The Problem
All-Star snubs have gotten out of hand. Players like Jalen Brunson, Trae Young, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Darius Garland, Kristaps Porzingis and more deserve to be All-Stars, but can’t make the game because of the sheer volume of talent in the league today.
Some have suggested that the amount of players per team should be raised. However, each team has 12 players already, which is already quite a lot. If more players were added, some All-Stars would barely play. If anything, teams should be made smaller.
The Solution
The list of snubs I named above could almost make their own team. This got me thinking… should there be more All-Star teams? I think that a four-team format would be a good solution to several current problems with the All-Star game.
The selections for these new All-Star teams would happen in a similar manner to the current method, except everything is doubled: the four highest vote-getters are captains, the sixteen highest players with the usual position/conference setup would be starters, and benches would be selected by the coaches. However, in order to not have 48 All-Stars (almost 2 per team) as would happen with the current amount of players per team, the All-Star rosters would each have nine players, for a total of 36 players.
Then, the four captains would pick their teams on the first night of All-Star weekend. Starters would be picked first, and bench players after that. Then, the four teams would be entered into a tournament: highest vote-getting captain versus fourth-highest vote-getting captain and second-highest vote-getting captain versus third-highest vote-getting captain would face off on the first day of the tournament. These games would be 40 minutes, with 10 minute quarters (women’s college basketball style) in order to not have crazy scores in the 170s like happened this year. Then, the losers of each game would play in a third-place match and the winners of each game would play in an All-Star Finals match, both of which would happen the following day. The All-Star MVP would become a Finals MVP award in this scenario, where only the Finals are taken into account.
This would also create more opportunities for fans to see their favorite stars, and create a competitive environment: no team wants to finish last.
Next, we will take a look at a possible grouping for this new All-Star format (assuming everyone is healthy).
Captains:
LeBron James (LAL): LeBron will be a captain as long as he’s an All-Star; he’s too famous not to be.
Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL): Two-time MVP, Champion, no surprise here.
Stephen Curry (GSW): Steph wins the Western Conference Guard voting, no surprise as he is incredibly popular among fans and is a superstar.
Kyrie Irving (DAL): Ironically, Kyrie wins the Eastern Conference Guards voting, despite now playing in the West. However, he counts here as an Eastern Conference All-Star. He’s extremely popular still despite the controversy, likely contributing to his high voting results.
Starters
Western Conference
Backcourt:
Luka Doncic (DAL)
Ja Morant (MEM)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC)
Frontcourt:
Nikola Jokic (DEN)
Zion Williamson (NOP)
Anthony Davis (LAL)
Lauri Markkanen (UTA)
Domantas Sabonis (SAC)
Eastern Conference
Backcourt:
Donovan Mitchell (CLE)
Jaylen Brown (BOS)
James Harden (PHI)
Frontcourt:
Kevin Durant (PHX)
Jayson Tatum (BOS)
Joel Embiid (PHI)
Jimmy Butler (MIA)
Pascal Siakam (TOR)
Benches (Next 5 per position/conference in fan voting, not entirely predictive)
Tyrese Haliburton (IND)
DeMar DeRozan (CHI)
Trae Young (ATL)
LaMelo Ball (CHA)
Paolo Banchero (ORL)
Bam Adebayo (MIA)
Julius Randle (NYK)
Kyle Kuzma (WAS)
Damian Lillard (POR)
De’Aaron Fox (SAC)
Devin Booker (PHX)
Russell Westbrook (LAC)
Paul George (LAC)
Andrew Wiggins (GSW)
Draymond Green (GSW)
Kawhi Leonard (LAC)
Notable Snubs:
Darius Garland (CLE)
Jalen Brunson (NYK)
Jarrett Allen (CLE)
Anthony Edwards (MIN)
Jerami Grant (POR)
Brandon Ingram (NOP)
Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN)
DISCLAIMER: Fan votes are weird. I know this, you know this, and the league knows this, which is why coaches select benches instead of fans. I used fan votes for this bench. Some players that made the game here (Kuzma, Russ, and Draymond stand out to me) that wouldn’t in real life, and would be replaced with some players on my snubs list.