2016 NBA All-Star Game: Selecting The Reserves

With the 2016 NBA All-Star Game starters already announced, here’s a look at which players should represent the East and West as All-Star reserves.

As is the case with any NBA All-Star piece, GET READY FOR SOME MOANIN’ AND BITCHIN’! While most people write off complaints about who’s in and who’s out of the league’s annual All-Star Game, and while there’s constant debate about the validity of a fan vote in an exhibition designed for the fans, the All-Star Game is more important than you’d think.

For whatever reason, the number of All-Star appearances that a player racks up in his career seems to matter more than actual, informed All-NBA selections — despite the fact that nearly half the All-Star roster is now selected by uninformed, homerific fans on Twitter.

This is a problem for me, and whether or not you watch the game itself, the All-Star selection process should be a problem for you too. If All-Star selections are going to continue to play a factor in players’ resumes for the Hall of Fame, and if the NBA wants to avoid it’s All-Star Weekend becoming as meaningless as the NFL’s Pro Bowl, then this stuff matters.

Bearing that in mind, last week’s announcement of the starting lineups for the Eastern and Western All-Star teams came with a few SMH-worthy moments, including Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade somehow working their way into the starting five:

West Starters:

G – Stephen Curry
G – Russell Westbrook
G – Kobe Bryant
F – Kevin Durant
F – Kawhi Leonard

East Starters:

G – Kyle Lowry
G – Dwyane Wade
F – Paul George
F- Carmelo Anthony
F – LeBron James

As I’ve suggested before, I have no problem with Kobe making an appearance in the 2016 NBA All-Star Game during his final season — provided it comes in some kind of new “lifetime achievement” roster spot that doesn’t take away from more deserving players who have never been there before. And while Wade arguably deserves a roster spot, him starting over Jimmy Butler is ludicrous.

Still, the starting lineups are set in stone now, leaving only seven roster spots — two guard spots, three frontcourt spots and two wildcard spots — in the East and the West to be announced tonight. The question is, which players should be selected by the NBA’s head coaches for those final spots with such a talented pool of players to choose from?

To spare you the suspense, I’ll present my picks for the reserves now, and then provide my reasoning on the subsequent slides along with the players that just missed the cut and why they fit the snub category.

West Reserves:

G – Chris Paul
G – James Harden
F – Draymond Green
F – DeMarcus Cousins
F – Anthony Davis
WC – Dirk Nowitzki
WC – Klay Thompson

East Reserves:

G – Jimmy Butler
G – John Wall
F – Paul Millsap
F – Chris Bosh
F – Andre Drummond
WC – DeMar DeRozan
WC – Isaiah Thomas

Next: West Backcourt Spots