Team LeBron vs. Team Giannis: B/R NBA Experts Mock Draft 2020 All-Star Rosters

Bleacher Report NBA StaffJan 30, 2020

Imagine having to wait a whole week for the 2020 NBA All-Star draft to go down.

Officially, you do. Captain LeBron James and Captain Giannis Antetokounmpo won't be making their televised selections until Thursday, Feb. 6.

Unofficially, though, we're expediting the process. Why? Because this year's reserves are in, we love mock drafts, and we love you, dear reader, even more than we love mock drafts.

LeBron once again has the No. 1 pick by virtue of receiving the most All-Star votes. Grant Hughes will be serving as his proxy. Antetokounmpo will have back-to-back selections later on, giving him first dibs among the newly selected reserves. Dan Favale is being tapped to channel his inner reigning MVP.

Painstaking thought went into fleshing out every roster. This is to say, we prioritized the fun factor above team fit. Talent has a way of figuring things out. All-Stars are talented. Ipso facto: Any outcome is possible for any roster construction.

Team LeBron and Team Giannis will no doubt approach this draft differently than their highly serious, not-at-all-snarky stand-ins. Locker-room politics may come into play, a la how early Anthony Davis and Khris Middleton are taken. That's their prerogative. It's not ours.

Embrace the weird. We sure did.

Pick No. 1: Team LeBron Takes Luka Doncic

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Darren Carroll/Getty Images

Luka Doncic may not be the guy you'd take first if you were trying to win a ring this season (although you could do a whole lot worse), and there's a case to be made that his skill set is a little duplicative on a team that already has LeBron James.

But if you think about it, isn't that last criticism—that his game overlaps too much with the greatest player of all time—the highest of compliments?

Doncic is, statistically, the best 20-year-old we've ever seen. He's on pace to join Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players of any age to average at least 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in a season. It seems worthwhile to mention that he's doing all this while not gunning for his own counting stats (Hi, Russ!) or playing in an era during which defense was optional (Hello to you, too, Oscar!).

This pick doesn't really need an explanation. It's Luka Doncic, the guy entirely responsible for a Dallas Mavericks offense currently on pace to be the most efficient in history. But if forced to give a deeper rationale, I think this pick is about curiosity as much as anything else.

I'd like to see how warped the space-time continuum gets when two guys who can see the floor in four dimensions play together. If LeBron and Luka's galaxy-brain passing opens a black hole that swallows the arena, sorry...but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Pick No. 2: Team Giannis Takes Kawhi Leonard

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I, for one, look forward to seeing Luka Doncic go 3-of-11 from three while being relegated to Kevin Love duty when LeBron James has the ball. Fantastic pick.

Kawhi Leonard is coming to Team Giannis.

Like Doncic, his bag isn't rooted in All-Star Game aesthetics. He's also at the point of his career and load-management program at which he won't be the one trying the hardest on defense. Maybe the new quarter-by-quarter scoring format will incentivize him and everyone else to give a damn at the less glamorous end (they won't), in which case, I feel bad for Team LeBron.

Either way, this pick is about hacking the superstar exhibition.

Even a version of Kawhi Leonard that's giving one-ninth of an effort on defense is bound to come up with more stops than pretty much anyone else. Hell, if they want, Kawhi and Giannis can just hold hands and form a link across the court from above the break. Team LeBron won't know what hit 'em.

Drafting solely for defense would obviously be stupid. That's not happening here. Leonard remains a maker of ridiculously difficult jumpers, a mushrooming staple of these marquee-name shindigs. He's canning 38.5 percent of his pull-up triples in 2020.

Beyond that, the world needs a glimpse into the Kawhi-Giannis tandem before it takes real-life effect during the 2021-22 season...in Milwaukee. I'm kidding. Maybe.

Pick No. 3: Team LeBron Takes Anthony Davis

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Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press

Can't wait for Kawhi to announce he won't play back-to-back quarters as part of his ongoing injury management. That'll keep him off the floor for the decisive fourth period, which seems like a sound business decision on his part. Speaking of which, Team LeBron has to make one of those with its next pick.

Anthony Davis can hit free agency in less than five months, and while nobody is saying he'll bail on LeBron and the Lakers because of hurt feelings, prudence dictates we avoid any ego-bruising by keeping him on James' side.

