Who Will Start In The 2023 NBA All-Star Game?
With the amount of talent that exists in the NBA, it is becoming very hard to narrow things down and pick just 24 players to represent the league as All-Stars year-in and year-out.
I mean, there is at least one player on every single roster right now that you could point to and say that they are having an All-Star season!
Sure, superstars like Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) and Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) are and deserve to be All-Star talents in this league given that their teams currently sit at or near the top of the league standings, but even guys like Bojan Bogdanovic (Detroit Pistons), Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs) and Paolo Banchero (Orlando Magic) have been having stellar seasons despite their team’s lack of overall success.
On Thursday, January 26, the NBA will announce the two captains for this year’s All-Star game, as well as the pool of starters that the team captains will get to draft from on the day of the 2023 All-Star Game as part of a new rule change to All-Star Weekend this year.
So who will ultimately be named a starter for this year’s All-Star Game?
Let’s take a look at the likely candidates in both the Eastern and Western Conference based on the fan voting results and what they have done this season.
Eastern Conference All-Stars
Captain: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
Likely Starters: G Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets), G Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers), F Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Giannis Antetokoumpo (Captain, Milwaukee Bucks), C Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers)
Early on in the season, the Eastern Conference was extremely tight and while just a few games still separate the middle-tier teams from those in the Play-In Tournament region of the standings, we are beginning to see quite a few teams differentiate themselves at the top of the conference standings.
Being the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference in the third and final fan vote, Giannis Antetokounmpo figures to serve as one of the two captains for All-Star Weekend and deservingly so.
Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are still contending for the 1-seed in the East and the two-time MVP is once again proving to be one of the most valuable players in this league, averaging a career-high 30.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 52.4 percent from the floor.
Joining Giannis in the frontcourt as starters in the All-Star Game from the Eastern Conference will likely be Boston Celtics’ forward Jayson Tatum and Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid.
Tatum has been dominant all year long on the offensive-end of the floor, averaging a career-best 31.0 points per game and the Celtics have sat at the top of the league standings all season long. If he is not a starter, then this system truly makes no sense.
As for Embiid, one could easily make a case for Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant to start over him in the All-Star Game. However, Embiid and the 76ers currently sit ahead of Durant and the Nets in the Eastern Conference standings and when he has been on the floor, Joel Embiid has continued to prove that he is one of the best offensive players in the entire league.
Embiid ranks tied for second in the league in 40-point games this season with Giannis Antetokounmpo at eight total games and he is right behind Luka Doncic for the league-lead in scoring.
Looking at the backcourt and potential guards that could start from the Eastern Conference, there are quite a few players who will get attention. James Harden, Trae Young and Jaylen Brown are all possibilities, but Kyrie Irving and Donovan Mitchell seem like the obvious choices, especially based on them finishing first and second, respectively, in the fan voting.
Irving is reminding everyone just how good of a talent he is this season after playing in just 29 games a year ago and he currently ranks eighth out of all guards in the NBA in scoring. Not to mention, he has consistently sustained success while changing his role with Kevin Durant being injured recently.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell has been nothing short of spectacular and he currently owns the best performance by a player this season, scoring a total of 71 points against the Chicago Bulls on January 2, an overtime game in which the Cavaliers needed every bit of Mitchell’s production.
Donovan Mitchell ranks ninth in the league in scoring, his 28.3 points per game are currently a new career-high and he has taken the Cavaliers from being a Play-In Tournament team to being one that can contend for a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals.
When looking at the potential names who could start in the Eastern Conference, it does seem like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell are locks to start at this point with Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving possibly being reserves in stead in favor of players like Kevin Durant and Jaylen Brown.
Western Conference All-Star
Captain: LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers)
Likely Starters: G Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks), G Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), F LeBron James (Captain, Los Angeles Lakers), F/C Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings), C Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
When evaluating the Western Conference and the potential All-Star Game starters they have to offer, we should look no further than Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, who is preparing to be named All-Star Game captain for the sixth consecutive time.
The Lakers have struggled this season and they currently sit outside of the Play-In Tournament picture in the Western Conference, but James has been spectacular and continues to amaze at 38-years-old, as he is currently averaging 30.2 points (6th in the NBA), 8.5 rebounds (28th in the NBA) and 6.9 assists per game (13th in the NBA) while shooting 50.9 percent from the floor.
Joining LeBron in the frontcourt as Western Conference starters will be back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets and quite possibly Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis.
While Sabonis’ spot as a potential starter is definitely up-in-the-air with Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson and Lauri Markkanen also getting All-Star attention, the Kings would not be the 3-seed in the West without his contributions. Domantas Sabonis is averaging 18.7 points, a league-high 12.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game and he also ranks third in the league in triple-doubles (6), first in double-doubles (36).
To me at least, Sabonis has done everything he has needed in order to be an All-Star Game starter and he has helped revitalize the energy within the Sacramento Kings organization and their fan base.
Nikola Jokic is once again a no-brainer All-Star starter and quite honestly, he is once again the favorite to win the league’s MVP award. He is having a better statistical season than the last two in which he won the award and the Denver Nuggets currently sit at the top of the Western Conference standings.
As for who will start in the backcourt representing the Western Conference, two familiar names in Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic and Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry will likely take the vote here.
Doncic is right with Jokic in terms of leading the MVP race this season, as he is averaging a league-high 33.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game. Dallas has not impressed much as a team this season, but Luka Doncic continues to take his game to new heights and he has single-handedly kept the Mavericks afloat given their struggles.
Some may try to say that Ja Morant or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should start over Stephen Curry in the All-Star Game, but just look at how valuable Curry is to the Warriors and what he does on a consistent basis.
Similar to Doncic, without Curry, the Warriors would be worse than they currently are and some of the numbers he can put up in the blink of an eye are why the Warriors have been championship contenders for the last decade.
He is averaging 29.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game this season, but the most impressive thing with Curry is the fact that he is almost having a 50-40-90 season, averaging 48.6 percent from the floor, 41.9 percent from three-point range and 91.6 percent from the free-throw line.
James, Jokic, Doncic, Curry and Sabonis all seem like locks for the All-Star Game this year, but Curry and Sabonis are the two names to keep an eye on when the All-Star Game starters get announced, as there are others in the Western Conference that will also get attention in the starters vote.
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