Let’s dive into the full rosters for this year’s NBA All-Star Game.
The full rosters for this year’s NBA All-Star Game were unveiled on Thursday evening, as the reserves were added to the Eastern and Western Conference rosters.
It’s hard to believe that the 2025 NBA All-Star Game is almost here, but Feb. 16’s marquee event is right around the corner.
Let’s dive into what these rosters look like for both conferences this time around, as there are some surprise inclusions (and some inevitable snubs) in the reserves that are worth your attention.
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game will not have LaMelo Ball and Luka Doncic.
We already knew the 10 starters who will appear in the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. But now we know the reserves who will join them as well.
Those who were snubbed from making an appearance in the starting lineup (which was chosen by fans, media, and players) had a chance to represent their conferences in San Francisco by earning a selection from NBA coaches.
Some deserving players including Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cade Cunningham, and Evan Mobley all got some love.
Unfortunately for the following players, however, these players did not get the nod. They could still get a call as alternates, however, if they are chosen by the commissioner should one or more player get hurt before the NBA All-Star Game on February 16.
Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball is the biggest surprise considering he led fan voting among players at his position in the East and he finished third among player voting. He had a much stronger voting from fans than media, though.
Meanwhile, Dallas star Luka Doncic finished third among fans among West guards and fourth among media members. His teammate, Kyrie Irving, was fourth among players and fourth among fans.
Here are the most notable snubs, sorted based on voting results:
McClung is clearly the best thing that the contest has going for it considering he has won two seasons in a row and is looking to defend his title for a third consecutive championship.
It is starting to feel egregious, though, that McClung continues to participate without a roster spot in the NBA. Currently signed to a two-way deal for the Orlando Magic, the 26-year-old former undrafted free agent has played just five minutes in the NBA so far this season.
Since he turned pro in 2021, he has played just five games total and has not played more than two NBA games in a single season.
McClung has recorded just two dunks during his combined seasons in the leaugue, per Stathead. He should at least get the opportunity to actually dunk during NBA contests if the league is going to keep asking him to help save its All-Star Weekend product.
When he actually gets playing time in the G League, he is hardly a bad player. He was named 2024 NBA G League MVP, 2023 NBA G League Champion, and 2022 NBA G League Rookie of the Year.
Last year, he also led the G League in scoring and threw down some dunks during games as well. He had 13 dunks for Orlando’s G League affiliate last season and 14 the season prior.
McClung is capable of throwing them down in an NBA game, too, and not just during garbage minutes. But if no teams feel he is a worthwhile addition to their actual NBA roster, enough with this song and dance.
The starting lineups for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco were unveiled and we learned some interesting notes in the process.
There were a few notable snubs from the starting five (including LaMelo Ball) and those players will have to earn an All-Star nod based on voting from coaches in their conference.
But the NBA is incredibly transparent about how the decisions were made. Each score is weighted based on 50 percent for the fan vote, 25 percent for the player vote, and 25 percent for the media vote.
The league office releases exactly how many votes each player received from the fans, other players, and select media.
We separated the publicly-available data and isolated how every player in the league performed in each category using the number of votes received rather than rank. Then we sorted results using standardization to determine where individuals performed better than they did in other categories.
One interesting takeaway is that the biggest difference was how much voting Ball for from fans relative to how little he got from the media. You can read more about this from Stephen Noh on Sporting News. Ball finished with the most among East guards by fans but seventh by media.
If he had received two more votes from media he would have earned a spot in the starting lineup.
Otherwise, the largest difference in the results was how much voting Kevin Durant received from other players compared to how little he got from the media.
He ranked second among West forwards by his fellow peers and fifth by the media. His tenuous relationship with the media is well-documented but he is someone who clearly has the respect of his NBA colleagues.
On the other hand, however, another significant difference was the love that Donovan Mitchell got from the media compared to the fans. Perhaps there is simply not a strong voting presence in the small market of Cleveland, but the media helped Mitchell secure a spot in the starting lineup.
We have officially learned who will appear in the starting lineup of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco.
The ten starters were decided based on a blend of ballots from fans, selected media members, and other NBA players. This allows an opportunity for the players to earn an All-Star appearance based on a diverse panel of opinions from peers and experts alike.
Here is how the system currently works:
Fan voting rank: 50 percent
Media voting rank: 25 percent
Player voting rank: 25 percent
Those who did not get the nod in the starting lineup will still have a chance to earn an appearance based on voting from coaches.
But this is how the voting was decided among the three groups. Bold denotes an appearance in the starting lineup:
Now that we know the official starting lineups for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, we can’t help but notice that there were some notable omissions.
Even though the format of the game is a bit different, the voting method remains the same. The results to determine the starting lineup are once again calculated based on a weighted system from fan voting, media voting, as well as player voting.
