butler, John Wall, Kemba Walker, and Kyle Lowry getting screwed because of Wade & Irving's popularity? Will Carmelo's begging push him past Drummond for the last spot? The West again is really deep and someone deserving is gonna get left off

[Andrew]

Jordan didn't give up his spot, Carter gave up his spot for Jordan.

Current numbers: http://www.nba.com/2015/news/12/25/kobe ... ting-2016/

At least with Kobe classified as a frontcourt player this season, he won't be taking a spot from Stephen Curry or Russell Westbrook. Of the current leaders, I'd say only Kobe and Wade don't have stronger cases to be there than a couple of the players immediately behind them, but it's Kobe's farewell tour and Wade's having a pretty decent year. If those are the starting fives we end up seeing, I think that's pretty OK for the most part.

[I Hate Mondays]

Everybody probably knows what Wall had to say about being behind Kyrie Irving. Does anyone know what are Irving's comments on the situation ?

[[Q]]

Jordan didn't give up his spot, Carter gave up his spot for Jordan.

It's been a long time, I knew it involved the two, forgot which way it went

[Axel]

All-star weekend sucks. Personally I don't watch it anymore. I would rather just have a normal NBA week.

[Andrew]

I still enjoy it, though I didn't care for last year's All-Star game. It was basically an impromptu three-point shootout, which got a bit dull after a while.

[Sauru]

i have always said i wish the game was more about recognition than popularity but that will never happen. so with that sad i dont think anyone is getting screwed

[Andrew]

The thing is though, the best players in the league also tend to be the most popular. I think most fans also acknowledge who the best players in the league are, even if they're not among their favourite players or they don't personally like them all that much. As such, aside from a few "legacy" or once-off selections, I think fan voting does get it right most of the time.

Funnily enough, the coaches probably make worse selections when it comes to the reserves, but even so, it's not a complete disaster. The players who deserve to be there every year tend to be there every year. Even in a game where you couldn't fault a single selection - by the fans or the coaches - there'd still be snubs.

[Stress Fracture]

Why can't they just set the rosters to 15? Is it hard to do?

[I Hate Mondays]

Why can't they just set the rosters to 15? Is it hard to do?

How much playing time would everybody get ?

[Andrew]

As long as you didn't have too many players playing 30+ minutes, it's doable. Expanding the roster to 13 to match the current active roster limit in regular games would be a start.

[Lamrock]

They should do 13 per team. They could expand it to 15 but do it like the NFL's Pro Bowl by having designated alternates.

[[Q]]

Results are in. Carmelo made it and he had to beg fans to vote him in and beat Pau by 300 votes (I demand a recount lol)
Drummond got overtaken, will Whiteside be picked as a reserve?

Man, I am disappointed... Zaza Pachulia was THIS close to being an all-star starter. League must have fudged with the votes like they did to prevent Jeremy Lin & Yi Jianlian from being all star starters.

[Andrew]

So we've got:

EAST

Kyle Lowry
Dwyane Wade
LeBron James
Carmelo Anthony
Paul George

West

Stephen Curry
Russell Westbrook
Kobe Bryant
Kawhi Leonard
Kevin Durant

Considering there are a few bigs who have good cases to be picked, the downside of the backcourt/frontcourt voting method is starting to come into play. That doesn't make the selections all terrible, though.

I'm glad to see Lowry make it over Irving, though it's a shame that Jimmy Butler couldn't leapfrog Dwyane Wade for the starting spot. As discussed before, I feel there's room for sentiment and whatnot in the All-Star game, so even though his performance doesn't really justify it, Kobe's inclusion - a foregone conclusion, anyway - is justified. Melo is also a sketchy inclusion ahead of Drummond.

Still, that's seven of the ten that I would say definitely deserve to be there, a couple of multi-time All-Stars who are reasonably popular and still playing fairly well, and a future Hall of Famer in his final appearance. With results like that, I don't think fan voting is doing too bad a job at all.

All those votes for Pachulia, though? Alright, you've got a point, there.

[NovU]

Wade didn't really deserve a spot here. If anyone I'd go ahead and vote in Whiteside and Butler over Melo.

In West, I'd replace Kobe with CP3 or better yet Dirk Nowitzki.

But overall not bad. I can enjoy this match up. Perhaps Melo and Durant at 5? That's interesting.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see who the men in the middle are from the opening tip.

[NovU]

BTW which team do you think have an edge here?

Normally I'd say West hands down but Kobe inclusion ruins the math. I will still go ahead and say West though because East's best player whom you could say is LBJ and he'd be like 4th(or even 5th or 6th) best player in West roster for the season. lol, time's changed rather quickly over last couple years. Who'd have thought we'd be calling Curry, Leo better players.

[Andrew]

I'd give the edge to the West, too. It remains to be seen whether the coach's selections even things out a bit.

[[Q]]

Curry could win for the West 1 on 5. It's just not fair. I hope he starts burying 3s from the center logo like he's been doing in games lately.

[mp3]

All-star weekend sucks. Personally I don't watch it anymore. I would rather just have a normal NBA week.

Yeah this is pretty much how I feel, iam ok with watching the highlights of this later on.

Maybe it's because iam a fan of defence and Defence imo gets snubbed every year!

[Andrew]

I still enjoy the All-Star Weekend, but it's not quite what it used to be, particularly the game itself. It used to be a bit more competitive, though the showboating was there. Last year's impromptu three-point shootout is probably still the worst All-Star game I've watched.

[mp3]

The last one I enjoyed was Marbury/AI team up epic victory

[I Hate Mondays]

After the last Warriors @ Cavs matchup, do you guys really think LeBron won't get competitive on Curry ? It is going to be like his personal job to smash that little guy on the floor a couple of times.

[Andrew]

The last one I enjoyed was Marbury/AI team up epic victory

Really, 2001? There's been some good ones since in my opinion, though most of my favourites are admittedly from the 80s and 90s.

[mp3]

Think he had that chance in the 4th quarter once his entire team had given up.