Predicting the All-Star rosters

Getting into the minds of NBA head coaches. Scary!

Predicting the All-Star rosters

Rabbit rabbit. Let's basketball.


The Reader; Mary Cassatt; 1877

The NBA All-Star reserves, as selected by the league's head coaches, will be announced on Thursday. (Side note: does Doc Rivers get the Bucks' vote after voting for the starters as a member of the media? Is this is a double-vote situation?)

Any number of brilliant analysts will tell you who should be named an All-Star reserve. Instead of doing that this year, I'm going to predict who the coaches will select in each conference.

The selection rules: two guards, three frontcourt players and two wild cards. My qualifications: I have been grousing about the coaches' selections for years. We're in a new generation of coaches now, so my intuition will be tested.

As a reminder, here are the starters in each conference.

West: Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic

East: Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum

Here are the predictions, starting first as always in the West.