After the fans/media/players picked the NBA All-Star Game starters, the tough job falls to the coaches: Pick the seven reserves for each side. Hard because each squad has about a dozen deserving guys, and while a few on each side are no brainers it also means some difficult cuts.
Cuts will be taken as snubs and blow up online. Because that is an annual NBA tradition like overhyped Christmas Day games.
Here is who the coaches selected.
WEST reserves:
Guard: Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City)
Guard: Klay Thompson (Golden State)
Frontcourt: DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento)
Frontcourt: Draymond Green (Golden State)
Frontcourt: Marc Gasol (Memphis)
Wild Card: DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers)
Wild Card: Gordon Hayward (Utah)
Chris Paul would have been an All-Star except for his injury, that cleared the way for Thompson or Hayward. The Clippers got an All-Star anyway with Jordan, but him over Rudy Gobert may be the biggest snub. There are two first-time All-Stars on that list, Jordan and Hayward.
Biggest snubs: Damian Lillard (Portland), Mike Conley (Memphis), Rudy Gobert (Utah), C.J. McCollum (Portland), LaMarcus Aldridge (San Antonio), Eric Bledsoe (Phoenix), Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota)
EAST reserves:
Guard: Isaiah Thomas (Boston)
Guard: John Wall (Washington)
Frontcourt: Paul George (Indiana)
Frontcourt: Paul Millsap (Atlanta)
Frontcourt: Kevin Love (Cleveland)
Wild Card: Kyle Lowry (Toronto)
Wild Card: Kemba Walker (Charlotte)
No Joel Embiid. As I wrote the other day, he is way more fun to watch — and would have been more entertaining in New Orleans for the ASG — than Millsap, but you have to remember who was casting the ballots: Coaches. What do they like to see? Guys who play every day, guys who have paid their dues and improved over their careers, guys with a high hoops IQ, and players with subtlty to their games. That’s Millsap, it’s not Embiid.
If a player in the East backs out of the game due to injury (as usually happens to one spot, someone mildly rolls an ankle and decides to take the game off) look for Embiid to get named a replacement by Adam Silver.
This is the first time since 2004 Dwyane Wade hasn’t been named to the team, and the first time since 2009 Carmelo Anthony missed the cut. The only first-timer on the list was Kemba Walker.
Biggest snubs: Joel Embiid (Philadelphia), Kristaps Porzingis (New York), Andre Drummond (Detroit), Dwight Howard (Atlanta), Hassan Whiteside (Miami).
Just as a reminder, here are the All-Star Game starters (as selected by a combined vote of the fans, players, and select media members).
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Stephen Curry (Golden State)
James Harden (Houston)
Kevin Durant (Golden State)
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio)
Anthony Davis (New Orleans)
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Kyrie Irving (Cleveland)
DeMar DeRozam (Toronto)
LeBron James (Cleveland)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee)
Jimmy Butler (Chicago)