Afroballers

NBA All-Star Game 2022 – Rosters & Snubs

Jay Ernani

It is finally All-Star week! The teams are drafted, the injury replacements have been selected, so it is time to discuss the Game, the Rosters and the Snubs!

The Draft & Game Format

Since the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, the league went away from the original game format of East versus West – sort of.

The pool of All-Stars is still voted by fans, media – for the starting 5s – and coaches – for the reserves – with the traditional East/West division.

What changed in 2018 is that the player in each conference that receives the most fan votes is elected the captain of their own team. From there, a Draft is held and each captain chooses their own teammates, from the pool of starting and reserve players selected.

Team LeBron x Team KD NBA ASG Draft.

The game itself has also changed. Since the 2020 NBA ASG, the clock does not run out in the 4th Quarter. Instead, the game will be played to a Final Target Score, meaning it will end with a made basket (including a free-throw ) that reaches or surpasses that target score.

NBA Legend Kobe Bryant is represented twice in the game. First in his number 24 being added to the leading team’s total cumulative score through 3 quarters, to determine the final score to be reached – a homage that started in the 2020 Game. Secondly, as a brand new and sparkling tribute, the Game’s MVP will be the recipient of the Kobe Bryant Trophy.

The Rosters

We will deep dive into each selection in a similar model to the one we used to analyze the Rising Stars Rosters and Snubs.

As the selections are still bound to the traditional division between Eastern and Western Conferences – our analysis will follow the same logic.

Below we break down each conference roster into Locks and Bubble sections. Players in the bubble will be later compared to the ones in the Snubs section.

The stats used for this article were extracted from Basketball Reference, NBA.com, Stats Muse and Cleaning the Glass on February 11th. Any games played after that are not reflected into the statistics.

Eastern Conference

AfroBallers Joel and Giannis are the highlights of the East.

THE LOCKS
Darius Garland
DeMar DeRozan
Fred VanVleet
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jayson Tatum
Joel Embiid
Kevin Durant
Trae Young
Zach LaVine
THE bubble
James Harden
Jimmy Butler
Khris Middleton
LaMelo Ball

Western Conference

Steph and Ja headline a PG star-studded West lineup along with CP3.

THE LOCKS
Chris Paul
Donovan Mitchell
Ja Morant
Karl-Anthony Towns
LeBron James
Luka Dončić
Nikola Jokić
Rudy Gobert
Stephen Curry
THE bubble
Andrew Wiggins
Devin Booker
Draymond Green
Dejounte Murray

The Snubs

Now is the time of the article everyone was waiting for – your 2022 NBA All-Star Game Snubs.

The pool of talent is much deeper than the Rising Stars’, with a smaller roster to work with (24 players only in the ASG, expanded to 27 due to injury replacements for Durant, Green and Harden).

We will analyze 8 players in each Conference whose cases could be argued for an official roster slot.

eastern conference

Pascal and Bam are the AfroBallers in the Snubs Section.

Bam Adebayo
Domantas Sabonis
Evan Mobley
Jarrett Allen
Jaylen Brown
Jrue Holiday
Miles Bridges
Pascal Siakam
western conference

Bane and Jackson Jr are among the Western Conference snub cases.

Anthony Davis
Anthony Edwards
Brandon Ingram
Deandre Ayton
Desmond Bane
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Mikal Bridges
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Conclusion

You already know that in the AfroBallers we give you the Snubs and back that up by arguing in which player’s roster spot they should be in.

Below you will find who should have been selected and who should be left out of the final NBA ASG roster.

For each conference we have 4 Bubble players and 8 Snubs. That means in each conference 12 players are fighting for only 4 roster spots in the West and 5 roster spots in the East (the extra slot available due to Harden’s injury replacement).

All 12 players per conference were compared and ranked in the following criteria: Per Game Traditional Stats and Advanced Metrics. Let’s find out who made the cut!

eastern conference

From the jump, there are 2 locks among the Eastern Conference competing players.

Both Jimmy Butler (#1 in Advanced, #4 in Traditional) and Domantas Sabonis (#3 in Advanced & in Traditional) rank at the top in the Traditional Stats comparison, as well as in the Advanced Metrics one.

New locks Jimmy Butler and Domantas Sabonis.

As far as Traditional Stats go, the other 2 top players are James Harden and Pascal Siakam. In Advanced Metrics, Jarrett Allen trails only Butler, whereas Evan Mobley is the 4th best in the group.

Individual numbers tell part of the story, but they are not everything. Basketball is a Team game and a player’s impact on that collective fabric is instrumental for the group’s success. Yes, this is the James Harden part.

