NBA All-Star 2021: The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association were operating toward an adjustment for an All-Star Game on March 7 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Here are 5 key takeaways from fan votings of NBA All-Star 2021.
1. Team LeBron, meet Team KD.
All Kevin Durant had to do to see his name atop the All-Star vote totals was the switch from the Western Conference to the Eastern (most importantly to get out of LeBron James’ neck of the woods).
Then he had to come back from a scary, potentially career-ending Achilles tendon injury that wiped out his 2019-20 season.
Next Durant had to play so well for his new team, the Brooklyn Nets, that he isn’t merely an easy choice as an All-Star but he’s a serious early candidate for Kia NBA MVP, even with the big-name help (James Harden, Kyrie Irving) on board in Brooklyn.
Durant ranked first overall with 2,302,705 votes to James’ 2,288,676. That put the two Frontcourt candidates atop the East and West totals, respectively (please, no nit-picking about LeBron’s playmaking, ballhandling role with the Lakers).
In the backcourt, Golden State’s Steph Curry tops all West guards with 2,113,178, and Dallas’ Luka Doncic was next with 1,395,719. The top East guard, Bradley Beal of the Wizards, slotted in next with 1,273,817 votes.
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2. Bradley Beal might make his first All-Time start
That’s not an ultimatum to any fan, player, or media member filling out a ballot between now and the cutoff date. It’s a sense of the reality that intrudes when the seven reserve spots on each All-Star roster is fleshed out by the conference coaches.
Coaches traditionally put more weight on the W-L record of a player’s team, with many using .500 as the lowest acceptable winning percentage.
Last year, the Wizards guard averaged 29.1 points before the break but Washington was 16-31 when the All-Star reserves were announced, and he wasn’t invited to Chicago as a member of the East team.
Curiously, in the two seasons, Beal did get selected, Washington was 26-21 when the 14 backups were announced in 2018 but 22-29 when he made it anyway in 2019.
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3. No tears yet, but tiers, yes.
It’s hard to know how vote totals will swing from week to week to final results, simply because game attendance is limited or non-existent this season. Historically, and especially in the paper ballot days, the teams who played at home the most in a given week could expect to see bumps for their All-Star candidates.
Going electronic, spreading the balloting among fans, players, and media members, and, finally, soliciting voting during the pandemic shutdown makes such bumps unpredictable.
Frankly, in the Frontcourt returns, Durant and James are prohibitive favorites to lock up starting spots. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (1,752,185) and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (1,584,028) have sizable early leads as a two-man second tier in the East.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum is alone on tier three, with 48% fewer votes (822,151) than Embiid. Yet Tatum also had 150% more votes than No. 5 man Jimmy Butler of the Heat.
Among the East’s guards, Beal and Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving (1,093,611) and James Harden (1,014,763) are a solid first tier. Then it’s Boston’s Jaylen Brown (590,195), Chicago’s Zach LaVine (486,547), and Atlanta’s Trae Young (368,126) on the next level.
James is unchallenged among West Frontcourt players, with three rivals running close for the other two starting spots: Denver’s Nikola Jokic (1,477,975), the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard (1,285,777), and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis (1,192,881).
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4. Fan favorites still move the needle.
In 1992, it didn’t matter to voters that Lakers legend Magic Johnson had retired abruptly in November 1991 upon learning he carried the HIV virus. They kept punching ballots for him anyway, earning Johnson a starting spot for the West.
Seizing on the moment, the NBA allowed him to play in the 42nd All-Star Game in Orlando, never mind that Johnson didn’t play another game that season. He wound up scoring 25 points, making the game’s last shot in a West blowout of the East, and earning MVP honors.
Thompson isn’t the only star feeling the embrace of fan loyalty – or at least widespread name recognition. Detroit’s Derrick Rose (183,899) ranked eighth among East guards despite modest stats (14.2 ppg, 4.2 APG) coming off the bench for a last-place team.
Portland’s Carmelo Anthony (179,310) is a shell of his 10-time All-Star self but lots of folks want to see his 11th selection, in spite of career-worst scoring (12.1 ppg) and shooting (37.2 field goal percentage).
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5. Teammates can siphon votes.
Taking the first returns as a snapshot, there would be no team among the NBA’s 30 with more than one All-Star starter. That might change, and certainly, there’s no rule against that. It especially doesn’t hold in an era when Super Teams sometimes roam the Earth. James and Davis started for the West last year.
Curry and Durant did it from 2017-2019, James and Irving in 2017, Durant and Russell Westbrook in 2016, and Curry and Thompson in 2015. In 2013, James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh were 60% of the East’s All-Star starting lineup.
But most of those guys have been All-NBA players, perhaps even future Hall of Famers. When divvying up a half season’s worth of credit on an All-Star ballot, names do slip through the cracks.
Among those missing from the Top 10 in the first fan returns: Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton, Utah’s Rudy Gobert, and Indiana’s Malcolm Brogdon, far behind teammates Antetokounmpo, Mitchell, and Domantas Sabonis.
Sixers guard Ben Simmons (117,993) eked into 10th place among East guards but had less than 8% of his buddy Embiid’s vote total.
A couple of players worthy of more consideration than their vote totals so far: Orlando big man Nikola Vucevic and Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox. Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors had no one in the Top 10 just 20 months removed from their 2019 championship.
Fred Van Vleet’s 54-point outburst against the Magic Tuesday might get his name clicked a few more times by next week’s returns. Fan balloting accounts for 50% of the vote in selecting All-Star starters. Current players and a media panel account for 25% each.
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