And, really, we also have to think about the press cycle for Space Jam 2. If LeBron and AD aren't on speaking terms when they're sharing interview couches on the upcoming promotional circuit, it'll be a bad look.

Oh! Also, Davis is arguably the best two-way big in the league, and we know from a half-season of work with the Lakers that his game meshes just fine with LeBron's. If he thought James' setups made life easy, just imagine how clean the looks will be when he's got Doncic feeding him, too.

Pick No. 4: Team Giannis Takes Trae Young

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Ron Turenne/Getty Images

Solid kowtowing to the free-agency dynamics...after picking someone else first. Don't forget to immediately draft another big man so Anthony Davis can play All-Star Game defense—translation: no defense on anyone who's not a center.

Trae Young's circus passing is made for this setting, and stacking the roster with players who have infinity-and-beyond range off the dribble is never a bad idea. Only Damian Lillard has made more shots from 30-plus feet, and Young is hitting those looks at a 34.4 percent clip—or, roughly, what RJ Barrett shoots from the foul line. (Just kidding.)

Better overall players are still on the board. That doesn't matter.

The All-Star Game isn't about assembling the most well-rounded roster, but rather the most dangerous. Few scorers in the league are more lethal than Young, who, by the way, will not be scared silly by your fancy-schmancy not-a-center at the rim. His finesse finishes are comparatively nasty to his off-the-bounce jumper. He's downing a hair over 50 percent of his floaters.

And as an added bonus, teaming up with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard means Trae is actually, ya know, surrounded by other playmakers. He'll finally get the chance to move around off the ball and leverage his center-logo touch as a spot-up shooter.

Pick No. 5: Team LeBron Takes Joel Embiid

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Matt Slocum/Associated Press

Don't forget to draft another big man, you say? Listen, I'm not here to be told what kind of roster to put together, or how my players fit, or what my team needs, or...I'm taking Joel Embiid.

You've got me on this one.

Davis is, if not prevented by contractual fine-print mandate, at least ideologically opposed to playing center. So I'm taking the biggest, baddest, most center-ist center available and doubling down on a roster built to physically overwhelm Team Giannis.

The shadows my hulking front line casts will block out the sun, probably afflicting Team Giannis' frailest members (so, Trae) with a Vitamin D deficiency that renders them unplayable. And at the moment, Giannis is playing center for you, which means Embiid is going to foul him out in, let's charitably say, six minutes?

This team is drunk on size.

Pick No. 6: Team Giannis Takes James Harden

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Tim Warner/Getty Images

That's a good point. Giannis Antetokounmpo is my center. I should take Pascal Siakam. And I'm almost inclined to grab him.

But you've already assembled your front line. And that trio—specifically Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid—doesn't shoot threes all that well. Which means Siakam will be there for my next selection. Which means I'm free to take James Harden. Which means your clunky team is in trouble.

Maybe I should be worried about the emotional toll Harden will incur by playing under the captainship of the dude he thinks he should've beaten out for MVP last year but actually shouldn't have beaten out for MVP last year. I'm willing to roll that dice.

Giannis is first-team All-I'd-Follow-Him-to-Hell-and-Back-and-Then-Back-to-Hell-Again. Harden will come to love him.

Antetokounmpo might even inspire him to play defense, and hot damn, everyone knows Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta wasn't speaking at all outlandishly when he said nobody's better at getting stops than Harden when he cares enough. At worst, though, this roster can only benefit from having another walking bucket who hits inconceivably difficult threes—his recent Russell Westbrick streak notwithstanding.

Pick No. 7: Team LeBron Takes Pascal Siakam

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Ron Turenne/Getty Images

And now you've fallen into my trap.

I, assembler of a roster that already includes four guys ranging in size from "burly small forward" to "Lincoln Navigator," will gladly add 6'9" Pascal Siakam to the mix. Who needs little guards running around and making threes? This is NBA 4.0, and bulk is the new black. I have the two best playmakers in the league on my team. Combined, they are 13 feet, four inches tall.

I don't know if that matters. But it's impressive, right?

