A week ago, the NBA released the first round of All-Star fan voting numbers, and there weren’t very many surprises, as Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry led their respective conferences in votes and, if the fan vote (which counts for 50 percent of the starter vote) were to stand the starting lineups would’ve been Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, and Paul George out West, and DeMar DeRozan, James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Durant in the East.
A week later, and there are some significant changes that have come to those starter groups after the second round of fan votes were tallied. Curry, James, Durant, and DeRozan still lead their respective position groups in the East and West, but the order below them has been shaken up to include three potential first-timers.
Stephen Curry (West guards), Kevin Durant (East frontcourt), DeMar DeRozan (East guards) and LeBron James (West frontcourt) continue to be the top vote-getters at their respective position groups in the second fan returns of NBA All-Star Voting presented by Tissot. pic.twitter.com/dAaVBHrXi5
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 13, 2022
Trae Young leaps James Harden into the second East guard starting spot next to DeRozan — who is not a guard and that the NBA lists him as a guard rather than frontcourt is going to create a roster crunch later — after this latest round. In the West, two newcomers enter the starting five, with Ja Morant jumping Doncic as he continues to play incredible ball for the red-hot Grizzlies, and Andrew Wiggins jumping George in the West frontcourt in a rather significant surprise — although he is enjoying a sensational season for the West’s No. 2 team.
It’ll be very interesting to see how the player vote (25 percent) and media vote (25 percent) balance out the fan vote this year, as there figure to be a number of contentious starter spots just about everywhere other than the East frontcourt, where Durant-Embiid-Giannis figures to be a lock.