KAT an All-Star starter; Barkley gives Ant more bulletin board material

Former Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns' incredible first season with the New York Knicks now includes quite the accolade: NBA All-Star Game starter. It's Towns' fifth All-Star selection, but he was a reserve each of the four times he made it as a member of the Wolves (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024).

These are the five starters for the Eastern Conference, which were announced on TNT on Thursday night:

- Jalen Brunson, Knicks
- Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
- Jayson Tatum, Celtics
- Karl-Anthony Towns, Knicks

Towns has averaged 25.1 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game for the Knicks, shooting over 54 percent from the floor and over 43 percent from deep. He's played in 40 of 45 games for the 29-16 Knicks. The trade that brought KAT to New York and sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota has worked out quite well for the Knicks so far.

Anthony Edwards was not named a starter in the Western Conference. That group includes four familiar names and the emerging MVP favorite in Oklahoma City:

- Stephen Curry, Warriors
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
- Kevin Durant, Suns
- LeBron James, Lakers
- Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

As a side note...would Towns have made it over Jokic, James, and Durant if he still played in the West?

After the announcements on TNT, the "Inside The NBA" crew gave their picks for the All-Star reserves in each conference (which will be officially announced next Thursday night). Notably, Charles Barkley did not even include Edwards as a reserve. He put Norman Powell and Jalen Green on his roster instead of the Timberwolves' star.

Charles Barkley left Anthony Edwards off his All-Star list entirely

🤡 pic.twitter.com/8sGTbDtKTO
— Timberwolves Muse (@Wolvesmuse) January 24, 2025

Edwards is averaging 26.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game while leading the NBA by a wide margin in made three-pointers. Green is averaging 21.3, 4.3, and 2.7. Powell is averaging 23.7, 3.4, and 2.2. Edwards hasn't been particularly efficient from two-point range, but there's no real case to leave him out of the All-Star game. He'll almost certainly be announced as a reserve next week and make his third straight appearance.

There's probably a better argument for Ant as a starter over Curry (22.6 points, 4.9 boards, 6.3 assists) than there is for leaving him off entirely. Curry feels like a bit of a legacy pick, and it doesn't hurt that this year's All-Star game is at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Was Barkley's Ant snub motivated by pettiness? Earlier this month, Edwards was seen saying "they said I fell off" and "don't worry about me" during a game, which may have been in response to criticism from Barkley, who previously said he thinks Edwards has "regressed" and is taking too many threes this season.

Whatever the reason, Barkley has now given more bulletin-board material to Edwards, who is shooting 42.6 percent from deep this season and had made 22 more threes than the next-closest player entering games on Thursday night.

The 23-21 Wolves, who are eighth in the West, return to action on Saturday afternoon against the Nuggets at Target Center. It's a 2 p.m. CT start on ABC.