2025 NBA All-Stars: Selecting East starters and reserves involves an unexpected choice

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(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

After writing up the Western Conference portion of my official media ballot for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game on Wednesday, let’s do the same for the East.

(Quick refresher: You vote for three frontcourt players and two guards in each conference. Fan voting makes up 50% of the final result, with player and media ballots accounting for 25% each.)

All stats and records entering Thursday’s games.

East All-Star starters

FC Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks

FC Jayson Tatum, Celtics

FC Karl-Anthony Towns, Knicks

G Jalen Brunson, Knicks

G Darius Garland, Cavaliers

The East’s best player: With apologies to Evan Mobley (whose name, spoiler alert, you’re about to see again in a few minutes) and Franz Wagner (who was playing at an All-NBA level before suffering the torn oblique that’s cost him the last six-plus weeks), I found the selection process for the Eastern frontcourt pretty easy, starting with Antetokounmpo, who’s been, for my money, the best player in the conference through the first half of the season.

He’s second only to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the league lead in scoring, fifth in rebounding and just outside the top 20 in assists per game, as the two-time MVP continues to refine his game by putting together the best playmaking season of his career. (Only Cade Cunningham, Chris Paul, Tyrese Haliburton and Trae Young have created more 3-pointers this season, according to PBP Stats.) He leads the NBA in points scored in the paint by more than 100 points; he is second in fast-break points, by six total points, to Christian Braun, who has played 155 more minutes. If Giannis decides he’s getting to the rim, he’s getting to the rim; all that’s left to determine is how much pain and embarrassment you experience in the process.

Milwaukee began the season flailing, stumbling out of the gates to a 2-8 record; the Bucks have the NBA’s third-best record and seventh-best net rating since, joining Oklahoma City, Boston and Memphis as the only teams to rank in the top seven on both offense and defense in that span. It’s not exactly as simple as Giannis effectively deciding, “Well,…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-23 16:13:00

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