2023 All Star Starters Announced

[cupcakesnake]

AD's been a much better player than Zion this year, and in a few games will have played more than Zion this year too. I don't think either should start.

Can't remember the last time I saw a team in 13th place campaign for 2 all-star starters!
I kid, I kid (mostly).

The West frontcourt is a bit of a sad sack this year. After the MVP and the success story of Sabonis, every other candidate has some ugly marks in terms of health or team success or both. Zion and George with health, Lebron and Markannen with wins, AD with both. I see Aaron Gordon's name popping up more than expected due to this frontcourt malaise out west (and he's the 2nd best player on the 1 seed).

[Mickey8]

Zion shouldn't have been at all star game at all, amount the games he missed this season, same with Irving . Embiid should have been the starter in the place of Durant.

[cupcakesnake]

Kind of wish players had more weight than the media.

Any time I've checked the player votes, it's clear they are by far the worst voting group. So many ballots clearly going to buddies, guys they think a "hoopers", or just deciding to be funny. They don't take it seriously.

[Mickey8]

AD's been a much better player than Zion this year, and in a few games will have played more than Zion this year too. I don't think either should start.

Can't remember the last time I saw a team in 13th place campaign for 2 all-star starters!
I kid, I kid (mostly).

The West frontcourt is a bit of a sad sack this year. After the MVP and the success story of Sabonis, every other candidate has some ugly marks in terms of health or team success or both. Zion and George with health, Lebron and Markannen with wins, AD with both. I see Aaron Gordon's name popping up more than expected due to this frontcourt malaise out west (and he's the 2nd best player on the 1 seed).

Murray deserves it more than Gordon.

[cupcakesnake]

Just lol at Embiid not being a starter. The league is so ridiculous.

I am sure the GB loves it.

I mean we all knew that the East had 4 MVP candidates in the frontcourt. Whoever got dropped was going to be ridiculous. Embiid is still last in games played and minutes of this group

That being said, between Giannis' struggle and KD currently being out with injury, Embiid should be starting! He's the most productive scorer, and arguably the best defender.

[Mickey8]

He's not the best defender in the league, not even close.

[Jadoogar]

West front court is the worst of the 4 spots. You can be mad at Zion for missing games but what are the alternatives?
There 2 guys with legitimate arguments: Anthony Davis (also missed a ton of games) and Sabonis (small market team with less votes). I'm fine with Zion getting spot, he was great when he played and the Pelicans were doing very well).

In the East, there was always going to be an uproar regardless of which of the top 4 was excluded. I'm good with Tatum, Giannis and KD getting the starting spots, they've all been incredible.

People get way to mad about this. Embiid will be an allstar, does it matter that he wasn't a starter? No one lists "allstar starter" when listing a player's accomplishments.

[Meeksology]

Just lol at Embiid not being a starter. The league is so ridiculous.

I am sure the GB loves it.

lol he was #3 among players and media. It's not the league's fault that Sixers fans didn't vote for him enough

Fixed this for ya

[Ballerhogger]

These are starting to grow on me. The typography is plain, but I think the colors might actually pop. It depends on what the court looks like. It's basically blue and gold, plus the gradation.

Read on Twitter

They are ok...

[jokeboy86]

I really enjoy seeing the player scores. Some takeaways:
- On the flipside, seems players not liking Trae Young is real; 12th among east guards according to the players (ouch)
-

Not just that but the media doesn't seem too impressed by him either. I predict Young is going to leave Atlanta in the future because I can see him thinking he doesn't get enough respect just because he plays in Atlanta especially if he doesn't make the all star team this year. He may think that in another market he would get more respect.

Other thoughts:

- Looks like the only reason Tatum is over Embiid is cause of the fan vote because the players and media both feel Embiid is better.

- Derozan is one of those guys who is just respected all around the league. Players had him over Harden and Halliburton and it also speaks volumes about what people feel think about Lavine's talent.

-I thought once Curry retired that Ja would probably take his spot as the other backcourt starter for years to come but the fact that Shai is so close to him in player ranking and fan ranking tells me he's probably one playoff series away from becoming a bigger star.

-biggest shock to me are the fan votes that Randle and Brunson got. The Knicks have a winning record and have been competitive all year and yet Banchero, Siakam, and Kuzma all got more votes than Randle and Lavine, Ball, Halliburton, and Garland all got more votes than Brunson. My point is you would assume the Knicks fanbase alone would be enough for Brunson and Randle to get more votes than those guys especially cause they're winning.

[chrisab123]

Tatum has been consistently higher than Embiid all year in most, if not all, MVP voting polls. I'm not sure why Morey is pissed at Boston fans and media. He should be starting over KD, though. KD missed a month with an unfortunate injury.