Siakam can guard every position, and point guard is a position, so I feel good there. He's also shooting well enough from three (36.8 percent at publication time) to offer sufficient stretch. His spin move affects the rotation speed of the planet.

I'll admit to being a little concerned about the amount of court my defense will have to cover with Harden and Young hauling all this heft out to 30 feet (or, since this is an All-Star Game, probably 40 feet). But I'm down to prove David got lucky that one time against Goliath. Best of all, there's only one starter left to pick, and I have a feeling he's not going to tilt the size differential in your favor.

Pick No. 8: Team Giannis Takes Kemba Walker

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Congratulations on building your team around the side of the floor legitimately everyone doesn't care about playing. This will definitely work out well for you.

Getting "stuck" with Kemba Walker is a blessing. Your never-left-1995 starting lineup has, let's say, two players who might potentially, possibly, if you're lucky, be committed to playing defense and also have the capacity to consistently bust up possessions on the perimeter. We're now throwing a third boundless off-the-dribble shooter into the fold.

Best of luck not getting welcome-to-the-future'd into submission. At this rate, under the game's new format, the fourth quarter may last a full 90 seconds.

Antetokounmpo is now, officially, our starting center. We stan. Everyone knows what he can do when surrounded by four floor-spacers, and the Milwaukee Bucks, an objectively inferior squad compared to ours, are annihilating opponents this year during his time in the middle with an offensive rating that would make the dynasty-era Golden State Warriors' Death Lineup blush.

Beating up on Team Clumpy is going to be fun.

Nos. 9-12: Lillard, Paul, Gobert, Jokic

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Pick No. 9: Team Giannis Takes Damian Lillard

It's like the non-post-up-loving elders always say: Three Stephen Curry facsimiles are better than two.

Damian Lillard, come on down.

This man is swishing 42.5 percent of his looks from 30-plus feet while leading the league in makes from that range. Kent Bazemore isn't even shooting that well at the rim. He fits perfectly on this roster of off-the-bounce escape artists, loooooong-range assassins and Kawhi Leonard.

Pick No. 10: Team LeBron Takes Chris Paul

At the risk of pulling back the veil on our artificially contentious dynamic, great pick. Although to be fair, I'm only saying Dame is a great pick because he was the one I wanted to make. Not sure if you'd noticed, but Team LeBron is a little light on conventional guards.

The Point God should solve that.

Chris Paul is right at 60 percent true shooting, a figure that, if sustained, would rate as the third-best full-season number of his illustrious career. He will absolutely compete (even in an All-Star Game) and will punish the likes of Trae, Kemba and Dame with old-man craft and strength.

It also won't hurt to have another veteran in the room with Luka and Siakam as first-timers and Embiid not necessarily known for full-throttle focus.

Pick No. 11: Team Giannis Takes Rudy Gobert

So it's probably time we took a conventional big, if only so Milwaukee Bucks fans don't have to cringe each time Giannis Antetokounmpo, who remains emotionally attached to the outcome of every possession, bounces off a downhill-attacking Joel Embiid.

Rudy Gobert is going to play more defense than anyone in this game—and not just because extinguishing attempts around the rim and hanging tougher than you think when guarding in space is his life's purpose.

This marks his All-Star debut. First-timers are always more likely to give a hoot and try harder than the most familiar faces. That holds doubly true for Gobert.

He wants to be an All-Star. He shed tears when he was snubbed—for a third time—last year. He will feel like he has something to prove, and that burden of validation will manifest itself in the one-man defensive system unto himself doing what he does best: routinely turning the opposing offense's half-court possessions into dust.

Pick No. 12: Team LeBron Takes Nikola Jokic

There are some who'd say a team with Luka, LeBron and CP3 has enough passing. Agree to disagree.

Give me Nikola Jokic as my backup center and stand awestruck as the best passing big we've ever seen operates from the elbows and blocks, whipping dimes through traffic and suckering defenders with a slow-down pace that'd make Kyle Anderson consider a lawsuit for identity theft.

Gobert will shore up your interior defense...until Jokic pulls him out of the lane with a three-point stroke that's been good for a 37.9 percent conversion rate since Dec. 1.

