A Somewhat Informed, Mostly Speculative Guess at NBA All-Star Game Draft Order
There's very little in life that can't be made more fun by a draft, which is why the NBA's decision, announced in October, to determine this year's All-Star Game rosters via a draft was met with such excitement. The idea seemed brilliant, a perfect wrinkle to inject some much-needed electricity into an event that in recent years has devolved into a snoozefest.
Participants would still be chosen the same way. The game's starters would still be determined by fans, reserves still selected by a mix of players, coaches and media.
The difference, though, would be that each conference's top vote-getter would serve as a captain and pick his own squad. Presumably, in front of a TV audience. The TV part was what made this all so exciting.
Instead, there was a conference call (and nothing screams excitement quite like a conference call). Politics prevented the draft from being seen. LeBron James, the Eastern Conference's votes leader, sat in the Cavaliers practice facility. Stephen Curry, the top vote-getter in the West, participated from his California home. A small group of league personnel listened in.
There were no TV cameras. Making matters worse: In a joint interview with TNT's Ernie Johnson later that night, neither player would reveal in what order players were chosen.
But that's not going to stop us from trying to determine how the draft went down. We, the fans, deserve to know who was taken when. We deserve to know who the All-Star Game's Mr. Irrelevant is so we can mock him relentlessly.
So here's Bleacher Report's attempt to reconstruct the draft order based on reporting from The Athletic's Marcus Thompson (a longtime Warriors reporter and author of a Curry biography) and comments from James and Curry. And also, pure conjecture.
Yep, mostly baseless conjecture.
Round 1
Curry and James had to each choose four players from a pool of voted starters (Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Joel Embiid, DeMar DeRozan and Kyrie Irving). James, as a reward for receiving more votes than Curry, chose first.
Pick 1: Team LeBron selected Kevin Durant
This, we know. And it was a no-brainer.
"Of course, I was the No. 1 pick," Durant said while speaking to reporters prior to the Warriors' game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. "What, we gonna keep this a mystery?"
We're with you, KD. Unfortunately, LeBron and Steph, it appears, are not.
Pick 2: Team Steph selects Giannis Antetokounmpo
From a basketball standpoint, this pick, which we know courtesy of Thompson, makes sense. If you need someone to slow LeBron and Durant, there aren't too many options. Thing is, it's not clear that Curry made this choice for the right reasons.
"He dunked on me last year, so I want to maybe get him on my team so that doesn't happen again," Curry told reporters last week. Imagine if Danny Ainge said he drafted Jayson Tatum because they played pickup once and Tatum broke his ankles.
Pick 3: Team LeBron selects Anthony Davis
James, according to Thompson, went with New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis, and for good reason. Davis is the best player remaining at this point, which is how James said he approached this endeavor. Also, he's always valued size.
Pick 4: Team Steph selects James Harden
We know the next three players Curry chose—Harden, DeRozan and Emibiid—but we can only guess the order. Hard to imagine, though, Curry passing up a chance to select Harden and his league-leading 31 points per game. Also, Harden's game is perfectly tailored for an exhibition contest.
PICK 5: Team LeBron selects Kyrie Irving
We also know James' next two picks: Cousins and Irving, with Irving, for obvious reasons, being the more interesting selection. "I just tried to pick the best available players. And to be able to team up back with Kyrie, it's always special," James told TNT when asked about drafting the player who over the offseason demanded a trade from the Cavaliers primarily because he no longer wanted to play alongside LeBron.
The guess here is that LeBron, operating under the assumption that the order would eventually be leaked (side point: why has the order not been leaked yet?), chose Irving at No. 5 and not with his last pick. This way, he'd come off as the mature one if and when the draft order was made public.
Or maybe he just thought it'd be a fun way to troll his former sidekick. Either way, good choice here.
Pick 6: Team Steph collects DeMar DeRozan
Would Curry have chosen Embiid over Cousins? That seems unlikely, though Curry's overall performance in this draft doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his general manager skills. Still, the bet here is that DeRozan was the choice at No. 6 (we know Curry values guards over big men), which left James with two options: Cousins and Embiid.
Pick 7: Team LeBron selects DeMarcus Cousins
Cousins goes to LeBron, probably because he's a better player than Embiid at this point and also because James likes the idea of having two teammates on his front line.
"I got a lot of chemistry with my 4 and 5, AD and Boogie," James told Johnson.
