What is krak Alakin fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Damn Valley coming at
you with my certified fan tabulous co host Grant Hues. We are here because
All Star fan voting has opened up to make our All Star picks. We
will get into the criteria we use to decide on them in one second,
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well. I believe that's it, which means we get to the most important
question of the podcast, Grant, how the heck are you doing? I'm
doing great. I watched some great NBA basketball sporting games last night, and
I'm excited to talk about All Stars because voting opened a couple of days before
this will go up, so it seems like a good topic to discuss.
I don't know about you, but something like this where we have to really
just pin down who we think. We'll talk about the criteria a little more
detail before we really get started. But like this really forces you to kind
of just synopsize the season, and it's like one of those things that's not
always the most fun to do, but it does give you kind of a
baseline to go forward at the like an official one third mark. So yeah,
I'm I'm glad we're doing this. It's a good exercise and I think,
you know, hopefully we'll have a few surprises. There are disagreements that
kind of get some conversation going. I am in agreement with everything you said.
It's a very overwhelming process, though, you have to sit down and
then really do it, and I thought I'd be better prepared because of doing
MVP ladders every other week, and I just wasn't. It was just like,
wow, this is still really fucking hard, Like, Okay, I
have some names that I know are going to be in here, but sorting
them through and then who qualifies for what I think what's most important though,
And you would you know, you would sent me this before we had started
a few like a few days before we started. We are picking who we
think should make the All Star team right now, and so it's not you
know who we think is going to make it. We're not even scaling ahead
and saying, well, we think player X is going to play a lot
better or miss a lot of time from here on, so we did not
select him. And so I think it's important for listeners, watchers whoever to
note that this is more of an picks as a snapshot in time, because
I think some of these names might be in danger of falling out a little
bit in the weeks and slash months to come. Yeah. Yeah, so
I that that brings up, But I wanted to ask you so we approach
it similarly, where it's it's it's very much like who we think automake it
not what you know, how many votes will to use last year's an example,
will Andrew Wiggins get and somehow be a start. It's like not predicting
who will actually be there. But I wanted to know because there are a
couple really conspicuous cases where this matters. How much are you weighing, if
at all, playing time to this point, Like whereas if you have a
cutoff for you know, if you didn't exceed x minutes, or if it's
less you know, defined than that, do you have something like that informing
your decision? And we'll just say it. In the case of guys like
Anthony Davis and Steph Curry who are gonna miss a month apiece, it seems
like minimum, how did you weigh that, if at all, in making
your dear choices. So for right now, the injuries didn't impact it as
much of the players who were recently injured, But for guys like Kauai or
Paul George where the playing time is already deflated, and where you know,
there's guys who've played a lot more minutes, like we're talking at this stage
of the season. If you've played eleven hundred minutes versus someone who's played seven
fifty like that is a pretty big difference in my book, And I try
not to view All Star like that, and I also don't team record is
not oh, this team is first in the East, so they need three
All Star I don't. I don't make picks like that, and I also
won't make picks. You know. The Grizzlies are so good, so they
need to have two. I would love to fit Desmond Bane on my list,
not to get ahead of us shows with the snubs, but maybe if
he hadn't missed, hasn't missed so much time like that, he would have
been able to have a case over again. We don't want I don't want
to get into the names, but the injuries are probably the toughest for me
because part of me is like and it's it's when we're talking awards too,
doesn't it matter more about the impact than the availability? Strops shout out listener
from Discord comment on one of our YouTube channels saying the best ability is ability,
not availability, and I agree to that's some extent, but when the
margin for how good they've been really isn't that like looking at the guards specifically,
in the West, when the margin isn't that, like, you know,
when the margin is so thin between everyone to begin with, or if
unless it's someone who's like demonstratively and I think this has been the case with
Joel and bead Like you can kind of throw away the minutes played with him
just because he's been so dominant that, yeah, you're gonna pick him over,
You're gonna pick him over brook Lopez, who is play like, I
don't even know brook Lopez a lot more minutes. I know he's appeared more
games. So like that's something that that I struggle with, is the definitely
the minutes played, but I don't the record stuff just doesn't bother me.
And then the injuries, Yeah, if it's impact that they're playing time to
this point, but if you stack up like Steph Curry's been numbered two of
my MVP ballot for the past month, I know that's going to change.
But I can't just discount everything he's done when we're recording this, and he's
only missed when he met two games to this point, like since the injury.
So that's where I land. And I don't know how you handled it
well. I brought it up because that was the thing I struggled with most.
It's like, I know that those like Davis and Curry, for example,
are going to miss enough time to where, like, you know,
within two weeks, we'll have to be thinking about them, you know,
like Paul George for example, someone who's kind of on the cusp, or
even Embiid who's played enough, but you know, does by then, does
like thirteen hundred minutes outweigh six to eighty or seven fifty I don't know.
So I have some like kind of I had some struggles with that, and
honestly, in a lot of cases it sort of came down to positional depth,
like, yeah, you know, what do I can I is there
a really good candidate that is, say, worse than Curry, that has
been worse than Curry, but by that, you know, but in a
matter of days or weeks will have played significantly more minutes than him versus this
situation with Davis or Embiid or whoever else you know we're talking about. So
I just want to basically I ask you that so I can get out in
front of this and say, there are a couple of decisions I made that
I feel really conflicted about and just we may as well just get into it.
But yeah, so that's one of the tricky balancing. Actually. The
other thing last thing I'd say before we start is if there's, you know,
all things being equal, I'm gonna lean a little towards, you know,
statistically, if things are close, I'm gonna lean towards the guy that
I think, I know, I believe to be just the better player and
going. And that's basically subjective, and it depends a lot on like last
year or the last three years, or you know, what's he being asked
to do. Situational There's all these like non statistical criteria that I use to
break a lot of ties or even close calls it. You know that if
you just really went straight numbers, there are some guys that I think you
could argue like I short changed, But we'll see. We'll see how you
feel and how the listeners feel about that. And they're not meant to be
Vendetta's. And the final thing that all say that's tough is even though they've
broken it down into front court and backcourt, you still run into some issues
where I didn't know what to do with Joan Brown because everything from the defensive
data to where he's actually playing, in part because of the RW three injury
to start the year points him as a three. I think he will be
eligible on the ballot to get in as a shooting guard, and I'm sure
people have probably named him as a shooting guard to make things easier. I
try to look at it's not where a player starts. I look at the
possession data where they've played the most, and I do look a lot at
sort of defensive roles where I've really tried to figure out, like, hey,
could I just make Luca a wing? That would have made the West
so much easier? But I can't. You can't do it, And so
I try to look at everything, and that's what that impacts your ballot,
Like we might have gentlemen brown in different spots, but I think I think
he will be eligible at the two. I just didn't feel right putting him
into that slot. Yeah, I went the other way. I just tried
to get the best players on there. However I could with like a semiological
justification for what position I have im at, so hopefully that all creates.
So do you want to start east or west? I'll let you. I'll
let you pick since I kind of threw this topic at you. First,
let's do the East, And I'm thinking, how do we want to do
this? Do we want to break it down by backcourt and front courts?
So we'll go through backcourt. Yeah, Bett, let's do backcourt starters,
front course starters, and then reserves for each and then the wild cards.
