Building the Dream NBA All-Star Event Rosters
The All-Star Game itself is the biggest spectacle, but the weekend wouldn't be complete without all of the competitions between the NBA's best specialists and most exciting players.
Let's make it perfect, not just complete.
Rather than waiting to see who the league submits as the candidates for the Shooting Stars Competition, Rising Stars Challenge, Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest, we can pick our own contestants, making these events as ideal as possible.
We'll still follow the actual selection rules for each competition—picking the necessary number of players from each conference, for example—but now we get to make these fields supremely entertaining. You won't want to miss any of these events, and they may even trump the All-Star Game itself.
As a note, we're not picking the perfect All-Star rosters here. While the game itself is the headliner of the weekend, it's not one of these side events, so discussing the players who should make the team is something for another time and place.
Shooting Stars Competition
| Team Bosh | Chris Bosh | Swin Cash | Dominique Wilkins |
| Team Love | Kevin Love | Maya Moore | Wes Unseld |
| Team Young | Nick Young | Candace Parker | Magic Johnson |
| Team Curry | Stephen Curry | Skylar Diggins | Dell Curry |
The first triumvirate here, Team Bosh, is guaranteed inclusion. When you're a two-time winner of a competition and those victorious outings have come in consecutive years, there's no way you can be denied at a shot at a three-peat.
So welcome back, Chris Bosh, Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash. After finishing the course in 89 seconds flat during your first title and then improving drastically with a 31.4-second showing last season, it's time to see if you can keep getting better. But that's going to be difficult in 2015, as it basically requires hitting that tough half-court attempt on the first try.
And if we have a repeat team from the Eastern Conference, we have to do the same from the West. Well, almost the same.
Who better than the two Currys—Stephen and his father, Dell—along with Skylar Diggins? Technically, Diggins worked with Kevin Durant and Karl Malone last season, but she's too popular to leave out entirely. She's coming back but joining a different team, one that features the two sharp-shooting members of a squad that missed out on the Finals last season by all of five seconds.
As for the second team from the East, we're being a little unorthodox.
Kevin Love is a great outside shooter, but he's here with a 68-year-old Wes Unseld because of his outlet passing prowess. Both big men are some of the greatest we've ever seen in that facet of the game, and they're going to be required to shoot from half court with either chest passes or overhead bombs. Typical shooting form is not allowed, and they may actually be better this way.
Joining the outlet passers is Maya Moore, who led the WNBA in scoring during the 2014 season, averaging 23.9 points per game for the Minnesota Lynx. Yes, it's a way to include the league's best point producer and give Love a little throwback Minnesota flair to see how he handles it.
Now, we have two of last year's three leading WNBA scorers in the competition. Why not add the other one? Candace Parker plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, so it's only natural that she's teamed up with a pair of Laker legends.
The first is Magic Johnson, who routinely nailed ridiculous shots during his prime and might have a chance to do the same in this competition. Then, we have to include Swaggy "Nick Young" P, especially after his crazy sequence of losing the ball and calmly drilling a three so deep it might as well have been worth four points.
Rising Stars Challenge
| Dante Exum, UTA | Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL |
| Zach LaVine, MIN | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, DET |
| K.J. McDaniels, PHI | Michael Carter-Williams, PHI |
| Nikola Mirotic, CHI | Rudy Gobert, UTA |
| Nerlens Noel, PHI | Shabazz Muhammad, MIN |
| Jusuf Nurkic, DEN | Victor Oladipo, ORL |
| Elfrid Payton, ORL | Kelly Olynyk, BOS |
| Marcus Smart, BOS | Mason Plumlee, BRK |
| Andrew Wiggins, MIN | Dennis Schroder, ATL |
Due to a never-ending litany of injuries, the rookie class has been thinned out quite a bit this year. We don't get to include Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon or Julius Randle, though it seems almost certain that all three would have made this field otherwise. Joel Embiid can be included in that group as well, though we've always known he wasn't going to be playing for the Philadelphia 76ers quite yet.
Frankly, there aren't that many great candidates left.
Andrew Wiggins is an unquestioned lock, as he's the favorite for Rookie of the Year at this point. His game has been coming together lately, and he sits at No. 1 on the first-year ladder of Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman, who wrote about him, "Over the past two weeks, we've seen everything from fallaways and step-backs to spin moves and floaters. He's also shooting 10-of-22 from downtown since December 23."