While we have our usual suspects like Nikola Jokic in the West and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the East, there are some notable omissions as well.
Here are a few of the players who will have to earn the spot as a reserve based on voting from NBA head coaches. We will find out which of those players get the nod on January 30.
During the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend festivities in San Francisco, the NBA Slam Dunk Contest will feature some young talent in the league.
Among the headliners reported so far include Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs), Matas Buzelis (Chicago Bulls), and Andre Jackson Jr. (Milwaukee Bucks).
Mac McClung — the two-time Slam Dunk Contest champion — will also be back to defend his title.
Castle and Buzelis were both recent lottery picks in the 2024 NBA Draft.
During his one-and-done season in the NCAA last season, Castle won a national championship at UConn. Jackson, who will compete against Jackson in the dunk contest, also won a national title at UConn. But the two were not teammates as Jackson turned pro a season prior.
Castle (25) has recorded more dunks than Buzelis (18) and Jackson (11) so far this season, per Stathead.
McClung is currently with Orlando’s G League affiliate, the Osceola Magic, where is he averaging 24 points per game.
Two former Kentucky stars are on track to start the NBA All-Star game.
In his time at Kentucky, John Calipari put out his slew of NBA superstars. Even though he’s no longer with the school, the most recent round of All-Star voting holds the sentiment true.
January 9’s updated NBA-All Star fan vote has two former Wildcat basketball players, Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, as starters.
Gilgeous-Alexander currently leads all Western Conference guards in fan votes with 1,811,050. Should voting hold, he would be paired with Golden State legend Stephen Curry (1,369,365) in the Western backcourt.
The Oklahoma City guard is having one of his best seasons to date and is rising as an MVP candidate. He’s averaging 31.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game as the Thunder have shot out to a 31-6 record and first place in the West.
Towns is having an equally productive season, as he’s averaging 25.3 points per game, shooting 45% from three, and is leading the Eastern Conference in rebounds per contest (13.9).
He’s been a key part of a strong New York Knicks squad, which has shot out to third place in the East behind a 25-14 record.
Towns is currently third in Eastern Conference voting for forwards with 1,872,228 votes. He only trails Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (2,721,339) and Boston’s Jayson Tatum (2,224,086).
The only other former Wildcats in the top ten at either position in the Eastern Conference are Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey and Miami Heat wing Tyler Herro. Maxey sits in sixth with 460,143 votes, while Herro sits tenth with 223,479.
The West has three such non-starters: Lakers forward Anthony Davis (fifth, 1,528,262), Kings guard De’Aaron Fox (eighth, 242,807) and Suns guard Devin Booker (ninth, 188,803).
Sometimes you’ve got to create the world you want to live in.
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had an excellent week and a better weekend ahead.
Remember all of that hand-wringing we were talking about last week about how terrible the NBA supposedly is these days? Well, it didn’t go anywhere.
It probably got worse after the league announced its new All-Star game format. The league is scrapping the traditional game and putting together a piecemeal tournament between three teams of All-Stars and the Rising Stars Challenge winners. It’s strange and kind of wonky, but it’s a reaction to everyone’s complaints that the All-Star game isn’t competitive.
So, considering that, you’d think that people might be satisfied with the league’s latest action. But they’re not. They hate it.
One of the people who hate it is none other than NBA All-Star Kevin Durant. He was asked about the new format and said “I absolutely hate it.”
“All-Star Game format changing, all the formats — terrible in my opinion. We should just go back to East-West. Just play a game,” Durant told reporters.
He’s not the only All-Star who has a problem with this. The All-Star of all the All-Stars does, too. After the Lakers’ Thursday night win over the Kings, LeBron James weighed in on the All-Star game and the general state of the NBA.
“Something had to change. … We’ve got to do something. Obviously, the last couple years have not been a great All-Star game on Sunday night. But it’s a bigger conversation — it’s not just the All-Star game. It’s the game in general. Our game is … It’s a lot of [expletive] threes being shot. So, it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star game.”
Yup. You’re reading that correctly. That’s the face of the league trashing the way it operates.
That’s not a great look for the NBA — especially not at a time when criticism of the league seems to be at a fever-pitch. Adam Silver and company can’t be happy hearing this coming from either of these two All-Stars.
Look, generally speaking, I’m with them. I don’t love the new All-Star format, either. I think it’s very gimmicky and would much rather see a classic East-West showdown. I’d love to be wrong about the new format and am keeping an open mind, so we’ll see.
But, on the broader subject of the state of the game that James broached there, his criticism — and even Durant’s to a certain extent — rings hollow to me.