In the past 13 months, Harden played for 3 teams – Rockets, Nets and now Sixers – quit in 2 of them and left the one team which catered to his every wish for years in a deep rebuilding mode. Yes, his numbers are great, but the unmeasurable negative impact he puts on his team is a deal breaker.

On the opposite side, we have a player who has impacted his team’s success tremendously. As a Rookie, Evan Mobley is the best player among this group in advanced defensive metrics. His offensive game is not bad at all.

Mobley is the real deal and his complete game has drawn valid comparisons with another outstanding Forward, who could guard with the very best of them, while also anchoring a high level offense: Kevin Garnett. Unfortunately for the rookie, he falls short in the head to head comparison with his Cleveland frontcourt teammate, Jarret Allen. They young fella will have his chance soon, because if Mobley’s game keeps evolving as it has this season, it should be the last All-Star Game in a long time in which he is not among the selected players.

Allen is tied with Butler in number of Advanced categories in which he is in the Top 20 in the NBA (6). His Traditional per Game numbers – albeit not as impressive – do not disappoint either.

The Cavs are the surprise story of the season, Cleveland is the hosting city of the All-Star game. Adding those factors with Jarrett’s performance and we got our third slot taken.

We have two very different players with the best combination of Traditional and Advanced stats, in comparing with the rest of the pool: Pascal Siakam and LaMelo Ball.

Siakam is a very well balanced player, who does a bit of everything at a high level. After a disappointing 2020-21 Season, the AfroBaller is back to his previous All-Star form and is arguably playing the best Basketball of his career.

Comparing his current numbers with the ones from his lone All-Star season (2019-20), Pascal is at a higher level in eFG%, Rebound, Assists & Steals per Game. He is one of only 4 players averaging over 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game this season – alongside MVP Candidates Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as euro superstar Luka Dončić.

Coincidentally, the player who’s knocking on the doors of that elite group is LaMelo Ball. His current per game averages of 19.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists suggest he will be the next name to join that list.

The flashy PG is also the ideal player for an exhibition game. He is creative, quick, unselfish, as well as a great passer and scorer. If he could dunk as well as his teammate Miles Bridges, he would be the perfect All-Star Game player.

The newly opened slot for injury replacement makes this easier. My personal feeling is that there was no wrong choice with these 2 great players, therefore the remaining 2 slots in the AfroBallers Eastern Conference Roster go to Pascal Siakam and LaMelo Ball.

western conference

Following the same criteria used in the East, we have only one lock out of the gate in the West: Dejounte Murray leads all 12 competing players in both Traditional and Advanced stats.

The other Traditional Stats highlights are Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Brandon Ingram.

As for the Advanced Metrics, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Mikal Bridges join Murray in this group’s spotlight.

Anthony Davis is the first domino to fall off the team. Davis and Ayton are the only players in the Western Conference consideration pool that played less than 60% of their teams’ games – prior to the official announcement of the ASG reserves. Availability is a crucial skill and neither big men passes the test there.

For the sake of distributing the honors, we will analyze both Suns’ and Warriors’ candidates between their own teammates, to chose the best of each team to join our final roster.

There are 11 players in the NBA averaging per game at least 25 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Of those players, 8 were selected as Starters for the 2022 ASG. If we were to leave Devin Booker out of our final roster, he would be the only player in that pool to be left off. The Suns scorer is the second best player on the team that is ruling this regular season – all due respect to teammates in consideration for this exercise, Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges. His individual and team success make him a logic choice for a spot in the final roster.

The Warriors Conundrum is a bit less clear cut than in the Suns’ scenario. Either one of Wiggins and Green would be a fair choice for a slot, considering how great they have performed for the second best team in the NBA. Andrew has the upper hand in Traditional Stats, while Draymond is slightly better in the Advanced Metrics comparison.

I get the emotional appeal of a 1st time selection for the Canadian Forward, but whoever watches Golden State play sees a major difference in their game – on both sides of the court – when they have #23 in the lineup versus when they do not. For that reason, the 2nd roster slot for the Warriors is secured to Draymond Green.

With a virtual tie between Brandon Ingram and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Traditional Stats comparison, the head to head Advanced Metrics will be the tie breaker. Unfortunately for NOLA and Ingram, SGA dominates the dispute. With the exception of True Shooting %, Efficiency Differential and Total Rebounds %, Shai wins the rest of the categories. Yes, OKC is bad on purpose, which makes it difficult to watch SGA play. Let’s settle this putting him on a star-studded roster, for a much deserved vacation from the Thunder rebuilding process.

Recapitulating:

The 71st NBA All-Star Game will tipoff at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 20th.