Other locks from the rookie class include, well, basically everyone listed except for Zach LaVine, who has struggled in a more featured role with the Minnesota Timberwolves. But who's going to replace him? Bojan Bogdanovic, who isn't nearly as exciting a player and has recently fallen out of the Brooklyn Nets' rotation?
Beyond that, we're working with disappointing rookies like Nik Stauskas, Noah Vonleh and Doug McDermott, among others. There really just aren't many great options.
Picking the sophomore class is far more difficult.
In a perfect world, Michael Carter-Williams wouldn't make it, as he's been largely ineffective during his sophomore campaign and isn't currently one of the nine best second-year players. However, we're guaranteeing him a spot, as he is the league's reigning Rookie of the Year, regardless of how misleading that award may be.
Leaving out players like Tim Hardaway Jr., Ben McLemore, Gorgui Deing, Steven Adams, Trey Burke and Cody Zeller is quite unfortunate, but that's what happens when a class is emerging this quickly. There have been plenty of players making up for lackluster rookie campaigns in 2014-15, and nine spots isn't all that many.
Victor Oladipo and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the absolute locks, but who else from the selected group could possibly be omitted? Everyone involved has made massive strides this season, especially guys like Dennis Schroder, Shabazz Muhammad and Rudy Gobert.
When squads are drafted from these two groups of players, something tells me that, for the most part, the sophomores will be coming off the board first.
Skills Challenge
| Team 1 | Jeff Teague, ATL | Damian Lillard, POR |
| Kemba Walker, CHA | Russell Westbrook, OKC | |
| Team 2 | John Wall, WAS | James Harden, HOU |
| Kyrie Irving, CLE | Monta Ellis, DAL |
This is Damian Lillard's contest to lose.
Remember our entirely arbitrary rule about two-time champions getting invited back when they've won their titles in the past two years? It applies here, as the Portland Trail Blazers point guard blazed through the course in 29.8 seconds to win in 2013 and then teamed up with Trey Burke to take home the title for the Western Conference last season.
Burke doesn't need to be back. Sorry, but he's struggling in his sophomore season and doesn't have the name recognition that we want for a quick event like this. It's more fun to root for the big names as they speed through this de facto obstacle course.
And it's all about quickness.
That's why we're including four of the fastest point guards in the Eastern Conference—Jeff Teague, Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving and John Wall. Derrick Rose is a tough omission, but it's more fun to watch him on the basketball court during live action, and that means leaving him out of a meaningless competition like this for the sake of his health.
Health is also an issue for Russell Westbrook. However, his injuries have been of the fluke variety, and he hasn't shown any significant setbacks from the torn meniscus and broken hand he's suffered over the last few years, which allows him to represent the Western Conference alongside Lillard.
But we're not just going to include point guards.
In 2014, there were a few combo guards, a true shooting guard in DeMar DeRozan and a lanky wing player in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Truthfully, I'd love nothing more than to take that to an extreme and watch Nikola Pekovic and Andre Drummond attempt to navigate the course, but more fans will enjoy watching blazing speed and the quickest times possible.
So that leaves us with a pair of blindingly quick 2-guards—James Harden and Monta Ellis.
Lillard may have won each of the past two years, but this field is beyond stacked. Picking a favorite is simply impossible.
Three-Point Contest
| Bradley Beal, WAS | Stephen Curry, GSW |
| Kyrie Irving, CLE | Damian Lillard, POR |
| Kyle Korver, ATL | Klay Thompson, GSW |
| Terrence Ross, TOR | Wesley Matthews, POR |
Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving and Terrence Ross are all must-include players from the Eastern Conference.
They can each light up the scoreboards from downtown, draining triple after triple when they catch fire. None are that high up on the league-wide leaderboard for various reasons, though. Beal's injuries have kept him down, and the same is true for Irving. Ross simply doesn't have a large-enough role with the Toronto Raptors.
But all three are supreme snipers. And they still pale in comparison to the fourth player from the conference.
Kyle Korver has completely changed the Atlanta Hawks offense in 2014-15, as defenses have to respect his shot to such an extreme that everyone seems open when he's on the court. His gravitational pull is absolutely ridiculous, as he's honed his shot to the point that teammates now celebrate upon his release, not when the ball falls through the net.