Then we can talk about snubs too for each each conference. I'm wondering,
dude, should we be talking about it though, like backcourt starter? Oh?
Because I guess there could be spoilers in the front course starters if we
get the backcourt reserves, right, let's do it. So, who who
are your backcourt starters? So in the East, the easiest one for me
was Donovan Mitchell. He's just you know, the thermonuclear af you might say
he has been He has been that and for a really good Cavs team that
has had ups and downs. But he's just the guy that is driving that
team. I just I don't really know what the argument against him starting would
be. I assume you don't have one. The trickier one for me is
the other backcourt starter in the East, and I went with Terris Haliburton.
I think there are a couple guys with good cases, but it's just,
you know, he leads the league in assists, he leads the league in
potential assists. I think he's a huge factor in why the Pacers have been
surprisingly, you know, not one of the worst teams in the league,
who play with a bunch of you know, great pace the ball moves,
and I think he's just kind of integral to that. He's not a great,
you know, shutdown defender, but he's in the passing lanes. He
does impact the defense, which I think distinguishes him from a couple of guys
that maybe people will be surprised we didn't even make our All Star teams,
let alone start in the backcourt for the East. So those are my two
in the East. I feel really good again about Mitchell, but Haliburton,
I think there's there are good arguments that we could have gone a different direction.
So you didn't need to because I went the same direction. And I
don't Donovan Mitchell. I don't know what he is the lock. There's probably
a debate to be had in the second spot, and I think if you
view Jalen Brown as a guard and want to put him here, I think
that's probably the name that would get the most love. But Tyrus Alibert's averaging
over nineteen points tennessis one point five steals, shooting better than thirty seven percent
on his threes. There are two players in NBA history who've done that for
an entire season, Magic Johnson and Chris Paul. Yeah, that's like,
that's legit. Maybe it's a matter of open pool if you prefer Jalen Brown
here. Okay, fine, Tyres Haliburton has been legit hashtag while he serviac's
an idiot, and I just I try not to get mad about I mentioned
this year. I try not to get mad about what local team broadcast say.
I find it more comical than anything. But like when they're when it's
an unhinged like that and you're using you know, we had people in our
Instagram comments were pointing out, well, that was a bad shot by Tyrise
Haliburton one like step back contested three. So it's been something that Tyrese Haliburton
can hit too, even if you don't like the shot. Imagine using bad
shot selection to prop up Julia's fucking Randall in the process. That's my mini
rant here is I don't know if it's because he plays with the Pacers or
because like they're even when they were you know, kind of on fire,
like they faded into the backdrop. He's been an All Star starter to me,
Like there's again, I will listen to cases for other people, but
if you don't even think he's an All Star stuf what he's done this season,
I would question what your what your All Star roster looks like, Yeah,
that's tough, and I think it points to the bigger issue of of
you know, there are media votes that affect this and like granted, All
Star births don't matter as much usually to like say contract incentives or Supermax criteria
or whatever as all NBA does, but you know, it's not nothing and
if you have it, so I think I think it's just kind of we
need to get to the point where if you're employed by the team or our
team adjacent, you just you can't be a media voter for All Star.
And it just it's not everybody that's that way, but if you kind of
go around the league and you spend enough time on League Pass, it's not
just the studio host, which Serbiac was in that case, but every you
know, the vast majority of home commentators are you know, they're they're catering
to a home audience. Their bias has come through, even if they don't
start that way. I think just constantly speaking in a favorable light towards your
team is just going to color your opinions and you're gonna see these. It's
just it's it's it's It seems like an easy fix to just not have media
that are employed by a team vote for All Star just because this is this.
I don't know if Zerbiak has a vote. I assume he does.
He's not the problem. He's just there's lots of guys that have opinions like
that that I think. It's just if you're trying to make this a meritocracy
at all, which maybe the All Star Game isn't. Maybe it's like it's
an exhibition. It's supposed to be fun. Whatever. It's got to come
out of contract incentives then though, and like sp citing it is like important
discords. No excuse me, is what I would say. And but if
you're going to tie it to contract incentives, you need to bounce. I
don't know if Serbiak has a vote either, but you need to bounce that
type of bias from it. Yeah, and it's again, it's not just
him. That was just kind of the egregious example. Most recently, he
called Tyre Tobbert and I want to be All Star, said he was in
the second year when he's in his third, and then he was saying that
someone like Julius Randall's deserves to make it over him. They don't even play
in like the same All Star voting field, and I just can't. Julius
Randall's like the king of shitty crunch time shot selection and so like, I
just can't imagine using that as the the springboard. So I get you're catering
to an audience, but that was just every so often they're just these even
when you're like trying to account for what you're expecting, it's inflammatory and stupid.
And that was one of those instances where it was inflammatory and stupid.
Yeah, not a great. Look. Who do you have starting in the
east front court. I'm assuming we're gonna have the same three here. I've
Jason Tatum, Kevin Durant and Janis attend to COOPO. Yeah, I do
too. Obviously, embet is the is the surprising exclusion there we can.
I mean, we may as well talk about him now because he's obviously on
both of our ballots. But Boilers, sorry to jump ahead. I mean
it was this difficult for you. I didn't really have much trouble there.
No, I don't. I don't like Kevin Urrant leads the league in minutes,
and it's just I've kind of ignored the Nets whenever I'm talking about important
discussions is like, oh, They're gonna eventually implode, And like I've had
KD like sort of deflated on my MVP ladder because at one point the nets
weren't good and then'm like, well, I mean you tried to leave this
team. Do I factor in you? You contributing to submarining this like fucking
shit show. And now it's just like Katie's been too good there. Janie
has been done. The Bucks are just quietly the best team the moleague.
Again, Like, I feel like we should be talking about that a little
bit. He's been He's had some issues at the charity stripe on some of
his jumpers. Those have had peaks and valleys, but he's just remains super
dominant, especially on the defensive end. And then Tatum. We've seen some
pullback lately. It feels like and his three balls not falling at the same
click, especially same clip, especially off the dribble, but gets a line
more better driver than he was the vision like when he is like we've seen
an assist pull back too, but like, this is someone who can really,
unless he's playing the Warriors, can control a game as just the primary
offensive vocal point. And so I don't even know. I guess in bid
would be the only other name you would consider here. But I know we're
not supposed to factor in sample size, but when you start to factor it,
like at that point, it's he's played seven hundred and fifty minutes and
I think all these all three of these guys are over a thousand, and
so I think that gets pretty tough to put him there. I think too,
you know, team success isn't a huge driver for me. But you
know the fact that to my mind, certainly the Bucks and Celtics have met
or exceeded expectations more effectively than in beat sixers have. That's not all his
fault. But you know, even even the nets, like if you factor
in sort of like how did you think they were going to do in you
know, September based on just everything that was going on, and there they
are, you know, surprisingly looking like a top four seed in the East,
and the Sixers I think probably injuries have had, you know, a
role to play in it, but have been a little more disappointing. So
you know, it's not the it's not the defining you know piece of that
argument. It's the playing time to just full disclosure for me, although I
was wrong, Jannis is about eight hundred and twenty minutes versus Ebat at seven
hundred and fifty, so that gap is not that wide. I just think,
I mean, Janice has been the more valuable player to me this season.
