NBA All-Star Rosters 2017: List of Starters, Predictions for East, West Reserves

Basketball Twitter (and pretty much anyone who watches the NBA) has been on fire since Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook did not make the starting lineup for the Western Conference All-Star team.

Westbrook, who had even odds to win the NBA MVP as of Jan. 8, per OddsShark, is averaging a triple-double this year. His scoring high this season is 51, his assist high is 22 and he's had 17 rebounds four different times.

He's going to make the All-Star Game as a reserve, and no further justification is needed. You won't be surprised again when the results are revealed Thursday night. But what about everyone else?

Per Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report, here's how voting for the reserves works:

"NBA head coaches will determine the backups. The East and West will each add three players in the frontcourt, two in the backcourt and two wild-card picks, with those results slated for release on Thursday, Jan. 26."

For the purpose of this piece, I'll pretend that I'm not a failed D-League basketball coach (college intramural D-League, not NBA D-League) and instead one of 30 NBA head coaches.

With that being the case, I'm looking to make as competitive and balanced a team as possible in order for my conference to win the game.

I'm not sure if the players care about the result—and honestly, who can blame them? We're trending toward an All-Star team scoring 200 points because no one plays defense (the final last year was 196-173 in favor of the West). Still, I'm going to honor the vote as best I can.

That means we need to look at the starters for each conference and then build a bench around them.

Eastern Conference Starters

Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls)

Western Conference Starters

Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), James Harden (Houston Rockets), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs), Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans) and Kevin Durant (Golden State Warriors).

And here are the picks with some explanations:

Eastern Conference Reserves

Backcourt: Kyle Lowry (Toronto Raptors) and Isaiah Thomas (Boston Celtics)

Frontcourt: Paul Millsap (Atlanta Hawks), Kevin Love (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers)

Wild Card: John Wall (Washington Wizards) and Paul George (Indiana Pacers)

Notes

Lowry should be starting instead of Irving. He's the best two-way guard not named Chris Paul (who is injured and won't play in the All-Star Game) in the NBA. Also, Lowry is second in NBA Real Plus-Minus, per ESPN.com.

Thomas is averaging 29 points and six assists a game for the third-seeded team in the Eastern Conference. He's also putting up 33 a night in January.

Wall is listed in the wild-card section, but he and Thomas are interchangeable. Wall is leading a Wizards team that started 3-9 into the fifth position in the East. He's averaging a double-double a night (23 points and 10 assists).

Millsap and Love are stone-cold locks in the frontcourt.

Like Wall, Millsap is the best player on a top-five Eastern Conference team that went through a rut (in Atlanta's case, it went 1-10 over 11 games in late November and early December) but is now flourishing (11-3 in its last 14). He's putting up 18 points and eight rebounds a game.

Love is enjoying a resurgent season, with his highlight being a 34-point first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers. He's averaging over 20 points and 10 boards a game.

The last two picks are Embiid and George.

Embiid has injected life into a Philadelphia 76ers team that won just 10 games last year. He is a usage machine and dominates in the limited time he spends on the floor due to his minutes restriction. The rookie is averaging 20 points and eight rebounds in just 25 minutes per game. The 76ers have an outside chance at the playoffs in large part due to him.

George is somewhat quietly putting up 22 a game for a disappointing Indiana Pacers team. He is shooting 45 percent from the field and an incredible 92 percent from the free-throw line.

You could make an argument for other players (Kemba Walker is my last player out), but George gets the last spot because we don't need a fifth point guard (or sixth, if you count Antetokounmpo).

Western Conference Reserves

Backcourt: Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)

Frontcourt: DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings), Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors) and Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz)

Wild Card: Mike Conley (Memphis Grizzlies) and Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies)

We all know about Westbrook at this point.

The only other two locks on this list are Cousins (28 points and 10 rebounds per game) and Green (the glue guy on the best team in the NBA).

The rest is difficult.

Lillard gets the nod despite Portland's disappointing season. He's dragging a terrible defensive team that has only two players averaging over 11 points per game (himself and C.J. McCollum). Dame is averaging 26 per night, the highest total of his career.

Gobert is simply too good on defense (and the boards) to be left off. He just had a 27-point, 25-rebound game against the Dallas Mavericks and is first in the NBA by a wide margin in Defensive Real Plus-Minus, per ESPN.com.

And then there are Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, the two best players on a Memphis Grizzlies team that finds a way to compete in the brutal West year in and year out. Memphis has beaten Golden State and Houston twice each, and it currently owns the No. 7 seed in the West.

That leaves C.J. McCollum and Klay Thompson as the odd men out, which doesn't feel good whatsoever (if you wanted to place them in the wild-card category instead of Conley and Gasol, I wouldn't blame you).