Interestingly enough, Korver is the only player from the Eastern Conference among the top dozen distance shooters in the NBA, based solely on total makes this year. With 103 successful conversions from downtown thus far, he's six off the league lead, trailing only Wesley Matthews. However, he's all the way down at No. 13 for attempts, largely because he's hitting his perimeter shots at a ridiculous 51 percent clip.
He's as much of a lock for this competition as humanly possible.
In the Western Conference, the field doesn't contain the favorite, but it's more stacked from top to bottom, thanks to two sets of teammates.
From the Golden State Warriors, the Splash Brothers are both present. Stephen Curry is widely recognized as the league's best shooter, and that will help him out here even if he doesn't get to show off his shot-creating abilities while pulling a ball from a rack. He and Klay Thompson—ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in three-point makes—will both have a great shot at advancing, but they'll have to go up against two candidates from Rip City.
Matthews has been huge for the Portland Trail Blazers this year, making more threes than anyone else in the league. But Damian Lillard isn't far behind, as his 99 three-point buckets leave him trailing only his teammate and Korver.
There are plenty of notable exclusions (James Harden, J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson, Trevor Ariza, Danny Green, Wilson Chandler, etc.), but the novelty of having two pairs of teammates who all rank in the league's top five is too much to pass up.
Slam Dunk Contest
| Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL | Gerald Green, PHO |
| Jimmy Butler, CHI | Russell Westbrook, OKC |
| Andre Drummond, DET | Andrew Wiggins, MIN |
Now, for the main event.
The dunk contest has been quite underwhelming the last few years, but that's largely because there's been an over-reliance on recruiting and including big names. That shouldn't be relevant here, as we just want to see the best, most athletic and most creative dunkers. Sometimes, that means throwing in someone who isn't going to play in the actual All-Star Game.
Sorry, LeBron James. The ship has sailed on you participating, and there are far better choices this year now that your knees and back are giving you trouble. You've been finishing bursts to the rim with passes rather than slams, and that doesn't cut it here.
Sadly, there aren't many great choices in the Eastern Conference once we also leave out Derrick Rose because his knees are still too questionable. Paul George can't participate either, and John Wall is getting left out despite winning last year while benefiting from an extremely weak and unimpressive field.
We're going with the young guns here.
The fun-loving Giannis Antetokounmpo is our first candidate, as he'll use his lanky arms and youthful desire to do things we've never seen before. With a wingspan that would make Jay Bilas swoon repeatedly, he's sure to put together some crazy dunks.
Joining him will be the exceedingly humble Jimmy Butler, who routinely dazzles with his athleticism and thunderous slams. Few can elevate as easily as he does, and the sheer power of his slams will be something to behold.
And speaking of power, how about Andre Drummond? Extremely athletic big men always make for a fun spectacle, and he certainly qualifies as such. While he doesn't have to jump all that high in order to throw down, that just means he can use his hops in other ways. We've seen bigs put stickers on the backboard, dunk through two hoops in one jump and so on.
What will Drummond bring to the table that's new?
But difficult as it was to pick three worthy candidates from the East, it's even harder to narrow down the field to just three in the NBA's tougher half. Essentially, the competition came down to four players—Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Russell Westbrook and Gerald Green.
After an unofficial survey of four other Bleacher Report NBA writers and editors, there wasn't any separation. LaVine ended up missing out by only a single vote, and everyone else was tied just ahead of him. Really, we should expand to four players so he doesn't have to get left out, as he's arguably the most athletic dunker in the league right now, despite his lack of opportunities to show off in live action.
Trust me, I feel terrible leaving him out. And three-time champion Nate Robinson probably would too, as he already told Andy Greder of TwinCities.com, "If Zach LaVine's in the dunk contest, I'll say he will win because he can jump."
But alas, LaVine is not in our field. And it's not as though there's a resulting shortage of worthy candidates.
Green can fly, and he's the proud owner of some of the best and most creative dunks in contest history. Cupcakes, anyone? Wiggins is likewise an athletic phenom, and he's a first-year player who's bound to try to impress on such a large stage. And, of course, we have the ferocious Westbrook, who regularly treats the rim like his worst enemy.
With this field, the dunk contest will be back in business.
No more waiting to see when a contestant will do something novel and leave the crowd stunned. No more lackluster competition that drags on for far too long. No more dunks that rely on gimmicks and not sheer athletic prowess and creativity.
No question about it.