So yeah, I mean I don't feel like we need to Yeah,
that's I mean. I watched I watched all of Bucks Pelicans last night and
Jannat was just so you get these little reminders every so often, not just
like you said, how the Bucks look like the best team in the league.
Again, that guy, he's just there's never gonna be a game ever
where someone is trying harder than him, and like when you marry that with
just his like physical abilities, it's just the floor for that team is so
high just because even if he's you know, six for seventeen and can't make
a free throw and whatever, he's still just going to be the best player
on the floor from an effort perspective, by like a mile all the time.
He might actually just end up even going six or seventeen still be the
best player on the floor because of the just the amount of attention he commands
and then the defensive damage he's able to inflict. Right, yeah, okay,
so I'll throw to you again? Why not? So this is where
it gets much more difficult. We already mentioned Himbid, who do you have
as your other two East front court reserves? Front court reserves? So I
have Jalen Brown, Pascal siakam and then as we mentioned already, Joel Embiid.
Like I said I was going to put. I put Jalen Brown in
the front court. He put in the back court. Whatever. He's been
spectacular this season, basically at twenty six points per game, really good efficiency
inside the r because assists have been pulled up, they're still not like these
super complicated passes, but he's been great. Siakam is might be an All
NBA player, even though I have him as a reserve in that, like
we start to extrapolate how many games does he play? But the Raptors have
sucked. That's not really his fault. He's still during this stretch where their
two and nine. As we're recording this, like he's averaging over twenty five
points per game, the lifeblood of their offense. He's hit. I think
he's shooting like thirty five points seven percent from three during that stretch. I
guess you could look at his playing time and be concerned that this would be
like a little bit ambitious, because I think he had a a doctor injury,
was it. But he's still over He's played more minutes than Hibad.
And like, if we're comfortable putting in bad here and the Raptors, like,
if you want to get into the team's success equation, they've still got
scored opponents by sixty one points when Siakam's on the court this season, And
so he is the loan player, And I don't know how much this is
a factor into like he right now is the loan players, separating them from
complete irrelevance. And I think there's value in that. But he's also just
been incredible. Yeah, I I so, I have two different guys,
but both of the guys you mentioned are also elsewhere on my ballot. So
the two I went with, and again this I wanted to preface this was
this is where it got difficult. I have Bam Auto Bio and Jimmy Butler,
and one that feels weird to have two heat players when the heat I
think have we would all agree have been you know not you know, have
not played at a level that meets expectations. But I think, and I'll
make this argument for some other situations where I have two all stars from a
team you would not expect. I don't feel like anyone would argue that those
two are the problem with for the Heat. It's a depth issue. It's
it's there's just not enough shock creation. There's it's you know a lot of
things have kind of come to a head. But if you just kind of
compare some of the candidates, like Siakam, I agree. I think he
may suffer from what you said, as the Raptors have just been so they
look so bad lately and have been such a disappointment in so many predictable ways.
You want to like impute some of that to him, But it's just
it's just not the case. Siakam could absolutely start, but Butler, I
think it's been kind of overlooked and the playing time is an issue for him.
I mean, he's played twenty games. Siakam is at twenty one out
of Baio's at twenty eight, some other candidates that could have been here,
you know, closer to thirty games. But Butler, if you just you
know, box plus minus is the best of sort of anyone we've mentioned in
this, you know, better than Siakam's value over replacements higher. You know,
we're just going into some of the tie breaking like catch all stuff.
So and then when you watch Butler play, he's still kind of just the
same guy where he's you know, high usage, he's not really making threes,
but sixty two percent true shooting. That's you know, by far and
away the best of any of the players we've mentioned here other than Embied that
are you know, potentials for front court reserves. And then Autobio. You
know, he is still so valuable to the heat and maybe it's a problem
that he is where he is in the pecking order, but he's probably the
best perim defender among bigs. I mean, I watched him defend Haliburton,
you know, almost exclusively. What was it a week or so ago,
and that wasn't that Haliburton was over nine and just couldn't get anything against Autobio
on the perimeter. He's not a shot blocker. The Heat needs someone to
do that. But you know we've seen Autobio'll be super valuable in deep playoff
runs because of his defense. So and when you marry that with what's I
mean, what's the averaging? I'm talking about him like he like I need
to justify this, but he's at twenty point seven points, nine point eight
boards, three point three assists, fifty two point eight percent from the field,
making eighty four percent of his free throws. Like that's an All Star
reserve. I think it's just I balked a little bit at we're really gonna
have two Heat guys here when you know there are we're going to exclude some
guys from teams that have similar records that you know, have similar like Fantasy
or box score level production. But you know, do I guess, since
we're kind of I'm messing this all up, do either or both of Butler
and auto Bio feature on your ballot anyplace else they will, and one of
them would have gotten them not here if I'd put Jayon Brown in the guard
spot, which is if I if I had my druthers and wasn't being such
a stickler here, I'd probably do that just because I'm not married to like
one of my backcourt picks, so I probably wouldn't went with at a Bio,
maybe just because he's played so much more. But there's something to me
about being like the central focus of your offense, which is why I appreciate
what Siakam's done so much this year, But like it's sort of splitting hairs
because you look at him. Jimmy Butler play basically the same amount of playing
time, and so I get where you're coming from. A Butler Butler's even
hit a higher clip of like the modest number of threes that he takes this
regular season, and just the pressure that he's able to put on defenses and
get them in rotation and have them overreact, and the passes he's able to
make out of them. I totally, I totally understand that one but these
two will appear elsewhere on the ballot because they got both my wild card spots
and so I don't know, like's wild card like more insulting than making flat
out reserves, Like if you weren't going to be a starter, I don't
really know that it matters. So they both are on my All Star ballot.
That's how I view it. Like wildcard feels like, you know,
it's the last consideration you make. It's where you squeeze guys onto the roster.
But it's really not that different from reserves, and it's got more to
do with just positional depth again than anything else. For me, who do
you have as your east backcourt reserves? So I have That's where I have
Brown, And I think I'm not sure what I would do if I had
to, if I had to make him a front court player, I think
i'd probably bump, probably bump Auto Bio down to wildcard or just off altogether.
But if Brown wasn't a difficult pick, I mean he was even like
since I called him a guard, I think you could make a decent case
that he might be the guy that should push Haliburton for a starting spot.
But I mean, second best player on you know, what was the best
team in the league for a while may wind up that way. It just
you know, he's he's making tons of two point jumpers, which I think
if you're looking for like a point to be skeptical about, that's probably where
you'd go. But he's still just the twenty five a night guy, good
enough defender, has improved off the dribble, gets to the back. It's
just you know, he we know what Jaylen Brown is at this point,
and even if his two point jumper shooting regresses a little bit, uh,
he's still going to be worthy of this spot. So that's my one.
