The All-Star draft won’t fix the NBA All-Star Game; Stephen Curry’s draft will

LeBron James’ squad is the consensus favorite over Stephen Curry’s in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. That belief, however, is based on a paradigm that might be shifting.

Stephen Curry‘s team may very well lose the 2018 NBA All-Star Game. LeBron James — his counterpart not only in the Jan. 25 draft or Feb. 18 game, but in the battle for NBA supremacy over the last four years — selected a roster built to win a game in which no one tries.

James, Russell Westbrook and John Wall can take turns going coast-to-coast, dunking and throwing lobs to Anthony Davis and Kristaps Porzingis. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving can dance on non-engaged defenders in isolation. Even with DeMarcus Cousins going down, Team LeBron is stacked.

The notion that an All-Star draft is going to make these guys play harder is flawed. All-Stars haven’t been chilling on defense for years because the game was East vs. West; they did so because it doesn’t count. All-Star appearances do wonders for a player’s resume; being on the winning team does no such thing. The new format was intended to inject an element of personal equity into the game, but the only pride on the line is that of the two captains.

Unless that pride is contagious. Looking at the way Curry drafted his team, it might be. The two-time MVP clearly prioritized building a cohesive NBA roster over one full of athletic freaks. Were he convinced no one would try, I doubt he would have drafted so many efficient shooters and defense-first players over guys who can score at will.

Maybe Curry’s view is hopelessly distorted by his everyday circumstances. He plays each game on a virtual All-Star team, one that actually fits together on offense and tries on defense. Maybe he doesn’t realize that real All-Star teams don’t work like that.

On the other hand, maybe his experience on the Golden State Warriors has taught him what can happen when you bring the right kinds of stars together. Maybe he believes that All-Star teams don’t try for the same reason that Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol didn’t. Or that the games are always “my turn, your turn” for the same reason that Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony play that way in Oklahoma City.

Curry has the roster to test this theory. His foundation is identical to the most cohesive, unselfish trio the league has ever seen: himself, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. It was a trifecta so flawless that even adding one of the most talented scorers in NBA history did not disturb it.

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In this case, Curry has gone beyond his Warriors trio to add even more unselfishness, efficiency, versatility and defense. Kyle Lowry and Al Horford check off every box. Karl-Anthony Towns doesn’t need a single play drawn up to go for 25. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid are all-world defenders.

Then there’s James Harden and Damian Lillard, the Durant-types whose complete offensive games should fit perfectly next to the elite role players. DeMar DeRozan is the odd man out, but even he has grown as a floor-spacer and passer this season, and there’s nothing wrong with having one ultra-athletic, head-down driver.

The most important feature of Curry’s roster is how its players became All-Stars in the first place: through effort. That isn’t to say guys like Wall and Irving are not fierce competitors. They are. They also take a whole lot of plays off, as they can afford to do considering how much raw talent they exude. Lowry, Green, Butler — those guys are underdogs. They are nothing without their constant effort, at least not All-Stars.

“Trying” does not have to start as a collective mindset. It can snowball. Whether or not Team LeBron tries is irrelevant, so long as Team Stephen does. If it does, it will win (quite decisively at that), and perhaps this will be the impetus to change All-Star Game.

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Westbrook was perplexed that he was the last pick of this year’s draft, before realizing that he of course wasn’t. If the game becomes less about open-court athleticism and more about shooting, working off the ball, passing and defending, the two-time All-Star Game MVP may in fact become the game’s least-coveted type of player.