NBA All Star Starters 2012: Predicting the East and West's Starting Lineups

The NBA All-Star starters will be announced tonight on TNT. There's no need to wait until then to find out who the starters will be, though. Here are all the starters right now. 

I'll give you the predicted starter for every position and I'll also grade how good of a job the voters did in making their selections. 

I think for the most part the voters did a pretty good job this year. At least there's no one starting who has spent the bulk of the season injured. 

Eastern Conference Guard: Derrick Rose

The previous returns have Derrick Rose as the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference. He'll easily be starting in this year's All-Star game, and as the league's reigning MVP, that's an easy call. 

Rose is leading all NBA guards in win shares (3.5) and all Eastern Conference guards in player efficiency rating (24.6). 

Simply put, Rose is the playing the best basketball of any guard in the Eastern Conference and is an easy choice as the starter. 

Voters' Grade: 10

Eastern Conference Guard: Dwyane Wade

Based on the last results, Dwyane Wade should easily make it as the second starting guard in the All-Star game, as he has more than twice as many votes as Rajon Rondo, the third place vote-getter. 

As to whether he deserves it or not, it's a bit more difficult of a decision. I'd say he does, but it's not as easy a choice as you might think. There are other guards, such as Ray Allen and Louis Williams, who can have an argument made for them if you're just looking at this year's performance, particularly if you take into consideration the large number of games Wade has missed. 

On the other hand, it's a limited number of games and Wade is easily the better player and bigger star. The voters got this one right, but not by the same margin as you might expect.

There's a tiny micro-second of consideration on this one. Ray Allen and Louis Williams should have gotten more votes.

Voters' Grade: 9

Eastern Conference Forward: LeBron James

LeBron James is on pace to set the NBA single-season record for PER. That makes this about as much of a no-brainer as they come. I honestly can't fathom the logic of a person who would fill out a ballot and not put James on it as one of the two best forwards in the NBA. 

A more difficult decision than picking James for the All-Star game would be whether or not you should wear clothes to work. There's absolutely no way this decision is a wrong one. 

Voters' Grade: 10

Eastern Conference Forward: Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony is the runaway second place finisher among all forwards in the Eastern Conference.

Does he deserve it? This one is pretty hard to justify. 

Anthony is averaging 23.7 points per game, but he's shooting .404 from the field on the season. He's 63rd in the NBA in win shares and 24th in the NBA in PER. Statistically, he's hardly one of the best players in the NBA right now. 

Additionally, he's "helping" the Knicks to one of the most disappointing records in the NBA. 

Better candidates include Ryan Anderson, Paul Pierce, Andre Iguodala and Luol Deng, who are all having better seasons. Any one of them deserves this spot more than Anthony if you go by this year's performance.

If you feel that it comes down to strict star power though, you still have a case for Anthony.

In my opinion, though, the starter should have been Chris Bosh, who is having a better statistical season than Anthony and also has the same kind of star power. I think it's probably a large product of "anti-Heat" sentiment that he is only fifth in the All-Star voting.

Voters' Grade: 3

Eastern Conference Center: Dwight Howard

Dwight Howard is going to be the starting center and easily is the right choice. The difference between first and second is over a million votes at last count. 

That's not even adequate to describe the difference between Howard and the next best center in the Eastern Conference. However the surprise to me is that Joakim Noah is the second place vote-getter.

The next best center in the Eastern Conference is Tyson Chandler. I'm surprised he's gotten so few votes, particularly considering he plays in New York. 

Voters' Grade: 10

Western Conference Guard: Kobe Bryant

The aging Kobe Bryant doesn't to care about the aging part. He is having a resurgent season with his "new" knees. 

Bryant's resurgence and star power make him an obvious choice for the All-Star game. Whether you are looking at stats, where his 30.0 points, 6.1 rebounds or 5.4 assists make him an obvious choice, or his Hall of Fame, top-10-players-ever history, he's an easy All-Star selection.

It's hard to think what's going through a voter's mind to not include him on the ballot. 

Voters' Grade: 10

Western Conference Guard: Chris Paul

Chris Paul will be the starting point guard for the West in the All-Star game. That, like Kobe Bryant, is a pretty easy decision, rounding out an all-L.A. backcourt. 

Chris Paul missed a few games, but he leads all point guards in PER. He's averaging 19.2 points per game and 9.2 assists, giving him truly elite numbers. His arrival in Los Angeles has made the Clippers relevant—one of the impossible feats of basketball. 

In either conference, it's tough to be a guard not named Rose, Bryant, Paul or Wade right now. The starters are such easy choices that it's hard to pick anyone else.

Voters' Grade: 10

Western Conference Forward: Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant, as the two-time defending scoring champion, is an easy choice for starting forward and has gotten the most votes to date. I see no reason to expect that will change today. 

His scoring is down a bit to 26.6 points, but that's still good for third best in the NBA. What's notable with Durant is that his field-goal percentage is at a career high by a huge margin. His average of .506 this year is a full 41 points better than his career average.

Kevin Durant is the best small forward in the West and is an easy choice for the starting forward in the West.

Voters' Grade: 10 

Western Conference Forward: Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin has been the second-biggest vote-getter among Western Conference forwards, and with third place Dirk Nowitzki trailing him by nearly 300,000 votes, it's hard to imagine him getting passed. 

Griffin's numbers are All-Star worthy, but not starter worthy. That distinction should either go to Dirk Nowitzki or Kevin Love. Nowitzki deserves consideration from the "star" perspective based on how he carried the Mavericks to their first ever title last season.

Love is having a much better season, averaging about four more points and two more boards than Griffin. 

I'm a fan of Griffin's, but the voters got this one wrong. It's hard to believe that if Love played in Los Angeles and Griffin in Minnesota this would have the same results. This is a case of market size winning out. 

Voters' Grade: 4

Western Conference Center: Andrew Bynum

Andrew Bynum was the leading vote-getter among all Western Conference centers and should be the leader still when the final results are announced. 

This choice isn't as close as the voters would indicate. Marc Gasol was only third in voting but his numbers are very close to Bynum's. Gasol also had a better postseason than Bynum last year and has played more than Bynum this year.

In fact, Gasol is second among centers in win shares and Bynum is sixth. 

That he trails even DeAndre Jordan in All-Star votes shows that this is about locality as much as it is about deserving the vote. This should be a close race between Bynum and Gasol, but it's not.

Voters got the top choice right, but lose points for not giving Gasol enough credit. 

Voters' Grade: 6