The other is Drew Holiday. I I think probably that you could make a
decent statistical argument against him, just because nothing really leaps off, you know,
forty five percent from the field, thirty six percent from three, you
know, nineteen points a game. That's anything, you know, lower than
twenty. You kind of feel like you need to make some kind of excuse
for But I'd just say, like he's again arguably one of the best defensive
guards in the league. He's been the Bucks no worse than their third best
player. He's probably right there with Brook Lopez. I think he probably you
know, if you're asking me who I'd rather have just in a vacuum,
I think He matters more to me than than Lopez does just under eight assists,
five boards, gets a bunch of steals. Just he's an all star
to me. And the fact that again we've seen him be a vital piece
of a championship team kind of breaks any ties or you know, knocks down
anybody else that might have better cosmetic numbers. Yeah, I mean, look,
he's been so important to them as a playmaker while Chris Middleton's missed all
that time. And even just like his regular season perimeter game is there's there
again, they're going to be like these stretches where he sort of kind of
implodes and then he can have these wonky finishes. But the like the off
the dribble Drew Holiday Jumper in the regular season as a weapon, and so
I don't need him to have up above the twenty points per game threshold,
especially when you look at the defensive workload that he's carrying, you know,
in tandem with all of that. And so he made he made my east
backcourt reserves list. I had my final spot down because I had Jaalen Brown
his front court. If everyone remembers, it came down between Jamal and Brunson
and Demard rozen for me, and I didn't know what to do. I
ended up leaning towards DeMar Derozen because it feels like he's playing more of a
heliocentric role. But I also don't know if that actually matters, because part
of what's so appealing about Jalen Brunson is the scalability here and Demardosen shooting better
on twos and he takes you know that he's doing well for mid range again,
he still gets to the foul line a ton, and he's like he
is the driving force, like as a playmaker for Chicago's offense. That's not
necessarily a compliment at this point. Neither of them are adding like a ton
of value defensively, although Jalen Brunson definitely probably looks better on that end of
the fourth than Derosen by like a pretty wide margin at this point. So
I could see this spot changing for me, but it's hard for me to
ignore just like, oh, twenty six points fifty two percent shooting from beyond
the arc, and he is still per impredictable leads the league and clutch win
probability added, and so like that's still someone who is able to get you
buckets in these really tough situations, even when look the bowls have not been
winning, they suck, they feel hopeless. The Knicks around a winning streak.
So I don't feel great about putting Joe and Brunson in the snubs department,
but I have I have DeMar Derozen as of right now. Yeah,
De Rozen was probably my toughest cut, and I might have just looked too
too hard at just the Bulls being incredibly you know, underwhelming. Yeah,
so I guess I guess I may as well just go into my reserves.
Brunson is one, and Siakam we've already discussed as the other. And really
I mean Brunson over de Rosen. I mean, I guess you know,
their roles are sort of similar in that they're they're so vital to like their
offense is really getting anything done, you know, if you go down,
I'm trying to look at, you know, to break ties, trying to
look at like RPM or Raptor or things like that. The Rosen's thirtieth and
Raptor wins above replacement. And as I'm looking, I don't see Brunson for
a while. Let me see where he's at. Brunson's twenty second. So
there I'm vindicated. Brunson is way better than Derozen and we can end the
discussion. I mean, the advanced metrics love John Brunson more than they do
Demard Rosen. Yeah, it's it's tough because you look at you know,
Derozen's on I'm pretty sure he's right at sixty percent true shooting and he's right
under Yeah, sixty on the nose twenty nine percent usage. Brunson is fifty
seven point nine percent true shooting. Slightly lower usage twenty six point one.
Brunson actually turns it over more way. Higher assist rate does grade out better
marginally defensively, although just surprising to see that Derozen just by wind shares and
defensive box plus minus like neither's been you know, great shakes, but it's
Brunson narrowly for me and team success and roll and like just you know,
what's the word. Even how integral Brunson is I think because if you take
Brunson off off the knicks, like we're just sort of back to where we
were where the biggest problem is like who's making plays, Who's you know,
finding these cracks and he's given them like a crunch time compass. That's that's
huge for them and Derozen you know last year was at a million clutch shots
and is great. Like again, this isn't like an indictment of Dorozen.
I just feel like Brunson for me, has had a you know, marginally
better season. What where did Kyrie Irving factor into this discussion for you?
Did you just write him off like I did because he sucks like I did
initially, But then I you know, as I was having such a hard
time figuring out like just the Brunson DeRozan discussion, then you really expand it
and think, like, well, how how much isn't Kyrie at least worthy
of that? On stats? He probably is. He's right, a sixty
percent true shooting again, great shot creator all, you know, all the
Kyrie stuff, but if you know, if like actually being a positive factor
on your team matters, he really hurt the team for a long stretch of
the year and is the main reason that we have all these reservations about the
Nets sustainability and you know how explosive they are and like all the wrong ways.
So I did. I didn cosider him when it seems pretty clear that
the East wild cards were other than Siak. I'm gonna there's some you know,
there are possibilities to get a handful of names in there, but not
seriously, I assume you wasn't a factor for you. No, the numbers
may get tough, and it's just like, oh, he's played almost as
much as or as Drew Holiday at this point. I think it may maybe
even if not more. I haven't updated the minutes. Yeah, he's played
more than Drew Holiday. I just that stuff matters to me. And it's
like, I, you know, I think that he seems like he either
maybe learned from what happened or gets it now. I think that's even generous.
I wouldn't even go as far as saying that, but he hasn't done
anything to fuck with the nets since then, and so that's a plus.
But like that, the baseline has to be higher. And when you're talking
about at this level, I think every factor matters. And if you can
if you're even at risk of being a detriment for your team because of what
you say, because of your beliefs of what you do off the court,
that matters. And it's just like, do you know this isn't he missed
time with COVID, although he probably would have been out and about any way,
But my like, he this was his own doing, and so I
don't I don't even know how to wake that him. This wasn't an injury,
this was a choice, and so I think that that, you know,
I just I can't consider him for this. I can't, like,
maybe if we're closer to January and like now the sample size have grown so
much and the nets are still winning, They're not fattening up on an easy
schedule. He's been really good when he's on the floor, but I'm gonna
lean toward players that I trust are going to be on the floor. Yeah,
it's not it's just not the same. I think it's more fair to
compare the reasons for his absence or unavailability to like someone that's just like taking
really terrible shots on purpose or something. Not that he's doing that, but
like there's a willfulness and there's like an agency to the rescue him being out.
That's different than he pulled a hamstring or whatever. You know, it's
just it's all stars. I feel like at least part of the criteria is,
you know, you're some level of like unequivocal positive for your team,
and that just can't really be said for him. And I think most,
maybe not most, I think a lot of people will just disagree because they
view it needs to be just about basketball. Or you even said all stars
in exhibition. How do you not want Kyrie in the exhibition? And regardless
of what the spirit of the game is, if we're treating these selections like
it matters, like it's a privilege, like it's an honor, he just
doesn't deserve it. I don't. I got that's not that's not spicy.
Who's your toughest snub in the East? I got a lot, So I'll
list the snubs. Since you have so many, I'll list the snubs that
I wrote down. John Brunson ended up being the toughest snub I had,
Brook Lopez, Jared Allen, Evan Mobley was in there for me to Trey
Young and then I did. I did write down Kyrie and but you I'm
interesting who else was on your The toughest one for me was probably Brunson.