The last time I checked, both of these guys have been All-Stars for a majority of their careers. They acknowledge that the game isn’t what it used to be and are the epitome of the “I Think You Should Leave” hot dog guy meme. They’re trying to figure out how we got here, too. Just like the rest of us.
As elder statesmen in the NBA, this isn’t necessarily their burden to bear anymore. They’ve played in more All-Star games than they have left in their careers. We won’t see them around forever. And, even when we do, they probably won’t be playing heavy minutes.
But, man. If they want a little more effort in the games, then maybe they should try bringing it to the table instead of just complaining about it after the fact. That goes for the other All-Stars, too.
The 3-pointer discussion is different. Teams are obviously shooting more 3-pointers than ever before, but that’s a natural progression of the game. There are ebbs and flows. As time goes on, players evolve, and rule changes happen. This will eventually pass, and with the conversation the way it is now, changes will probably happen soon.
In the meantime, though, it’s up to James and Durant to control what they can control. A little more effort from them and maybe this isn’t even a discussion.
It was always ridiculous that people were paying more than that for bags of chips that were half filled with air and bottles of water that somehow still leave you thirsty.
Considering how much these teams are worth, those prices are even more absurd. Sportico released its annual NBA valuation data and the numbers are staggering.
A few numbers for you:
NBA teams are collectively valued at $138 billion.
The average NBA team is worth around $4.6 billion.
The Warriors were the highest team valued at $9.14 billion. The Grizzlies were the lowest at $3.06 billion.
You catch my drift here. The cheapest team in the league is worth multiple billions of dollars. You and I could pool together our resources with a few thousand other people like us and we probably still couldn’t buy a sliver of this team.
I’ll never buy another bag of chips from an arena again.
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had an excellent week and have a great weekend ahead of you.
Well, folks. We’ve done it. Or, actually, excuse me — they’ve done it.
The NBA All-Star game has officially jumped the shark. It’s not even the All-Star game anymore. It’ll actually be the All-Star games.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA has decided to turn the game into a quick flash pickup game format. There will be a four-team tournament between the All-Stars with two semifinal games between teams and then a final game to win the All-Star “tournament,” which seems to be what they’re calling it.
There are more details about the format, but if I’m being honest, I don’t care. I don’t like this. Everything about it feels forced. This doesn’t feel right, you know? This isn’t how the All-Star game is supposed to go. It’s not what it’s supposed to look like.
The NBA All-Star game means something. Or, at least, it was supposed to. It’s supposed to be a celebration of the game and its top talents. However, with the players barely trying, the game has become a shell of itself in recent years.
We’ve had moments of greatness. But, more often than not, we’re getting record-breaking scoring performances, half-hearted shot contests and half-court 3-point bombs. It’s not fun anymore. It doesn’t feel special. No matter how many solutions we all devise plans to try and fix it, it doesn’t mean anything if the players aren’t trying.
That’s how we ended up here. That’s why the NBA has turned the league’s biggest stage into a glorified pickup game.
As much as I hate it, I can’t blame the league for it. The players have pushed things this far. They know it’s bad. The league’s stars have acknowledged it. There’s no real workaround — the players just have to play harder. But they won’t. It’s just not going to happen. There’s too much money involved to risk injury and we’ve collectively devalued the regular season so much that it simply doesn’t mean what it used to mean. It’s a relic. A trophy. An accolade to simply throw on a resume.
Here’s my suggestion: Let’s just treat it like that. The All-Stars selected should be All-Stars in name only. Stop playing the game. End the weekend. Just give the players a week off and see how that goes.
The All-Star game is important. But if players can’t be interested enough in the game to celebrate and compete, so be it. Let’s not make them.
Is that a boring solution? Extremely. But it’s also far less embarrassing than trying to tweak a game repeatedly to continue getting the same result.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe once the game is gone for a few years, it’ll come back and a new generation of talent will be ready to make it mean something again.
Until then, can we please stop messing around?
Franz Wagner is the real deal
Bryan Kalbrosky hit me up earlier this week to ask if I thought Franz Wagner was an All-NBA player so far this season. I kind of scoffed at the idea.
Obviously, Franz is in incredible player. But is he one of the best 15 players in the league today? I found that kind of hard to believe.
Then, he did this.
Going toe-to-toe with LeBron James to put up a 37-point, 11-assist double-double and hitting a game-winner on the road against the Lakers? Yeah, man. I don’t know if he’s a top 15 guy. But I’d be silly to say he’s not at least in the conversation at this point.
He’s averaged 25.4 points per game since Paolo Banchero went down on Halloween.
According to HoopsHype’s global rating rankings, Wagner is the 10th best player in the world early on this season and the best under 26 years old.
Simply put, he’s got the juice. So, yeah, Bryan. I think you’re onto something here.
