Account
NBA All-Star Reserves 2015: Full Roster List and Analysis for East and West
January 30, 2015
A week after the voting public picked the starters for the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, the coach-selected reserves were announced Jan. 29.
There were a few surprises, and it seems clear quality trumped quantity in some cases, which helps explain Kevin Durant's inclusion on the roster despite missing more games than he's played this year.
Here are the complete rosters:
| 2015 NBA All-Star Rosters for East and West | ||
| Eastern Conference | Position | Western Conference |
| John Wall, WAS | Backcourt Starter | Stephen Curry, GSW |
| Kyle Lowry, TOR | Backcourt Starter | Kobe Bryant, LAL |
| Pau Gasol, CHI | Frontcourt Starter | Anthony Davis, NOP |
| LeBron James, CLE | Frontcourt Starter | Marc Gasol, MEM |
| Carmelo Anthony, NYK | Frontcourt Starter | Blake Griffin, LAC |
| Jimmy Butler, CHI | Backcourt Reserve | Klay Thompson, GSW |
| Kyrie Irving, CLE | Backcourt Reserve | Chris Paul, LAC |
| Paul Millsap, ATL | Frontcourt Reserve | James Harden, HOU |
| Al Horford, ATL | Frontcourt Reserve | Kevin Durant, OKC |
| Chris Bosh, MIA | Frontcourt Reserve | LaMarcus Aldridge, POR |
| Jeff Teague, ATL | Wild Card Reserve | Tim Duncan, SAS |
| Dwyane Wade, MIA | Wild Card Reserve | Russell Westbrook, OKC |
| NBA.com | ||
A few things to note before hitting the selections in full:
- Kobe Bryant's season-ending surgery on a torn rotator cuff opens up a starting spot in the West, which means Damian Lillard, DeMarcus Cousins and Mike Conley still have a shot.
- LaMarcus Aldridge is fighting through a torn ligament in his left thumb. If he ends up sitting out, we could see yet another replacement in the West.
- The same goes for Dwyane Wade and his bad right hamstring.
Commissioner Adam Silver will select any injury replacements.
Now, let's get detailed.
Eastern Conference
Backcourt: Jimmy Butler, SG, Chicago Bulls
Butler's phenomenal, nearly MVP-worthy start didn't last. His true-shooting percentage, player efficiency rating and overall productivity have declined steadily in each of the season's first three months. Nonetheless, he was a virtual lock to secure a reserve spot.
Butler's transformation from defensive stopper to all-around star has been remarkable. He leads the league in minutes per game, is scoring over 20 points a night after posting a previous career high of 13.1 and still matches up with every opponent's most dangerous wing scorer.
The MVP is out of the question. But Butler's still a deserving All-Star who'll probably be on the very short list of Most Improved candidates at season's end.
Backcourt: Kyrie Irving, PG, Cleveland Cavaliers
Irving's 93 points in his past two games didn't factor into his selection to the All-Star team, which is a shame. Fortunately, coaches were sufficiently satisfied with what he'd done beforehand.
Irving finished fourth among Eastern Conference guards in fan voting this year after garnering enough votes to start last year's game, which is odd considering he put up inferior numbers on a sub-.500 team in 2013-14. You'd think his improved production and role on a playoff-bound squad would have kept his fan appeal high.
Though the coaches tabbed Irving this time around, this is still a win for the fans. He's made a habit of dominating All-Star festivities in the past, as his MVP award from last year's game indicates.
Frontcourt: Paul Millsap, F, Atlanta Hawks
The first of three Hawks on the East roster, Millsap is probably the least surprising selection. He made it last year, and his mixture of versatile skill and grit is perfectly balanced to appeal to voting coaches.
The move to the East last year has made it easier for Millsap to get noticed. In the past five seasons, he's been remarkably consistent. His PER has been between 19.8 and 21.8 in every year of the last half-decade, and his true shooting percentage has held steady between 54.5 percent and 57.8 percent, per Basketball-Reference.com.
That was never enough for an All-Star breakthrough in the West.
Consistency, production and a leading role on the East's most dominant squad made Millsap an easy pick for the second straight year.