The DeMar derozin versus Brunson debate. I won't say it kept me up at
night, but it's something I thought about before I went to bed prior to
recording this. Yeah, that's the dedication that I love to hear. Uh
Derosen for sure of Porzingis. Guess I actually had on there. You know,
he was with Derozen kind of like, man, am I really going
to leave him off and put Brunson on? But the more I looked at
it, the more the record mattered, the more the larger body of work,
you know, kind of mattered because Porzingis, I think most would agree,
is playing about as well as he's ever played this year, and it's
not it hasn't really been in service of a very good team. Maybe,
you know, honestly, maybe it's not fair because if Brad Bill had been
healthy all season, maybe the Wizards are closer to five hundred and maybe where
it's really like just a coin flip. I mentioned Derozen Brook Lopez was tough,
and it's partly because he went off for thirty last night and just was
blocking everything and getting Zion like two and three times in a row on layup
attempts. And you really the game last night against the Pelicans, I guess
I should just say Monday night really was about as good a distillation of what
he does for the Bucks as you're ever going to see, just spacing the
floor, hitting threes, dominating interior, the interior on defense. Just couldn't
quite get there, even though I'm sure he's up over forty percent. I
think from deep I think he went in last on Monday at thirty nine points.
Something Irving I considered mobile and Allen, I mean Trey Young and Dejanta
Murray. The Hawks are over five hundred as we're recording this. Murray though,
it just hasn't been as good as last year as usages down as a
sister way down, and Young is what is yet thirty percent from three twenty
eight percent when I was putting this together, Murray's out shooting done from three
do Jan Murray's at thirty five plus percent. It's rough, it's rough.
And then again, how much I'm not gonna lie the weird Nate McMillan back
and forth from a couple of weeks ago, and then the whispers coming out
I think from Sam Amack that like if you pulled the Hawks and it was
a he goes or or the other guy goes, they would side with McMillan
like that. That's significant to me maybe it shouldn't be Harden hadn't played enough.
Darius Garland just hasn't been quite as good as last year when he was
an All Star. I thought about Anne Road splits have been wild and that's
gone home versus just wild. The guy can't stop getting hit in the face.
You know, he started the year with that eye. Last ration,
he got cracked last night. Just he's gonna I think he might need to
get fitted for a mask. But yeah, that the two biggest are De
Rosen and Porzingists for me, and you know I would not I would not
begrudge anybody for putting either of them on over Brunson or you know, like
Aute Bio, even Butler, I'd be fine with that. Wow, I
was so the aude Bio. Butler felt like even though their wild cards me
had to be on there. I'd be more if you were fungible with the
brunts in De Rosian spot for us is the one that I feel like where
you can get creative and oh if I shoehorned Jalen Brown until guard Spot bounce
them and then I could fit someone else on in the front court. Yeah,
you know what the thing is like, we got Haliburton as a starter.
I wouldn't shock me if he just didn't make it, just because like's
not not talking about not talking about deserving, but just talking about what the
votes are gonna be. Wow. I mean as a starter, he's not
gonna make it as a starter. We know that that's but I would assume
that he would make it. I hope he does. He's one of my
favorite players to watch in the league. So that's the East for us.
You want to, let's jump to the West. Who are your backcourt West
starters? Just go right in. This is gonna be really hard. My
backcourt West starters. I didn't think we're hard. I thought they were locks,
as in Lukadanci and Steph Curry Right now, I don't look if you
want to try and project forward, but as of right this moment, I
have Steph Curry as a starter. He's been one of the two most valuable
players in the league for me to date, and his three point volume and
efficiency's just absurd. You look at how much he's able to impact the Warrior's
offense just in terms of uplifting other players shot opportunities, even when he isn't
necessarily directly assisting them. I just watch alas I could say, just watched
the Warriors and like slow down a half court set where Steph Curry doesn't touch
the ball and then go watch one where he's not even on the floor,
and it's just night and day. So this was easy for me. If
we were getting in most Steph's injured, how long, how much time is
he gonna miss? That's not as a right at this moment, it's not
a factor. And so this is who I would pick right now. And
this was really easy, even though there's all the depth in the back court
of the West is absurd, So I don't mean to sort of dismiss other
candidates here. And again, if we were doing this in three more weeks
or something, it might be different. But I thought this was easy in
the moment. So it was hard for me just because I didn't know what
to do with the two factors that the main thing is the depth of the
West backcourt. There's like there's what maybe five guys that you would consider even
up against like say Donovan Mitchell if they were in the other conference as like
a lock starter, maybe six, And I just didn't know what to do
with the injury there's so many deserving guys. I did go with Curry,
but it was hard because we'll get to all the other candidates. There's so
many guys with great cases that are just starting caliber or all stars based on
what they've done so far, and the potential miss time is just such a
it gave me pause. But all the numbers you mentioned, like the on
off splits are just ridiculous, like steps sixteen point three net he's third in
Raptor second, and estimate estimated plus minus first and offensive box plus minus all
the aesthetic stuff you mentioned where the offense is a total slog if he's not
out there and or Jordan Pool's not having a career night against the Raptors,
that looks pretty good, but that's been once this year. So that and
then Luca like is there. I don't know what you even really say,
like he just you know, had a record setting number of thirty point games
to start the year. We haven't seen for like sixty years. You have
to invoke Chamberlain to you know, anytime you're invoking Wilt stuff, it's just
as a compared sufficiency is climbed from like, oh, well, the three
wasn't falling and now it's just as climb he's been. The Mavericks can be
unwatchable at points, but Luca has been just absolutely fantastic well. And to
that point, like the unwatchability is tied to his ridiculous usage, which he
led the league in the last two years, and it's up over those levels
this year. But he's more efficient, so he likes so kill Haws and
Discord had pointed out and watch the game for obvious reasons because Luca wasn't playing
the Mavericks without Luca basically used kemba Walker in that role, and so that's
more of an indictment now to me. And that was the question we've had,
is I'm not gonna go off this one game sample and say, oh,
it's all the MAVs fault, but it's the MAVs have not put him
in a position to play differently. And this never seemed like an issue of
he is insisting that he has to play this way and they tried to use
him in different other modes. They have not been built to do so,
and they don't even incline to even test out like different other operations, and
so I think that vindicates him to some extent. It's one game. But
I'm just saying that framing vindicates any concerns you have about is he part of
the problem in Dallas? It's definitely a good data point because we really haven't
had one like that, Because to me, that's kind of the biggest absolute
macrost of macro questions is who's driving this for the Mavericks, Like who is
deciding this is how we're going to play because it's hard to argue. I
mean, it works, they're the MAVs offense is good and Luca in this
role is why? But is it that Dallas just doesn't trust other people like
that? That the coaches they've had because they've gone through a couple aren't inventive
enough to just sort of play a more movement egalitarian stock. It's it's tough
and and the fact that they did it without Luca that's compelling and it does
vindicate him a little bit. But yeah, it's just like we're we're off.
We have to go tangents because there's no possible argument that he shouldn't start
the all start he used the lock. If you want to start getting into
steps availability and what's it's going to be? Okay, fine, but Lucas
here, Yeah, there's no zero zero question. I guess we could.
