Jayson Tatum was named to his third All-Star game on Thursday night, making him the youngest Celtic ever to make three in a career.
Tatum is currently the NBA’s second leading scorer in terms of total points and 11th in points per game. He was fourth in total Eastern Conference Frontcourt votes, fourth in fan voting, sixth in player voting, and fourth in media voting, making his selection an inevitability.
Once again, the All-Star format will follow a selection of the teams by the two captains, mixing the East and West stars into two teams rather than just going by conferences.
The Captains: Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James
Other starters: Steph Curry, Nikola Jokic, DeMar DeRozan, Ja Morant, Kevin Durant, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Trae Young.
Reserves: Tatum, Devin Booker, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler, Khris Middleton, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Chris Paul, Rudy Gobert, Draymond Green, Karl-Anthony Towns, James Harden, Fred VanVleet
The All Star draft will be held on Thursday, February 10 at 6:30 on TNT.
The All Star game will be held in Cleveland on February 20.
Kevin Durant and Draymond Green will miss the game due to injury, so Commissioner Adam Silver will make the choices to replace them. Generally speaking, commissioners tend to follow down the list of votes to give the next person with the most votes the injury replacement spots.
That means Jaylen Brown is still very likely to be left off the team. Jarrett Allen is the next frontcourt player on the list not in the game, and he not only received more fan votes than Brown (who was listed as a guard), he received more player votes than Tatum.
Deandre Ayton would be my best guess for replacing Gobert out of the West. The Suns are the league’s best team, so giving them three All-Stars is not out of the question.
Brown reportedly has a $1.4 million incentive for making the All-Star game which he will not make, and therefore won’t count against the salary cap. While it’s not good news for Brown, it’s good news for the Celtics, who don’t need to include that salary in their tax calculations.
