The All-Star Ballot
It's still early but if I had to vote for an All-Star team so far, my ballot would look like this (and I included reserves in parenthesis even though I know you don't get to vote for them).
East:
C: Dwight Howard (Zydrunas Ilgauskas)
PF: Chris Bosh (Kevin Garnett)
SF: LeBron James (Paul Pierce, Danny Granger)
SG: Dwyane Wade (Vince Carter, Joe Johnson)
PG: Devin Harris (Jose Calderon)
Some tough choices and I could see dumping Ilgauskas from the lineup in favor of someone like Antawn Jamison but he's having a solid season and the Cavs have been dominant this year. Ray Allen was tough to leave off and I might put him over Granger or Joe Johnson but Joe is keeping the injured Hawks flying high while Granger is having a breakout year that nobody seems to be noticing since he's in Indiana and on a mediocre team.
Unfortuantely, the voting will probably be screwy and could keep Devin Harris out of the starting lineup (replaced by fan favorite Allen Iverson) and I wouldn't be stunned if Chris Bosh found himself on the wrong end of the Manchurian Candidate: Yi Jianlian. It sounds odd but I wouldn't be surprised if he was close one of the top vote getters in the East.
The West is a bit screwy because of the glut of PF's and lack of SF's. I'd vote for Duncan and Amare as my starters but, for the sake of this post, I'll keep it to the actual positions. Amare gets the asterisk for being voed as starter but appearing on my bench.
West:
C: Yao Ming (Amare Stoudemire*)
PF: Tim Duncan (Dirk Nowitzki, Carlos Boozer, Pau Gasol)
SF: Carmelo Anthony (Rudy Gay)
SG: Kobe Bryant (Brandon Roy)
PG: Chris Paul (Chauncey Billups)
I'm really not sold on either of my SF choices but I'll go with them for now. Tony Parker could edge out Rudy but right now he's just missed too many games. T-Mac has been banged up and hasn't done much, I can't in good faith put guys from the Clippers or Warriors on the All-Star team, and Nash has been down a bit this year. Odds are that, if push came to shove, I'd knock Rudy off the list but why not give one of the game's young stars a chance to shine? In fact, an argument could be made for OJ Mayo and Derrick Rose to make their respective All-Star squads. It's early but the kids are putting up some great games.
