Analysis: It may be time to re-think NBA All-Star voting

It’s reasonable to think Chet Holmgren will be an NBA All-Starone day. He was a highly recruited high school player whose oneyear at Gonzaga was stellar enough for Oklahoma City to make himthe No. 2 pick in last year’s draft. He’s an obvious talent, anenormous talent.

And it’s terrible that Holmgren got hurt last summer and willmiss the entirety of this season.

But evidently, his rehab has been going extremely well — sincefour NBA players say he should start next month’s All-StarGame.

That’s right. When NBA players were asked in recent weeks whoshould start their All-Star Game in Salt Lake City on Feb. 19, fourof them said that Holmgren should, even though he has yet to makehis NBA debut.

So, congratulations to everyone involved. It’s a new record: 330different NBA players got a vote — either from themselves or theirpeers — saying they should be an All-Star starter. That’s 20 morethan the number of players who got votes in 2021.

Keep in mind only 10 people will start the All-Star Game. Theremight be, at the most, 20 legitimate candidates for those startingnods. OK, let’s say it’s 30 players, even. That’s 300 less than thenumber of people who received votes.

That means a ton of votes were wasted, unserious, a joke.

This all started seven years ago, after almost 800,000 peoplestuffed the ballot boxes and nearly made Zaza Pachulia an All-Starstarter. So the NBA changed the rules, going to a weighted formula— 50% is determined by fan votes, 25% by media votes, 25% by playervotes.

The fans pretty much got who they wanted, as should always bethe case. LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant,Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Jayson Tatum were thetop seven fan vote-getters; they all were announced as starterswhen the list was revealed Thursday night. So did No. 9 KyrieIrving, No. 10 Donovan Mitchell and No. 12 Zion Williamson.

No. 7 Joel Embiid didn’t make the cut, nor did No. 11 AnthonyDavis.

Player votes were a big reason why Davis wasn’t a starter. Only30 players voted for Davis among Western Conference frontcourtplayers, while 80 voted for Williamson. That made thedifference.

But many of the 375 ballots returned by players werepuzzling.

Chicago’s Lonzo Ball got four votes. Miami’s Omer Yurtseven gotthree votes. Jae Crowder, who is still a member of the Phoenix Sunsin name only, got two votes. Denver’s Collin Gillespie andPortland’s Ibou Badji each got one vote.

Here’s what they all have in common: Like Holmgren, none hasplayed this season.

There were other interesting — a polite way of saying odd, inthis case — trends within the data. Only Jokic (58.7%),Antetokounmpo (58.7%) and James (51.5%) appeared on more than halfof the All-Star ballots cast by NBA players this year.

The Phoenix Suns were hoping that guard Devin Booker would getconsideration as a starter. He wasn’t close, probably in large partbecause he’s missed some time this season with injury.

“We know and the league knows and the players know,” Phoenixcoach Monty Williams said. “He’s the best (shooting) guard in thegame and one of the best players in the game.”

Perhaps the players don’t know: Only 8.5% said Booker should bea starter.

Milwaukee’s Grayson Allen got four votes, which is one more thanreigning NBA defensive player of the year Marcus Smart of Bostonreceived. Yes, Allen has been a contributor to what the Bucks havedone so far this year. He’s had his moments. He’s hit big shots.But it’s not a fine line between solid player and All-Star starter— it’s more like a crater.

There certainly could be a year where the irresponsible votingreally costs somebody a spot. It won’t be this year. Certainly,arguments could be made for other players — Embiid, DomantasSabonis, Ja Morant, Lauri Markkanen, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — ascandidates to start.

They’ll all probably be All-Stars anyway.

The coaches will now decide the reserves; the votes for thestarters no longer count for anything. Only the coaches’ ballotscount toward the last seven All-Stars selected from eachconference. And if someone has to bow out of the game because ofinjury, Commissioner Adam Silver chooses a replacement.

But hopefully, there will soon come a time when the players takethe voting more seriously. If not, maybe the NBA needs to considertaking their vote away.

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Tim Reynolds is a national basketball writer for The AssociatedPress. Write to him at treynolds(at)ap.org