Pick 8: Team Steph selects Joel Embiid
Embiid to Curry, which brings Round 1 to an end. Here's what the rosters looked like at this point:
| TEAM LEBRON | TEAM STEPH |
| Kyrie Irving | Stephen Curry |
| Kevin Durant | James Harden |
| LeBron James | DeMar DeRozan |
| Anthony Davis | Giannis Antetokounmpo |
| DeMarcus Cousins | Joel Embiid |
Round 2
Curry and James had to each choose seven players from the remaining pool (Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kristaps Porzingis, Bradley Beal, Kevin Love, Victor Oladipo, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Al Horford, Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyle Lowry). Curry chose first.
Pick 9: Team Steph selects Klay Thompson
Curry went with his fellow Splash Brother with the first pick of the second round, according to Thompson. Curry came into the draft with a mission: Draft as many of his Warriors teammates as possible.
Pick 10: Team LeBron selects Russell Westbrook
Whether he did so because he thought Westbrook was the best player on the board or because, ever the performer, he enjoyed the thought of having Durant and Westbrook on the same team (both legitimate reasons), James used his initial second-round choice on Westbrook, according to Thompson.
Pick 11: Team Steph selects Draymond Green
Why Curry felt comfortable drafting Thompson ahead of the fiery Green is unclear. Also, that seems like an unwise choice given Thompson's and Curry's respective demeanors. Either way, if Curry was so eager to draft Thompson at the first possible moment, then let's assume he felt the need to scoop up Green as early as possible, too.
Pick 12: Team LeBron selects John Wall
Two words: Klutch Sports. Not familiar? That's the agency run by Rich Paul, LeBron's longtime friend and current agent. What does that have to do with John Wall? Well, Wall happens to be a Klutch Sports client.
"I had one of my guys with me (in the room while drafting)," James told Johnson. Perhaps that wasn't Paul, but it was likely a friend who had no qualms reminding James that it would behoove him to select Wall as early as possible.
How else to explain why Butler, who in all likelihood was available at this point, didn't end up on Team LeBron? The other possibility: GM LeBron's track record (see: Napier, Shabazz) isn't exactly flawless.
Pick 13: Team Steph selects Jimmy Butler
Butler was probably the best player available at this point. Also, he's one of the few players in the league with the size and skills to slow James and Durant.
Pick 14: Team LeBron selects Bradley Beal
Beal's not the best player on the board, but James seemed to be putting a lot of stock into team chemistry.
(Side note: This is likely where Love ended up, but thinking that way takes away the fun, so we're going to pretend Beal was the pick at 14 instead.)
Pick 15: Team Steph selects Karl-Anthony Towns
Curry only drafted one big man in the first round. James, meanwhile, drafted two. Towns was a must here.
Pick 16: Team LeBron selects Kristaps Porzingis
James is boys with Carmelo Anthony, who's boys with Porzingis, who also got Phil Jackson fired. All pluses in James' book.
Pick 17: Team Steph selects Damian Lillard
Curry needed another point guard, and is there a person in the world who'd appreciate Lillard's propensity for pull-up treys more than Curry?
Pick 18: Team LeBron selects Victor Oladipo
With the way Curry has loaded up his backcourt, James likely decided to target a guard here. But why Oladipo? The Pacers have faced the Cavaliers four times this season. The Pacers have won three of those contests with Oladipo averaging 25 points per game.
Pick 19: Team Steph selects Kyle Lowry
It's unclear why Curry felt he needed another ball-handler, but clearly he figured the more guards, the better.
Pick 20: Team LeBron selects LaMarcus Aldridge
Three big men left, and we know two of them ended up on Team LeBron.
Here's the question, though: Why has James been so keen on not revealing the order of the draft? Could it be because he doesn't want anyone to find out who was selected last?
Pick 21: Team Steph selects Al Horford
"When me and Steph was doing the draft, we started laughing very hard at one point," James told Johnson. Could it have been a result of James leaving Curry with the option of Kevin Love, the Cavaliers' whipping boy, or Al Horford and Curry deciding to embrace his inner troll?
Pick 22: Team LeBron selects Kevin Love
This is how James responded when Johnson asked him if it was important to have Love on his All-Star team:
"Yeah, important, important to have my teammate alongside of me. It's a great weekend we get to share another All-Star moment."
Not exactly the most convincing answer. And here's what Love had to say to reporters Friday.
"Where was I picked? I don't know. Probably dead last," he said. "I'm the guy in the pickup game where during the summer it's like, 'OK, he's a big guy that can shoot. Guess I will take him.' I'm not going to do the between-the-legs dunks, windmills, but I'm going to be getting those rebounds and outletting the ball."
So there you have it. Kevin Love is most certainly without question the All-Star Game's Mr. Irrelevant.
Yaron Weitzman covers the Knicks and NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow Yaron on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman, listen to his Knicks-themed podcast here, and sign up for his newsletter here.