Frontcourt: Al Horford, F/C, Atlanta Hawks
A slow start gave rise to concerns that Horford, quietly one of the best bigs in the East in recent years, might be on the downslope of his career. A January surge marked by averages of 16.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists on 59 percent shooting (all in 31.5 minutes per game) put those concerns to rest.
And his biggest impact has been on defense, as ESPN.com's Marc Stein notes:
Maybe Horford's across-the-board numbers won't wow you, but Atlanta's ridiculous 30-2 surge since Thanksgiving has been sparked by its transformation on D from a team in the bottom five in defensive efficiency to a top-five unit. And Horford's gradual return to form, after all of his injury woes over the past two seasons, is the factor that largely triggered that turnaround.
Horford hadn't made an All-Star Game since the 2010-11 season, so this one is as sweet as it is deserved.
Frontcourt: Chris Bosh, PF, Miami Heat
Bosh spent the first half of the season proving to critics he'd taken on a lesser role during the Heat's dynasty by choice. With averages of 21.3 points and 7.5 rebounds, the 30-year-old forward showed he could still effectively handle the alpha dog position he played for so many years with the Toronto Raptors.
On pace to shatter his career high in made triples, Bosh also hasn't left behind the floor-stretching skills his days as a second fiddle forced him to invent.
His 10th straight selection puts him in a club with Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Dwyane Wade as the game's only All-Stars with double-digit appearances.
Wild Card: Jeff Teague, PG, Atlanta Hawks
Teague's selection means the red-hot Hawks will send three All-Stars to New York (at least; more on that in a moment), the most of any team.
It had to be this way. Atlanta is head and shoulders above the rest of its conference, and it was vital for the coaches to pay tribute to one of the most pleasantly surprising success stories of the season. Teague's not any sort of charity case, though; he earned his spot by being the ignition in Atlanta's ball-movement offense.
His orchestration of the pick-and-roll and ability to penetrate the lane get the Hawks' attack humming.
Oh, and for the sixth straight season, his points-per-game average and PER have increased, per Basketball-Reference.com. They're both sitting at career highs of 17.0 and 22.2, respectively.
Wild Card: Dwyane Wade, SG, Miami Heat
It's tempting to focus on Wade's 10 missed games and the subpar performance of his team when looking for reasons to criticize his selection. But the fact is, he's been remarkably effective to this point, averaging 21.4 points and 5.4 assists and leading all East shooting guards with a 22.5 PER, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
As was the case for Aldridge and Bryant in the West, an injury could mean Wade won't play at all. He strained his troublesome right hamstring in the Heat's last game before the voting announcement. His comments to reporters, per Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com, weren't encouraging: "I won't be seeing you for a little while," Wade said as he finished speaking.
There's hope for Kyle Korver yet.
Western Conference
Backcourt: Klay Thompson, SG, Golden State Warriors
It's hard to know if Thompson needed his absurd 37-point third-quarter against the Sacramento Kings to fully catch the attention of coaches. Even before that outburst, he'd been having the best year of his career by a wide margin, keeping pace with teammate Stephen Curry on the perimeter while flashing vastly improved off-the-dribble skills.
Thompson's growth has been profound. Prior to his efficiency rating of 22.7 this season (good for ninth in the league), Thompson's career high was actually his rookie rating of 14.9, a hair below league average.
The only thing keeping Thompson from posting career highs across the board is Golden State's routine blowout wins that often result in early rests. He's averaging just 32.6 minutes per game. On a per-minute basis, Thompson has exceeded all of his previous bests.
| Klay Thompson Per-36 Minutes | |||||||
| Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | FG% | 3FG% | |
| Career | 19.0 | 3.5 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 44.3 | 41.9 |
| 2014-15 | 25.4 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 48.1 | 45.6 |
| Basketball-Reference.com | |||||||
Bryant was voted a starter and won't play. So, the only question is: Will head coach Steve Kerr, a gentleman familiar with Thompson's talents, start him alongside teammate Stephen Curry?
Backcourt: Chris Paul, PG, Los Angeles Clippers
Though some of the selections have been controversial, Paul's inclusion is pretty much bulletproof. He's posting typical CP3 stats—17.5 points, 9.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 47.1 percent shooting—and, perhaps more importantly, he runs the show for the NBA's top-ranked offense.
