NBA: Top 10 candidates to be first-time All-Stars in 2017-18

Heading into the 2017-18 NBA season, here’s a look at 10 players who might make the first All-Star appearance of their careers.

The NBA All-Star Game is one of the more controversial subjects among professional basketball fans. As a showcase of the game’s elite talents, it’s an exhibition that’s meant for the fans, but has become less and less enjoyable in recent seasons.

While All-NBA selections are more indicative of the league’s best players in a given season, there are fewer spots to honor the game’s stars, and for whatever reason, All-Star appearances are always listed first when measuring a player’s career.

From the game’s voting process to issues with conference imbalance to a complete lack of defense in the game itself, the entire NBA All-Star process has been nitpicked and criticized in some form or another.

Despite changes to the roster composition of NBA All-Star teams, the voting process remains the same for 2018. A combination of fan, player and media voting will determine the five starters from each conference, while the head coaches will still select the seven reserves from both the East and the West.

The only change is the top vote-getter from each conference will serve as a team captain, selecting from the pool of available players no matter which conference they play for. However, until more drastic changes happen, an All-Star berth remains one of the chief ways of weighing a player’s skills, prominence and overall popularity in a given season.

Bearing all this in mind, the 2017-18 NBA season will give plenty of young players — and even established talents — their chance at earning the first All-Star bid of their careers. Here’s a look at the 10 most likely candidates to add an All-Star appearance to their Wikipedia page this year.

Honorable Mentions:  C.J. McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, Khris Middleton, Dion Waiters, Ben Simmons, Andrew Wiggins, Mike Conley, Reggie Jackson, James Johnson, Dennis Schroder, Eric Bledsoe, Victor Oladipo, D’Angelo Russell, Harrison Barnes, Danilo Gallinari, Tim Hardaway Jr., Nikola Vucevic, J.J. Redick, Elfrid Payton