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    2022-23 NBA Preseason Media Poll: Who Will Be A First-Time All-Star?

    A new NBA season is upon us and with it comes speculation about what will happen over the next few months.

    Who will win this season's awards? Which teams will finish with the best and worst records? Who has the best chance to make the All-Star Game for the first time in their career?

    Fastbreak on FanNation polled 21 different NBA media members, some who cover the league as a whole and some who cover an individual team, asking them these specific questions and gathering their results.

    Below are the results for who NBA media members believe will end up being named a first-time All-Star during the 2022-23 NBA season.

    Total Votes (8)

    Media Members Pick To Be Named A First-Time All-Star:

    Anthony Edwards - Minnesota Timberwolves

    The Minnesota Timberwolves seem to be everyone’s pick to be a much improved team heading into the 2022-23 NBA season and as a result, third-year guard Anthony Edwards is beginning to gain a lot of traction in regards to possibly being a first-time All-Star. Their frontcourt of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert is what everyone is paying attention to, but the Timberwolves are going to need to score in order to be a top-tier team in the Western Conference and Edwards is certainly the type of player that could one day lead this league in scoring.

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    Drafted first overall in 2020 by Minnesota, Anthony Edwards took a major step forward from his rookie season to last season and he ended up ranking 19th in the NBA in points per game a season ago at 21.3 points per game. Edwards was also named the favorite to be the recipient of the 2022-23 NBA Most Improved Player award based on our preseason media poll.

    Receiving 10 total votes, Edwards was the clear-cut answer for who NBA media members believe will make the All-Star game for the first time in their career, but there are so many other players that are on this “watch list.”

    Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers), Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder) are all young, high-level talents that are beginning their path to stardom in this league and they each received two votes in the media poll.

    As for other players who received votes, Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers), Tyrese Halbiurton (Indinaa Pacers), De’Aaron Fox (Sacramento Kings), CJ McCollum (New Orleans Pelicans) and Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks) all received a single vote.

    Of these players receiving one vote, Tyrese Maxey and CJ McCollum may be the most intriguing names on the list simply because of the status of their respective teams.

    Maxey is getting better each and every night he steps on the floor and if the Philadelphia 76ers are leading the league in wins at the All-Star break, not only will Joel Embiid be getting a ton of attention for the MVP award, but many will be looking at Tyrese Maxey as the difference-maker for this team. In the Western Conference, the New Orleans Pelicans now have Zion Williamson back alongside Brandon Ingram, which means CJ McCollum could wind up having an amazing offensive season.

    There are limited spots in the All-Star Game every year and while many of the spots are always occupied by the big names in this league like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, we always tend to see a couple of new, rising stars sneak their way into the celebratory weekend. Will any of these players listed above end up making their first All-Star appearance this season? 

    Complete voting results from 2022-23 NBA Preseason Media Poll:

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