You can argue he's been picking his spots more often on defense in his 10th season, but he's been as physical and feisty as ever when the Clips have needed him to be.
This is Paul's eighth consecutive All-Star appearance.
Frontcourt: James Harden, SG, Houston Rockets
Harden leads the league in scoring, trails only Anthony Davis in PER, has propped up an otherwise mediocre Rockets offense and has frustrated defenses by drawing fouls at a ridiculous rate. He has taken and made over 100 more free throws than Butler, who ranks second in the league in both categories.
Nobody comes close to presenting the one-one-one nightmare Harden does.
This is his best career season to date, and it's got plenty of observers whispering about an MVP award. Teammate Corey Brewer has been less guarded, per ClutchFans:
Frontcourt: Kevin Durant, SF, Oklahoma City Thunder
Missing 25 games, more than half of the season, didn't keep Durant from making his sixth consecutive All-Star team. His inclusion on the roster offers yet another example of how the criteria for voters is difficult to nail down.
When healthy, KD has been his usual self, posting a player efficiency rating just a tick below the one he logged as the league's MVP a year ago and generally scoring at will. Remember, he set an NBA record by piling 30 points in just 20 minutes against the Warriors on Dec. 18.
In a microcosm of his season, though, that exceptional performance was cut short by injury. He didn't return in the second half because of an ankle sprain.
If the All-Star Game is designed to reward players having the best overall seasons, KD's injury-shortened year lacks the cumulative value necessary to earn a spot. At the same time, it's hard to exclude perhaps the league's best player from the game.
For the coaches voting, it was too hard. So Durant's in.
Frontcourt: LaMarcus Aldridge, PF, Portland Trail Blazers
The heroism of declining surgery on a torn thumb ligament was apparently not lost on the coaches voting for All-Star reserves.
That's not to say Aldridge's spot should belong to someone else. He's been a matchup nightmare on the perimeter and a brutally effective scorer on the block this year. His career-best 23.6 points per game (through Jan. 29) has to be acknowledged, as does his frightening 51.1 percent shooting from long distance.
It's tough to overlook LMA's personal sacrifice for the betterment of his team, especially if you're a coach who probably dreams about that kind of selflessness.
Even after being honored with a selection, he went immediately to bat for his teammate, per Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports:
As was mentioned earlier, Aldridge has a terrific excuse for sitting out the contest. Cousins still has a way into this thing.
Wild Card: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs
At age 38, Duncan is the league leader in defensive real plus-minus, according to ESPN.com. Ranking among the NBA's most impactful defenders has to count for something, especially when you pair that distinction with 14.7 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.0 blocks in just 30.3 minutes per game.
Duncan has been the Spurs' rock, posting terrific numbers while staying healthier (he's played in 42 of 47 games) than both Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
Maybe there's an element of a legacy honor here. And maybe you can argue that there were other candidates who deserved consideration in the frontcourt (think Cousins, Dirk Nowitzki, Zach Randolph and DeAndre Jordan), but if winning, defense and professionalism matter, Duncan's a fine pick.
Wild Card: Russell Westbrook, PG, Oklahoma City Thunder
Everything about Westbrook's game seems amped up this year. He's producing the highest scoring average and usage rates of his career while blowing past his previous bests in PER, free-throw rate and brusque media interactions, per Basketball-Reference.com.
Unfortunately, wild shot selection and inefficient fourth-quarter takeovers are also part of Westbrook's makeup, and the dials on those have been cranked to 10 as well.
For that reason, in addition to missing 14 games, it would have been relatively easy to explain leaving Russ off the roster.
Don't be mistaken; Westbrook is still on the very short list of players who force opponents to concoct entire game plans designed to stop him. He can win contests entirely on his own, sometimes through sheer force of will.
If I'm a coach with a vote, I sure don't want to motivate one of the NBA's most relentlessly competitive forces with a snub. It's possible that concern, mixed with Westbrook's production spike, was key in overcoming OKC's so-so record and more than a dozen games lost to injury.
Graphics by Adam Fromal