NBA All-Star Rosters 2015: Starters, Reserves and MVP Predictions

We knew the starters. Now, the entire field for the 2015 All-Star Game on Feb. 15 is set. The NBA filled the remaining seven spots for the Eastern and Western Conferences Thursday night on TNT, which came with the requisite set of no-brainers and surprises.

Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers occupy no-brainer spots in the East. The same goes for Houston's James Harden, Golden State's Klay Thompson and Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge in the West.

As for the surprises, you have the East-leading Atlanta Hawks going from zero starters to having the most representatives in their conference. Frontcourt-mates Al Horford and Paul Millsap are taking the trip with point guard Jeff Teague. Tim Duncan won the fierce battle for the final frontcourt spot in the West, leaving DeMarcus Cousins, Zach Randolph and others sitting at home.

Here is a look at the full list of reserves from each conference:

Unlike last week's outcome, no aspersions can be cast upon fans of one particular team. Reserve voting is handled by the 30 NBA coaches, and ballots were due by noon Tuesday. If there are any complaints, perhaps email a strongly worded letter to Gregg Popovich. I'm sure he'll respond to every last request.

With that in mind, let's check in on the 24 players who will descend upon the New York City area next month.

Eastern Conference

Starters	Player	Team
Reserves	Player	Team
FC	Pau Gasol	Chicago Bulls
FC	LeBron James	Cleveland Cavaliers
FC	Carmelo Anthony	New York Knicks
BC	John Wall	Washington Wizards
BC	Kyle Lowry	Toronto Raptors
FC	Paul Millsap	Atlanta Hawks
FC	Al Horford	Atlanta Hawks
FC	Chris Bosh	Miami Heat
BC	Kyrie Irving	Cleveland Cavaliers
BC	Jimmy Butler	Chicago Bulls
BC	Dwyane Wade	Miami Heat
BC	Jeff Teague	Atlanta Hawks

The biggest question for most coming into Thursday night was how many Hawks players would make the trip. While nowhere close to landing a starter—their player with the most votes (Millsap) had more than 400,000 fewer than Marcin Gortat—Atlanta's first-half rampage left a lasting impression.

Mike Budenholzer has built a Spursian system based on ball movement and continuity, and the honeymoon phase of this run meant we were due for a deluge of selections.

Horford, Millsap and, to a certain extent, Teague felt like locks. Horford is finally close to 100 percent after a rough first quarter of the season. Millsap is the NBA's most underpaid veteran, a consistent performer who hasn't had a single-digit scoring game since Dec. 13. Teague has embraced his Tony Parker-lite role while adding his own wrinkles, far exceeding even internal expectations given how close they've come in the past to trading him, per Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Kyle Korver, on the other hand, was the final swing candidate. Putting together perhaps the finest shooting season in NBA history—his .741 true shooting percentage would shatter the previous all-time record—Korver is dangerously close to creating a 50-50-90 club all of his own. He's also an underrated defender, especially from a team perspective.

Korver's averaging a rather nondescript 13.0-point, 4.2-rebound, 2.9-assist stat line. And which player do you kick out if you're throwing Korver in? Wade? Irving? Chris Bosh? It was all a murky question that will undoubtedly cause debate, barring some injury that allows things to settle themselves.

In the end, Wade got the nod over the sharp-shooting swingman. Expect him to be the first player selected if anyone pulls out due to injury—especially with Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer on the bench.

The rest of the roster went largely as expected.

Glenn James/Getty Images

Jimmy Butler arguably deserves a starting spot after a first half that saw him become one of the game's best shooting guards. Butler is setting career highs across the board in almost every offensive category, remains a good on-ball defender and has been the steadying force on a Bulls team still patiently waiting for Derrick Rose to become Derrick Rose again. Butler has suffered a regression to the mean in January, but the work he put in over the first two months was more than enough for him to coast to a reserve spot.