Nos. 13-16: Butler, Ingram, Middleton, Mitchell

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Morry Gash/Associated Press

Pick No. 13: Team Giannis Takes Jimmy Butler

Our squad's a little light on playmakers who get their jollies from dropping dimes first and getting buckets second. Trae Young stands alone.

Until now.

Jimmy Butler has transitioned into more of a floor general with the Miami Heat. He bolsters his scoring by taking approximately a kabillion free throws every game, but his 13.7 shot attempts per 36 minutes are his lowest since 2014-15. He's also hovering around the top 20 in potential assists and finishing about seven pick-and-roll possessions per game.

Insofar as it matters for Chicago's offense-only party, Butler is still capable of carrying an entire defense. The Heat regularly have him on the floor with three below-average stoppers and Bam Adebayo, a fast-footed monster who wrecks entire possessions but who is also just 6'9" and not a premier deterrent at the rim.

Miami, despite all this, has still mustered strong defensive returns with Butler on the court. That's a fairly huge deal.

Pick No. 14: Team LeBron Takes Brandon Ingram

Brandon Ingram is the only guy in the league averaging at least 25 points per game on 40 percent shooting from deep. He's the easy pick for Team LeBron, which probably needs a few more spacers to make all this passing and interior heft pay off.

Not that he'll need it on a team riddled with set-up men, but Ingram's shot creation has been a key to his breakout. He's never had a lower percentage of his two- or three-point field goals assisted than he has this season.

He's this team's first pure bucket-getting pick.

Pick No. 15: Team Giannis Takes Khris Middleton

Very proud of you, Grant, for taking an actual wing. It was overdue. Also: You wouldn't have needed a pure bucket-getter in this slot had you already taken Devin Book—oh, yeah, right.

In reality, Antetokounmpo will take Khris Middleton way earlier than No. 15. He's that good of a teammate. Hypothetical Team Giannis needn't show that much loyalty. And hey, we're pairing the two anyway.

Plug-and-play star power is an underrated commodity. Middleton has the chops to score off the dribble; he's banging in more than 42 percent of his pull-up threebies. But he's just as effective off the catch (45.2 percent), and more than one-fifth of his shot attempts are coming as standstill triples. Working off the rest of this team will not come as completely foreign.

Universal fits are the best All-Star complements.

Pick No. 16: Team LeBron Takes Donovan Mitchell

The temptation to grab another playmaking giant is strong, but I refuse to Sixers this thing and stick Ben Simmons with Embiid. We know how that movie ends: with a split-'em-up trade at some point in 2021. Maybe. Probably.

Donovan Mitchell is one of the league's premier combo guards, and it's no coincidence that Utah's offense took off when he and Joe Ingles started tag-teaming facilitation duties during Mike Conley's injury hiatus. The third-year standout can get you 25 every night, often spectacularly. And that's important. This team isn't the most athletic, and above-the-rim highlight-generation is an All-Star Game prerequisite.

Mitchell has got enough hops to keep things exciting. He'll be good for at least one backdoor-cut posterization.

Nos. 17-22: Tatum, Lowry, Simmons, Westbrook, Adebayo, Sabonis

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Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Pick No. 17: Team Giannis Takes Jayson Tatum

Look, I'm not going to say I take some sort of perverse pleasure in hoarding wings so you're left with only LeBron James, Brandon Ingram and the argument that Pascal Siakam has always, in fact, wanted to spend time at shooting guard.

I'm not not going to say it, either.

Taking Jayson Tatum is a little bit of a risk. Just as new All-Stars seem inclined to play harder, they can also fade into the enormity of talent around them. And while the mid-range-ification of his game is overstated, he's good for a few junky, ill-advised long twos per game.

This is me, not caring.

Not unlike Khris Middleton, his stardom can be applied and translated to almost any situation. More than half his buckets still come off assists, and he pairs his plug-and-playness with a budding pull-up jumper. His iffy finishing around the rim won't be as much of an issue when he's feasting on wide-open lanes in the half court and on transition dunks.

Less pertinent to the All-Star Game itself but equally important: Tatum is defending well enough to make an All-Defensive team this year. He will get reps against Pascal Siakam and Anthony Davis and, hell, probably even Nikola Jokic. We're cool with it.

