NBA All-Star Game 2017: TV Schedule, Live Stream for Starting Rosters Reveal

The Baseball Hall of Fame's 2017 class was announced Wednesday, just one day before the NBA All-Star Game starters will be revealed.

The back-to-back timing, while coincidental, is appropriate, as sports fans love nothing more than arguing about who should and shouldn't be in a Hall of Fame and who should and shouldn't be an All-Star.

(These two go neck and neck with debating power rankings and mock drafts, as well as embarking on the annual tradition of screaming loudly on television and social media about which mid-major got screwed out of the NCAA men's basketball tournament for a power-conference school.)

Below you'll find the starting lineup announcement information, the latest voting results and some thoughts on who should start.

Starting Lineup Announcement

When: Thursday, Jan. 19

Time: 7 p.m. ET

TV: TNT

Live Stream: TNT Overtime

NBA All-Star Fan Voting (as of Jan. 12)

Eastern Conference			Western Conference
Frontcourt	Team	Votes	Frontcourt	Team	Votes
LeBron James	CLE	1,066,147	Kevin Durant	GS	987,479
Giannis Antetokounmpo	MIL	963,110	Zaza Pachulia	GS	823,376
Kevin Love	CLE	473,328	Kawhi Leonard	SA	630,766
Joel Embiid	PHI	457,300	Anthony Davis	NO	567,201
Jimmy Butler	CHI	400,448	Draymond Green	GS	464,319
Guards			Guards
Kyrie Irving	CLE	971,362	Stephen Curry	GS	990,390
Dwyane Wade	CHI	514,866	James Harden	HOU	961,685
DeMar DeRozan	TOR	453,538	Russell Westbrook	OKC	899,024
Isaiah Thomas	BOS	401,671	Klay Thompson	GS	555,430
Kyle Lowry	TOR	256,668	Chris Paul	LAC	379,076

via NBA.com

Starter Takes

For these opinions, I'm going to create a new stat out of thin air off the backs of other people who did legitimate hard (and incredible) work to come up with formulas to better analyze the game.

The stat: BPR. It's a combination of Box Plus/Minus from Basketball-Reference.com, player efficiency rating (PER) from ESPN's John Hollinger and Real Plus-Minus.

You can read more about how those statistics are created by following the links, but BPR is simply those three stats added together to make one number.

Obviously, the heavy emphasis is on PER, as that is the biggest number.

Using BPR, we'll then come up with the five starters for each conference, with the caveat that we need to fill positions.

For example, none of the five Eastern Conference players with the best BPR can fill the center position, so we need to take the top four and then the best center.

Here are the results.

Western Conference

PG: Russell Westbrook—50.18 BPR (13.9 BPM, 29.73 PER, 6.55 RPM)

SG: James Harden—43.12 BPR (10.0 BPM, 27.83 PER, 5.29 RPM)

SF: Kawhi Leonard—42.48 BPR (7.9 BPM, 28.36 PER, 6.22 RPM)

PF: Kevin Durant—40.71 BPR (7.9 BPM, 27.44 PER, 5.37 RPM)

C: DeMarcus Cousins—39.23 BPR (6.6 BPM, 27.13 PER, 5.50 RPM)

Realistically, there are six players for five starting spots. New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis was the odd man out here, as his BPR of 37.17 fell just short. Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic also came close (36.83 BPR), although, in fairness, he only just started playing more significant minutes in December and has a smaller sample size.

Using the eye test, Westbrook (averaging a triple-double) and Harden (third in points, first in assists and leading a 33-12 Houston Rockets team that is crushing preseason expectations) are the most deserving.

Durant is the best player on the best team in the NBA, and Leonard is the best player on the second-best team on the NBA. It's hard to leave them both out.

That leaves a battle between Cousins and Davis. The BPR says Cousins here, but either him or Davis would be a fine option.

Eastern Conference

PG: Kyle Lowry—38.82 BPR (7.4 BPM, 24.08 PER, 7.34 RPM)

SG: Giannis Antetokounmpo—43.6 BPR (9.4 BPM, 28.22 PER, 5.98 RPM)

SF: Jimmy Butler—39.57 BPR (6.7 BPM, 25.95 PER, 6.92 RPM)

PF: LeBron James—40.82 BPR (8.1 BPM, 25.91 PER, 6.81 RPM)

C: Joel Embiid—29.23 BPR (3.1 BPM, 23.94 PER, 2.19 RPM)

Kyle Lowry's low All-Star vote total is surprising. I'd argue there's no real debate that he should be starting at point guard for the East next month.

He's one of, if not the best guard (point or shooting) in the Eastern Conference.

Michael Gallagher of Rotoworld explains why:

"

Kyle Lowry is first in RPM wins. Seriously, if you don't think he's the best G in the Eastern Conference, good luck. pic.twitter.com/MApQGEXTXw

— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) January 17, 2017"

Antetokounmpo and James, arguably the two best players in the conference, can much slot almost anywhere they want outside of center, so we're throwing them at shooting guard and power forward, respectively.

Butler is the easy call at small forward with no true contender to take away his throne this year.

That leaves the center position open. If Joel "The Process" Embiid didn't have a minutes restriction this season, there would be no debate, as his per-36 numbers, according to Basketball-Reference.com, are off the charts (28.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.5 blocks).

Still, it's not every day that you see a 7'0", 250-pound center shooting better than 34 percent from beyond the arc. He's an incredibly talented player who deserves to be in New Orleans.