Bosh and Wade have held down their individual forts while the Heat's title ship sinks without LeBron James. Bosh is a downright above-average three-point shooter at this juncture, and Hassan Whiteside's recent play has allowed him to avoid the "CB4" re-emergence he said wasn't coming.

Wade has already missed a bunch of games, and his efficiency has gone down without LeBron, but he's been far more consistently effective than in recent years.

His status for the game is in question after suffering a right hamstring strain earlier this week.

Western Conference

Starters	Player	Team
Reserves	Player	Team
FC	Marc Gasol	Memphis Grizzlies
FC	Anthony Davis	New Orleans Pelicans
FC	Blake Griffin	Los Angeles Clippers
BC	Kobe Bryant	Los Angeles Lakers
BC	Stephen Curry	Golden State Warriors
FC	LaMarcus Aldridge	Portland Trail Blazers
FC	Kevin Durant	Oklahoma City Thunder
FC	Tim Duncan	San Antonio Spurs
BC	Klay Thompson	Golden State Warriors
BC	James Harden	Houston Rockets
BC	Chris Paul	Los Angeles Clippers
BC	Russell Westbrook	Oklahoma City Thunder

Whereas some folks may have had trouble filling out their Eastern ballot due to a lack of surefire candidates, the opposite is true in the West. The likes of Damian Lillard, Dirk Nowitzki, Monta Ellis and Mike Conley would be no-questions-asked All-Stars in the East.

Joe Freeman of The Oregonian had Lillard's thoughts on not making the cut:

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"I'm definitely going to take it personal. I said I'd be mad off about it. And I am. I just felt disrespected. Because I play the game the right way, I play unselfishly, I play for my team to win games and I produce at a high level. I think what I bring to the game as a person, my makeup mentally, how I am toward my teammates, how I am toward the media, how I am toward fans; I think what an All-Star represents in this league, and what you would want people to look at as an All-Star, I think I make up all those things. For me to be having the type of season that I'm having, which is better than any one that I've had before, and my team to be third in the Western Conference, I just see it as disrespect. I'm not one of those guys that's going to say, 'Oh, I should be in over this guy or that guy.' I'm not a hater. I've got respect for each guy that made the roster. And I think they deserve to (make the team). But at the same time, I feel really disrespected, and that's just honestly how I feel."

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In the West, it was far too difficult to sneak in.

That tends to be what happens when the likes of Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant—arguably three of the NBA's 10 best players—are hanging around just hoping to be selected. Such is the case when Cousins and Harden, the former perhaps the NBA's best center and the latter a top-tier MVP candidate, weren't selected as starters.

Heck, Cousins missed out on the team altogether.

The West is loaded. Almost to the point where it should relegate the last two players left off its roster and jettison them to the East. It's almost impossible to discern who "leads" the field of reserves when there are so many future Hall of Famers to choose from.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Harden, probably second behind Stephen Curry in the MVP race, is as good a place as any to start. Long derided for his lackadaisical defense, Harden has approached league average on that end while keeping Houston afloat in the race for home-court advantage in the first round. He's averaging an NBA-high 27.3 points, 6.8 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game while getting to the line an insane 9.1 times a night.

"I don't even care about All-Star," Harden recently said, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "I'm so caught up on this team and how much talent we've got—this is probably the most talent we've had since I've been here—and the great opportunity we have, All-Star is in the back of my mind somewhere."

Paul and Griffin were both easy selections despite the Clippers' supposedly disappointing season. While it still appears the team is a piece away from true title contention, the two best basketball players in Los Angeles are leading a squad with a legit shot at the West's No. 2 seed.

Westbrook and Durant are more questionable choices given their extended absences, but it's hard to hold out the game's most electric point guard and arguably the sport's best player.

The same goes for Aldridge, who has been integral in continuing Portland's two-season run of exceeding expectations. With players like that taking up nearly the entire field, it's no wonder the likes of Nowitzki, Ellis, et al. are sitting at home. It's also no wonder the West will enter the mid-winter showcase as prohibitive favorites.

Early Score Prediction: West 141, East 126

MVP: James Harden

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