[MavfanAus]

Everyone complaining about Zion being named a starter need to look at the ballots and see that Kevon Looney for majority of the the voting process had more votes than Domantis Sabonis. The entire voting system needs to be scrapped. It's nothing more than a popularity contest. People are far too triggered over this Zion headline. And I'm not referring to RealGM posters either. I'm talking about the fact that there is alot of whining by the IBC (Internet basketball community) on social media regarding Zion being named a starter. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

[Maf]

To be honest I really don´t care about ASG. Barely watch it. But I kinda like when ASG rewards winning. So I find it strange (wrong, whatever) when I see Celtics, Bucks and Sixers with one player, while some add two players from Knicks or Heat. Same for west where top 2 team probably will have only one player.

[BNM]

Full voting results https://pr.nba.com/voting-results-2023-nba-all-star-game-starters/

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?s=19

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?s=19

LOL at the fan voting with:

Westbrook (15.8 ppg, PER 15.8. TS% .498, WS/48 .023, VORP 0.6, Team Record 23-26)
Klay (20.7 ppg, PER 13.6. TS% .548, WS/48 .043, VORP 0.6, Team Record 24-24)

getting more votes than:

Dame (30.1 ppg, PER 25.7. TS% .637, WS/48 .221, VORP 2.9, Team Record 23-25)

You can't even use team record as an excuse for such stupidity. I know the All Star Game is "for the fans", but the fans are idiots. Maybe if the league actually gave them a game with all of the best players on national TV, it would help educate the fans.

At least the players got it right, with the Western Conference guards ranked:

1 Luka
2 Steph
3 Ja
4 Shai
5 Dame
.
.
.
.
18 Westbrook
.
.
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25 Klay

[_NoMas]

Tatum has been consistently higher than Embiid all year in most, if not all, MVP voting polls. I'm not sure why Morey is pissed at Boston fans and media. He should be starting over KD, though. KD missed a month with an unfortunate injury.

You’re going with the availability argument for Embiid over KD? Have you thought that through…?

[Jadoogar]

Kind of wish players had more weight than the media.

Any time I've checked the player votes, it's clear they are by far the worst voting group. So many ballots clearly going to buddies, guys they think a "hoopers", or just deciding to be funny. They don't take it seriously.

You mean Juancho Hernangomez didn't deserve 3 votes to START the allstar game?
Players are far and away the least deserving to get more emphasis on their votes.

[Jadoogar]

Kinda surprising how little respect Trae Young has among his peers. Trae is averaging 28/10 (albeit poor percentages) and the team is 0.500. He got a total of 13 votes was ranked 12th amongst eastern conference guards.

[benson13]

They all deserve to make it, the question is do they deserve to be starters?

Steph does not deserve to be a starter over SGA, who has thoroughly outplayed him this season. Zion missed 40% of his team's games. Sabonis and Markannen were a bit more deserving.

The fact that the Celtics don't get two starters, but the Nets do, is kind of embarrassing. Brown > Kyrie and Haliburton > Kyrie as well. Embiid should be a starter.

Again, they all deserve to be all-stars, but not starters.

I could see the argument Shai is having a better season than Steph, but I'm not sure I'd ever use the word thoroughly. It's definitely debatable, but Steph has been the guy for a long time and he's the current Finals MVP. You have to take it from him.

[bebopdeluxe]

Just lol at Embiid not being a starter. The league is so ridiculous.

I am sure the GB loves it.

lol he was #3 among players and media. It's not the league's fault that the fans didn't vote for him enough

Who is blaming the media? Of course it is the fans. Embiid is the GB's whipping boy - that is why I am not surprised.

The players keep it 100. Fans? Not so much.

Whatever. It is like Jason Kelce said at the Super Bowl parade in 2018 - people don't like Philly, and we don't care.

[Jadoogar]

I am sure the GB loves it.

lol he was #3 among players and media. It's not the league's fault that the fans didn't vote for him enough

Who is blaming the media? Of course it is the fans. Embiid is the GB's whipping boy - that is why I am not surprised.

The players keep it 100. Fans? Not so much.

Whatever. It is like Jason Kelce said at the Super Bowl parade in 2018 - people don't like Philly, and we don't care.

lol shouldn't you blame sixers' fans? Lakers' fans can get Austin Reeves in the top 10, Warriors fans did the same for Kevon Looney. Sixers' fans couldn't get Embiid into the (deserving) top 3?

Whoever got left off the east front court was going to be upset. The fact is that there were 4 very deserving candidates for 3 spots, that's just how it breaks down.