Yeah, let's just do let's do front front course starters before we get to
the zillion other guards that you have there. I have Yokich another lock really
close to the level of of Luca. Again, you have to do a
bunch of wild comparisons. The funny stats of you was, you know,
play efficiency rating, say what you want about it. It kind of favors
big guys sometimes and guys who get to pensive rebounds, and it's kind of
one of the dinosaurs of catchalls. But so you know, he's hair's breadth
away from matching the all time single season high he's set last year, and
he's kind of like deferring more and so he's just not piling up a bunch
of you know, points and everything. But he's also shooting sixty two percent
from the field nine assists per game. Just like, I don't know why
I'm continuing to justify this as a Lucas situation where he's just the best offensive
big guy in terms of the total package. Maybe we've ever seen he's great.
He had forty twenty seven and ten the night before I grey is like
ticked up too recently because he was definitely trying to defer more. And I
mean Michael Porter Junior being absent definitely hurt that. I mean, look,
you cite the archaic peer which from shock that you did, but like he's
second in value over a placement player. He's first an estimated plus minus like
he's been, he's been dominant, So yeah, he was. He was
the easiest front court selection in the Western Conference for me. And the best
of those is Raptor. Raptor has always loved him more than because it always
loves his defense for some reason. I don't know what goes in that makes
that the case, but you know he has in terms of of wins above
replacement judge by Raptor, he's basically two ahead of the second place player,
which is Don Chech, who we just went on about being the biggest lock
on planet Earth. So it's just like, what however you want to get
there? The other two Zion is one I felt pretty comfortable about. He's
one of two guys averaging twenty five points with the sixty percent true shooting percentage
the way that the Pelicans have, you know, just put the ball in
his hands and let him facilitate, let him be, just make stuff happen
downhill. He leads the league in paint points per game. Just the Pelicans
have the second best point differential in the conference. You know they this is
without like fifteen They've only gotten fifteen games from Brandon Ingram. So defensively,
he's trying harder, He's paying more attention. First two plays of the game
against the Bucks on Monday, he had like alert steals that you know,
we're him paying attention and anticipating and just going and getting the ball. I
can't remember a stretch last year where there were two possessions in a row that
that happened, So no problem there. The other one's Anthony Davis. Kind
of the same logic as Curry. He's like a top five, top six
guy, and most of the catchalls he's fourth and raptor crazy box plus minus.
He was really the only reason the Lakers had a good stretch of this
season. Would have been a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, may still
be if he gets back on the good side of that month timeline. So
I have no problem if if Davis doesn't make it for people as a starter
just because of the playing time stuff and the Lakers suck, but that had
nothing to do with him. So those are my start Do you have the
same two others or do you think of something? And they were they were
they were easy for me to go there. You're not considering the playing time
thing. Davis is, like Davis should be ahead of Williamson probably, yeah,
yeah, I mean sure at this moment, but like Zion has just
been incredible and I can't, I can't get over every time. I shouldn't
still take me aback, but like someone with his build, having his just
like nimble feet and ball handling and the ability to change or it just doesn't
make sense. He's I tweeted the other night that he is, oh my
fucking God personified, like he's oh mfg incarnate. Basically, Davis was a
monster and you mentioned the defensive player of the year. He wasn't really getting
a lot of love in that. He was everywhere during that stretch. It's
like if you're gonna gravitate towards Brook Lopez or Bam Matabayo or og like I
totally get it, but like he was, he was in he was going
to be in that conversation like he was at that rate and I didn't consider
like these were the three. I think if you were gonna say, well
you have to remove Davis off, that becomes an interesting conversation. And so
if we're throwing if you have the availability concerns that you want to project forward,
it still just feels like Zion and Yokis are just easy locks for the
starting slots here. Yeah, I agree, what about west backcourt reserves just
jumped to there. So I had Shay Gild just Alexander and Devin Booker as
my two reserves. Shay comes awfully close to having a starters case, and
I think he will depending on how much time Steph Curry misses. Will the
voters see it that way? He's just been incredible. When you look at
there is no we talk about Luca's centrality. Shay gis. Alexander's right there.
It's not necessarily on the same level, but he is. When you
look at like players who are averaging at least twenty minutes a game, Luca
is the only player who's getting more of his made buckets without assists. Like
there's just Shay. He is the absolute life force around which everything Oklahoma City
has built, he drags them to competence or better in his minutes, and
he's been super clutch this year. He might be. I saw it.
It was a wild tweet from Brian Koboski of Hoops Type that he's hit like
more game winners this season than anyone is hitting a single season over the past
decade. Already. It's like the guy just has it. And I will
say, like everything about his offense we've known, like the change of cadence,
his ability to cause havoc inside the arc, even the passing the defense
is buying large been better this year. There's been some like push and pullback
here and there, but like he's been a lot harder screen this season.
He's kind of just been more active away from the ball, more locked in
on the ball. This is someone who is still on the fringes of the
MVP discussion. I ultimately don't think the Thunder are going to remain relevant long
enough to float him there, and I think people will be uncomfortable giving MVP
to a playing guy, which is that's another conversation to have about how we
decide MVP. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. That's just a different
discussions I'm not going to get into it, but he's been one of the
right now, I think I don't like saying these off handedly, so I'll
hedge a little bit. Like he's been one of the top ten to twelve
guys in the league this season, and so the fact that he's just a
reserve it almost feels icky. But he was an easy reserve pick for me.
And then when you're looking at there are a lot of options here when
you're looking at the Devin Booker spot, like John Morant, Damian Lillard,
Darren Fox, Desmond Bayine Baine, I was able to rule out just because
he doesn't have the playing time at this point compared to everybody else. Devin
Booker, aside from being just a human bucket and who now has this is
not like he's already on a career trajectory where you want him to be better
than Mellow. He already has more fifty point games than Melow though, isn't
it just kind of weird to say Devin Booker's twenty six So but he kept
the Sun's afloat when CP three was out, Cam Johnson was out. Yes,
you got contributions from Michael Bridges and DeAndre Aten and they've gotten like really
huge, you know, a great impact from like a Joshua Cook. He's
been good for them lately. Damian Lees had some really big moments for the
Sons. Cameron Payne has been like a steadying force for them relative to last
season, like Devin Booker is very much Yeah, he went through that slump
and there are points where it looked like he didn't have the same burst.
He might have been injured. This dude has been He's on the fringes of
the MVP discussion too. He's maybe inside the top ten of that right now,
just like he was last season. And I don't think we fully appreciate
how important he still is on offense when you look at the number of double
teams he draws, the decision making he's made out of those, and then
just his ability to work in different capacities where we're sitting here like whoa Trey
Young struggling in Atlanta and there it feels very my turn, your turn,
or Luca don Jitch like how you have to build stuff around him, or
the same thing with James Harden, where Devin Bookers are so comfortable moving everywhere
without the ball that scalability of stardom is I think rarer than we credit for
someone who is so good on the ball, and he actually wound up being
when I started to really think about it, I dug into the numbers.
There's a lot of similarities and other ways you go. But when I started
to think about it just philosophically, I felt like he was the right pick
and that it wasn't necessarily all that close. Yeah, I think the scalability
or other than Curry, I think he's by far the most scalable of all
these guys we're going to consider for west backcourt spots. I mean, maybe
Luca is, but like we've spent talking about, we don't really know.
