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The NBA released the first batch of votes for the upcoming 2020 All-Star Game, with the usual suspects involved along with newbies like Luka Doncic and Pascal Siakam and the fan favorites like Tacko Fall.
While this is a fan vote, the totals only count for half of the calculations that go into selecting the All-Star team members. There's still a quarter reserved for players and another quarter for media voting.
That said, let's pick the All-Star rosters, East and West, which will later be shuffled when the top vote-getters have an opportunity to “draft” their side.
NBA Eastern Conference
Starters: F Giannis Antetokounmpo, F Pascal Siakam, F Jimmy Butler, G Trae Young, G Ben Simmons
Bench: G Kemba Walker, G Jaylen Brown, C Joel Embiid, C Andre Drummond, C Bam Adebayo, F Domantas Sabonis, G Bradley Beal
Off the bat, the campaign for three Boston Celtics players to make the All-Star Game comes up short, although two of them in Walker and Brown make the cut along with two Sixers in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and two Heat in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo make the list.
At the moment, this shouldn't too controversial of a list in the East aside from the third-year big man Adebayo's selection and Arvydas Sabonis' son Domantas—two players having fantastic years in the weaker conference. Adebayo is a legitimate two-way threat and Defensive Player of the Year candidate and another pick in Drummond could be polarizing, especially if he's traded before the deadline and All-Star Weekend.
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Western Conference
Starters: G Luka Doncic, G James Harden, F LeBron James, F Anthony Davis, F Kawhi Leonard
Bench: F Paul George, F Karl-Anthony Towns, C Nikola Jokic, G Damian Lillard, G Devin Booker, F Kristaps Porzingis, G Russell Westbrook
This was definitely the trickier of the two conferences, especially due to certain players on average-to-bad teams balling out of their minds along with balancing rewarding good-to-great teams with talented duos.
Porzingis makes his second NBA All-Star team in his first full year on the Mavericks alongside last year's Rookie of the Year winner and All-Star Game newcomer Luka Doncic, a serious MVP candidate in 2020. Russell Westbrook also gets to be in the game next to his Rockets teammate James Harden, the latter of whom is averaging scoring figures that can only be touched by Wilt Chamberlain.
The other big storyline here is all four premier Los Angeles stars make the cut, although Alex Caruso doesn't despite fans' insistence in the voting record. Also, two reportedly unhappy stars on bad teams in Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns—Kentucky Wildcat alums—get their first and third, respectively, All-Star nods.
Nikola Jokic gets another All-Star selection under his belt despite what has been perceived as a “down” year by his standards. However, he is still very much the engine powering a Nuggets team only second in the conference to the Lakers.
Lastly, Damian Lillard gets another chance to play in the All-Star Game in spite of the floundering Blazers team, which would be nothing without his talents.
Honorable mentions all around include Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Vucevic, Brandon Ingram, Andrew Wiggins, and Zach LaVine. Ingram and Vucevic in particular might get in by the end of the month should they continue their strong performances this season, and those were the closest calls.
