2021-2022 will be a big year for NBA All-Star voting. Many players who are recent mainstays (Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, etc.) are unlikely to make it – at least, let’s hope.
Fan ballots are 50 percent of the vote for starters (media and players make up the other 50%; coaches from each conference choose the reserves), and strange things happen every year.
But the 2021-2022 NBA All-Star teams should be full of fresh faces who are entirely new or haven’t been here in a while.
Way too early NBA All-Star ballot selections for this season
It’s always awesome to see a new name in the NBA All-Star game, and it’s a sort of career validation for many players. Being an All-Star brings more contract money, more exposure on social media, more lines on your Basketball-Reference page, more name recognition, more endorsement opportunities… just more.
Below, I will list my personal selections if the All-Star voting was held today (note: these are not predictions). I’m not going to spend time talking about the obvious candidates. Yes, Steph Curry will be an All-Star; there’s not much interesting to say about that. Instead, I’ll explain my thinking on some of the fringe cases.
NBA All-Star ballots contain two backcourt and three frontcourt players to start, and the same plus two wildcards as reserves for a total of 12 players per conference.
Again: these are not predictions but simply a reward for performance to date. I was a little more flexible with games missed than usual, given the preponderance of COVID protocols messing with players’ availability. Onwards to the Eastern Conference!