Probably not right. I think, Yeah, five, he's got a pair
of fifty point games. He and Mbied are the only guys with multiple fifty
spots this year. He's got five forty point games. He's made at least
half the shots in all those games, so it's not like he's just out
here, you know, gunning. But again, and the through line for
a lot of these guys Booker and Sga I think are somewhat similar is like
there's not a ton of help. You mentioned that some of the Suns guys
you might not have expected have stepped up, but like Payne and Tory Craig
are fourth and fifth on the Suns in minutes. But like you've had no
Crowder all year, you've had eight and miss multiple games. A couple of
times you've had Paul miss multiple games. His lift has been heavy. And
it's not quite the same as SGA and the Thunder because I think people do
when when when you're playing the Suns, it's like we got a game tonight.
When you're playing the Thunder, you can let SGA most of the time
get forty and like everybody else on that team is like twenty one years old
and has barely played professional basketball. It's just like both of those guys.
So those are my two as well, book Booker and SGA. They both
have had just massive roles for slightly different reasons, Like the Suns didn't expect
it to go this way, the Thunder kind of did. But yeah,
giltis Alexander leads the league and clutch points, made free throws that it's just
like, you know, that stuff earned largely Russell Westbrook an MVP one time
because he was just winning clutch games for the same Thunder team over and over
and over. So if we're just talking about All Star and you need to,
you know, points to stuff that distinguishes a guy that's like also averaging
thirty a game. Lea's league and drives can't be you can't stay in front
of him. SGA's clutch stuff really does matter. So so those two were
you know, again, we'll get to the other West backcourt guys, but
just what a ridiculously just deep position. I think both of those guys you
could stack up against Donovan Mitchell, like I said, and you would have
a long conversation about who who would start over him if conferences didn't matter,
who were your West front court reserves? This, uh, this was where
I was kind of unfun. So the first one is Lebron and I really
did, you know, think more than think beyond it's Lebron. He should
be an All Star just because that's how it works. The others. Paul
George, I'm open to the minutes counter argument, but I think the Clippers
have, after some fits and starts, like they look like about as good
as anybody in the East record West record wise. He was the main reason
for that when he's been healthy. And the third one is Demonta Sabonis,
who probably has the easiest statistical case of it was three. But just you
know, to look at Lebron per thirty six, and this is the other
thing. He's playing tons of minutes again, but per thirty six, he's
at twenty six point eight points, eight point five boards, six point four
assists, shooting a lot more threes, not really making him but he's at
fifty just hundred fifty seven percent on two's the defense comes and goes. I
think he picks his spots. But like we made this argument for another team,
the Lakers being disappointing just to me doesn't have anything to do with James
and Davis. It's the fact that three through the rest of the end of
that bench is the worst in the league, you know, arguably. So
I don't have a problem with now putting a second Laker on the ballot.
It just you know, I get it. If you want to look at
the team that's probably not going to make the play in and say, how
do they possibly get two All Stars? This is just an exception. There's
two great players on the Lakers, and like Lebron is one of them,
So uh, it wasn't you know, I'd be curious if you had anybody
else over that. So bonus, I think is the most important player on
the Kings that have been one of the more surprising teams in the league.
He's averaging over six assists from the center spot, over eleven boards, seventeen
points, shooting over sixty percent from the field. Defensively threes by the way,
just one point one to tem per game. But that's yeah, that's
nothing. Yeah, So yeah, I think defensively, I still have questions
about how he's going to hold up in games that matter, but that's just
not a factor here. He's been super and he's tell them better this season,
sort of just like a baseline rim protector. Yeah, and I thought
he was going to. I don't understand how that's happening because the number,
you're right, you know, his defensive field will percentage inside six feet is
surprisingly good. Just when you watch him just never get off the floor,
it's it's I don't know how it's happening. But do you have anybody different
or have anything to add on those three anyway? So Sabonis was the easiest
inclusion for me that he's just sort of the through line that makes everything work
for the Kings. And I think he's sort of emboldened even Fox to be
better about his decision making, both on and away from the ball and the
screens he set still open up a ton of room for everybody. He was
the when I was doing the front court reserves of the West, he was
actually my first guy. I was like, all right, well, I
know he's in. I went with Lebron for pretty much everything you said.
It's not a legacy pick because the average twenty seven point six and a half
of his per game, and he's shooting almost fifty seven percent inside the arc,
and like he's been a lot better lately too, if that's going to
matter anyone at all. And then so the final spot here came down to
Lowry market and Paul George. I went with Lowry Marketing. And Paul George
has been I think better than people sort of credit him when he's actually been
healthy. He's averaging twenty three and a half points five assists, basically shooting
thirty eight percent from three. Marketing is sort of just I mean, he's
been one, he's been great. He's at twenty two point three points two
point two assists, shooting forty two point one percent from three on six and
a half attempts per game getting to the foul line. I think more than
most people realize. And the other thing with him is that, yeah,
I mean the playing time thing here matters. He does have, if you
want to go that route, almost three hundred minutes more played than Paul George,
which, whether you think that matters or not, whatever, the Jazz
have been surprising. Marketing is a huge part of that and has been their
best player for the most part during that stretch. And he opens up so
much because he's still more of an anomaly for what he can do where it's
depending on what spot you're playing him on offense, you're not getting that shooting
elsewhere. If you've been able to steal minutes with him where he's more of
a wing, that's worth two because of what he does when he puts the
ball on the floor. And I think I keep going back to the lineups
too, so many of them that he just helps unlock, and the spacing
that provides for all the guards in the ball hand probably other primary ball handlers
in Utah's offense, and I think that matters to me, and also look
to this point if you wanted to, I will not play this card.
That's did not factor into it. But who has been who's been the better
team? Like do the end like the All Star Game is in Utah and
so like it's you know, the Clippers are a little bit better, but
like the All Star Game is in Utah, so he's been more available.
Does that factor into what you're doing at all? Or does the fact that
it doesn't matter that the Jazz have been shockingly okay, doesn't matter that they've
pulled back because now that the Clippers haven't even had like pristine availability yet we've
seen more of Kawai, more of Paul George, and yet they're still have
the better record. So yes, if you want to go with the better
record, I understand the Paul George pick, and I think in a vacuum,
Paul George is the better player. Now again if we're fast forwarding a
few weeks, but right now I just have a tough time leaving marketing off
because I think he's been a huge part of the like the functional thriving in
Utah, not just for what he's done, but the way that it's sort
of just opens up things forever. Everybody else, Yeah, I think.