Pick No. 18: Team LeBron Takes Kyle Lowry

You're really just going to leave Simmons there dangling for another round? Whatever. I'm not taking the bait.

In fact, I feel good enough about my wings—if you squint, LeBron, Luka, Siakam, Ingram and Mitchell all count—to add my second fire-hydrant point guard. Kyle Lowry, come aboard!

Lowry just does all the little things that produce wins, and if this new quarter-by-quarter setup has the intended effect of ratcheting up the competitiveness of the entire All-Star Game, I think his value spikes. He'll get up underneath opposing wings, push the rock in transition, find gaps to exploit on or off the ball and—bold prediction time—take a charge!

That's right. You're going to see willful self-sacrifice in an exhibition game because that's the kind of commitment we demand on Team LeBron. Also, I now have two reigning NBA champions to your one, which, by my rough calculations, means I'm twice as likely to win. Don't dispute the math. It's rock-solid.

Pick No. 19: Team Giannis Takes Ben Simmons

I'm doing this for you. And for me. Really, I'm doing it for everyone.

Simmons' scoring isn't cut from the most watchable All-Star mold. His passing is times forever. We could wax poetic about his defensive portability, but going into those weeds rings hollow in this discourse. Though to be fair, looking at our roster, Simmons is going to play some center and get plenty of opportunities to operate as a screener and roller.

Mostly, we need to make sure he and Joel Embiid are on different teams. For all of us. Maybe they end up trading impassioned barbs. Maybe Simmons summons the courage to jack a three, only to have Embiid swat it into the stands. Maybe Simmons yams on Embiid in transition and stares him down, pounding his chest while screaming "Trade this MFer to Boston!"

Too much nonessential drama is bad. This doesn't cross the line. Awkwardness that spills over past the All-Star Game can be entertaining. Separating Embiid and Simmons, as so many outside Philadelphia have fantasized about, is a vote for fun. It is a move for the people.

Pick No. 20: Team LeBron Takes Russell Westbrook

The word "hero" gets thrown around a lot these days, and, I mean, you're definitely not a hero. So I'm not sure why I started this section that way. But good job, and thank you for officially separating Simmons and Embiid.

I've got enough bigs, so I'll let you decide which of the two remaining frontcourt options to take and instead snag a dude who has two All-Star MVPs to his name. This particular fellow, who averaged a triple-double three years in a row, knows how to put up numbers and, just as importantly, does not know how to take his foot off the gas. That'll serve him and Team LeBron well in a game that tends to turn into a track meet.

Though he's athletically diminished by time and stylistically antithetical to the collective spirit of this savvy, pass-happy team, I'm going with Russell Westbrook.

Why not, right?

Pick No. 21: Team Giannis Takes Bam Adebayo

Once again, I find myself proud of you, this time more than the last.

Knowing the Slack-room rage monster you turned into when Russ made the All-Star reserve pool over Devin Booker, I am genuinely surprised you ended up taking the former rather than letting him ride until the last pick in protest.

Part of this is definitely because I so badly wanted Bam Adebayo. His passing...my god, his passing. But also, his defensive footwork. He moves like he has jet packs attached to his feet. We look forward to seeing him switched onto Westbrook and winning the head-to-head battle.

Team Giannis will empower Adebayo to shoot threes. He has some range, and the All-Star Game is the perfect nobody-cares setting to let him fire away.

Pick No. 22: Team LeBron Takes Domantas Sabonis

Listen, if I could take Devin Booker over any of my last half-dozen picks, I would. But part of team-building is making every person involved in the enterprise feel valued. So let's spin this thing the right way.

Domantas Sabonis isn't the last guy I wanted on my team. He's the first lefty. Further, I'm a fan of how he's the clear fulcrum of Indy's offense.

There aren't many bigs who can run a handoff game like he can, and when Sabonis gets the ball on a roll into the lane, somebody is getting shoulder-checked into the stanchion—unless he spots a shooter. He'll find the right guy every time, as his 4.6 assists per game attest.

You also can't rule out the possibility of a board-hoarder like Sabonis excitedly overhustling in his first All-Star trip. He might collect every miss en route to a 20-point, 20-rebound night. He also might play two minutes and not touch the ball. We'll feel it out.