Analysis: the NBA All-Star Voting System May Need to Be Reconsidered

Chet Holmgren has a good chance of becoming an NBA All-Star in the future. His one season at Gonzaga was outstanding enough for Oklahoma City to rank him No. 1 despite only being a highly recruited high school player. 2 pick in last year’s draft. He has a great deal of talent, which is obvious.

Furthermore, it’s terrible that Holmgren will miss the entire season after getting hurt last summer.

However, it’s clear that his recovery has been progressing very well because four NBA players believe he should start the All-Star Game later this month.

That’s correct; in recent weeks, NBA players have been questioned regarding who should start the Feb. 19, four of them said that Even though Holmgren has yet to play in an NBA game, he should.

So, congrats to everyone who was involved. A record-breaking 330 different NBA players were selected as starters for the All-Star game, either by themselves or by their peers. There are 20 more players on that list than there were in 2021.

The All-Star Game will only have 10 players start. For those starting nods, there may be up to 20 genuinely qualified candidates. Alright, let’s say there are 30 players. That is 300 fewer than the total number of voters.

That indicates that many votes were cast in vain and were a joke.

When nearly 800,000 voters stuffed the voting machines seven years ago, Zaza Pachulia was almost an All-Star starter. The NBA then changed the rules, adopting a weighted formula where 50% of the results are decided by fan votes, 25% by media votes, and 25% by player votes.

Like it should always be, the fans essentially got who they wanted. The top seven fan vote winners were LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Jayson Tatum; all were declared starters when the list was revealed Thursday night. Kyrie Irving, No. 9, and No. 10 Donovan Mitchell and No. 12 Zion Williamson.

Joel Embiid, who was ranked No. 7, and No. 11 Anthony Davis.

Davis’ lack of starting position was largely due to player votes. The frontcourt players from the Western Conference voted 80 times for Williamson, compared to only 30 for Davis. That changed everything.

However, a large portion of the 375 votes cast by players were unclear.

Four people voted for Lonzo Ball of Chicago. Three people voted for Omer Yurtseven of Miami. Two votes were cast for Jae Crowder, who is merely a nominal member of the Phoenix Suns. Portland’s Ibou Badji and Denver’s Collin Gillespie each received one vote.

What they all have in common is that none of them have played this season, unlike Holmgren.

There were additional intriguing—a polite way of saying odd—trends in the data. Jokic (58.7%), Antetokounmpo (58.7%), and James (51.5%) were the only players to appear on more than half of the NBA players’ ballots for the All-Star game this year.

Devin Booker, a guard, was expected to be considered as a starter by the Phoenix Suns. He wasn’t close, most likely in large part due to the fact that he has missed some time this season due to injury.

“We know and the league knows and the players know,” Monty Williams, the coach of Phoenix, stated. “He is one of the best players in the game and the best shooting guard.”

Only 8.5% of respondents thought Booker should start, so perhaps the players are in the dark.

Grayson Allen of Milwaukee received four votes, one more than Marcus Smart of Boston, who is the current NBA defensive player of the year. It’s true that Allen has helped the Bucks’ success thus far this season. He’s made some significant shots and had his moments. However, there is more of a crater than a thin line separating a good player from an All-Star starter.

It’s possible that one year someone’s spot will actually be lost because of careless voting. It won’t happen this year. There are undoubtedly valid arguments for other players, including Embiid, Domantas Sabonis, Ja Morant, Lauri Markkanen, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to start.

In any case, they will all likely be All-Stars.

The coaches will now choose the reserves; the starters’ votes are now completely meaningless. The final seven All-Stars chosen from each conference are determined solely by coaches’ votes. Commissioner Adam Silver selects a replacement player if someone is forced to leave the game due to injury.

But hopefully the players will start to take the voting more seriously in the near future. If not, perhaps the NBA should think about removing their vote.

Source: basketballnews.com