I mean Market has the minute's argument. That's a big one, three hundred
plus extra minutes, like you said. And the Jazz don't have the Clippers
record, but they do have a positive point differential on the season and the
Clippers do not. So like, if team success matters and you're gonna make
well, the Clippers were eighteen and fourteen or whatever it is, and the
Jazz are I think sixteen, Yeah, seventeen and sixteen small, But you
don't. I don't think. I don't. I think it's at worst,
it's a wash in terms of team success. I think what makes me small
couple. This sounds egregious on its face that I went with market In over
Paul George, and I don't think it's as egregious even if I mean clearly
you disagree so well, I do. But but marking In was like my
most difficult snub. Sorry he doesn't. There's two more good guards I think
we both have on the West wild Cards, but they have all the points
you said. I think the case I would make for George while acknowledging that
like I would have no problem if market and made it over him, because
three hundred plus minutes at this early juncture, like really matters George, I
think the Clippers sort of other than John Wall And because Kawai has missed so
much time, George has been tasked with just so much like point guard stuff
that he's had to do. And so while Marking and does open everything up
for Utah and really matters and enables other guys, George like whatever there whatever
the notch above enabling is like George I think has done that for the Clippers,
Like he actually makes the offense semi functional, which without him it just
wouldn't be. And the defense, we didn't you know, who cares about
defense for an All Star Game. But George is still one of the best,
most versatile wing defenders in the league and market and is just a different
type of player that doesn't bring that kind of impact. But again, like
if if I could have squeezed Marking and onto, But here's the good news,
We're going to probably have at least one injury in the West that we're
going to get a replacement or two, and I think Market is definitely gonna
make the roster. But but he was he he was my toughest Everything shifts
too. If we assume that Anthony Davis falls out of the discussion, either
because of his injury or just doesn't get I imagine he'll still make it,
but so that that shifts everything up. But that was this That was the
toughest decision for the West All Stars from Yers the market because it again it
sounds egregious, but I think because of the minute's discrepancy here being so large,
that it's not unfair to put market in there. Who who did you
have as your wild cards in the West, though I had Dame Lillard and
John Morant, and Lillard didn't really factor in as a starting consideration, but
Marian at least initially did. Lillard I think has only played twenty games,
but basically he's been you know, this is the guy that wasn't made I
think six All NBA teams, and you know, his last healthy season he
was on one, and he's basically putting up the exact same numbers as he
did in twenty twenty one, like twenty eight points seven assists, just under
four boards, with like a forty five thirty nine ninety split, like just
you know, if he'd played twenty five twenty eight games. Absolutely, he's
in. I think we got to discuss him with SGA and Booker, if
maybe not Curry and Dancheous to this point, because those guys are like,
it's so tough. Who are you bumping for? Dame or Jaw at this
point? Yeah, and John, I think people will say, well,
look where the Grizzlies are in the standings, you definitely need to bump Jaw.
John missed some time to pen some pullback on his three point percentage,
has some weird like free throw excursions this year, I trust. I think
both Shay and Devin Booker have probably been better defensively than him. Shay has
for sure, and I would say probably Devin Booker as well. Splitting hairs,
splitting already thrice split hairs. But they're on the All Star team.
And I don't think Jaw or Dame had a case for a start. I
mean, I guess if you're deciding to bounce Steff, the cases, oh
Steph can't make it because of his injury, and that's where you start to
open up the starting discussions. Yeah, I'm probably going Booker or SGA over
Jaw for if if I got to move Steff out of the starting group,
and I'm not sure which way I'd go, But like Loki, Morant has
really cool like December, his numbers are not good. He shooting splits have
gotten kind of ugly, and he's only averaging only twenty two and a half
points a game in December. Scrub the October stuff though, still when he
was like, oh my god, Jaw's gonna win MVP, I think you
know those games still count. So who were your toughest snubs for the West?
Marking him for sure, And the only other one I really seriously considered
was Darren Fox. But I just there's no room. I just couldn't.
I couldn't get there. He was my hardest. I wanted to figure out
way to get him on, especially because I tweeted at the beginning of the
year that Daron Fox is playing all NBA for basketball. There's been he's his
shooting has fallen off since then, so there's that to consider. But who
do you put him in over? I think if we had to replace one
of the six cards that we ended up picking, because I I don't know
if I said this, I had the same wild cards as you and John
Dame. I guess he is the best chance of beating out Dame. Yeah,
I think that's fair. And if Dame continues just to play and be
available, then he doesn't really have like that greater chance. So that was
a tough snub for me. And I also had Desmond Baye and then Paul
George of course, who I didn't. Wasn't able to squeeze on anybody else.
No, that's the thing is like, I mean, you know there
are names like Gobert, cat like Wiggins, but Williams, if he never
got hurt, might have had a stronger case. Yeah, but I mean
he's missed too much time. And I mean even Draymond has had like a
quietly a really good season. But I didn't seriously consider anyone other than Market
and Fox, both of whom I think, again like have a great chance
of actually making it, just because of injuries and guys that just don't play
Market in especially like you said, it's in Utah. There's like the stars
need to a line, I think, and make we need to just get
them on there. I was trying to will it into existence. It'd be
funny if they trade away both they're All Stars right before they had the All
Star Game and then still had an All Star anyway, that would be that
actually be kind of cool. I would respect it. We didn't talk about
James Harden at all. I'm just jumping around now since we've basically finished,
but just didn't play enough. I think I think he might have had a
case, especially because the East was, you know, not as guard laden
as the West. But I'm just trying to make sure we cover all the
bases here. I didn't really have anybody else on either conference that got serious
consideration for me, I will say, unless I'm we were forgetting someone just
like profoundly important. The West felt very cut and dry in terms of,
Okay, these are like the fifteen guys or whatever it ended up being for
us that you can consider, and there's not really much else. The East
was a little bit more open ended because, like you mentioned, I didn't
have even have Jean Ta Murray or Trey on my initial list of snubs like
until you had mentioned something to me. So it's just like you could have
went a bunch of different directions there. The West felt a little bit more
finite in terms of the options. Is there anyone you're this is just I'm
just gonna stump you and throw you an unfair question. Is there anyone that
you're really disappointed? Like, didn't like if you'd said at the beginning of
this season, this guy will get zero All Star consideration. Who would it
bump you out that that was the answer for Probably Darius Garland, Like I
don't think he's been bad, but he missed all that time and then he's
been stopping start a lot for his season. I think you could maybe I
was like pretty hopeful that James Harden would be more part of this discussion.
Was it because he was just hurt? I do think mostly that's what it
was. Did anybody else strike that for you? I think Garland would be
my pick there, but like I didn't, you know, I didn't really
know what my hopes were. Maybe been fleet a little bit, but I
apologize. Who who would it be? For you? No? I mean
there's a handful, Like Scottie Barnes was one, like I was, you
know, I kind of hoped he would make a leap, But really the
number one guy is Mobile because I've gone to bat so many times just so
certainly saying that this guy's gonna win more than one DPO, why, Like
he's gonna be the best player on If the Calves are ever great, he'll
be the reason. And he's been very good. I like gave him some
passing consideration, but there was really no good arguments put him on there,
especially if you look at some of the catch alls and the advanced metrics is
just not favorable for him. I think Garland and Allen probably both have better
cases if you want a second Cavalier. But I thought Mobile was is a
little early. I think I thought maybe the leap was gonna happen this year,
and it's just been like a mild step forward. I think that's okay
though, just based off where he started. And also he's twenty fifth in
vorp that's not that's not really that low. I thought he was higher in
like maybe really hates him for whatever reason. Wow, And you would think
that him being from Canada, that wouldn't really be okay. He's also tenth.
I don't sight wind Shares anymore, but just because it's in front of
me, he's tenth and wind Shares. I mean, the Calves are good.
Movie's part of it. There you go, Yeah, maybe we're using
difference. EPM and Raptor didn't like him, but I didn't look at wind
shares or would you say for people, really, isn't that high VARp?
That's impressive. He's been healthy, that's helped. Do you want to take
us out of here? Yeah. Like Dan said at the top, thank
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way we always do, with an apology to Jared Allen, who think we
mentioned, but not seriously as an All Star, but just a general apology
and once again a shout out to the one and only Frank millikin