It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Not because it’s almost Christmas or the Toyotathon, but because voting for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game opened on Tuesday. NBA All-Star voting is our chaotic civil duty that saw Andrew Wiggins voted in as a starter at last year’s game and triggered a total overhaul of the voting system when Zaza Pachulia came within 15,000 votes of starting the 2016 All-Star Game.
This was supposed to be the year the Minnesota Timberwolves took over the All-Star Game. The Wolves have had more than one representative at the All-Star Game only four times in franchise history. The last time? 2018, when best friends Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns had a great time together in Los Angeles.
With the addition of three-time All-Star Rudy Gobert in the offseason, the Timberwolves were poised to rise towards the top of the Western Conference, with Gobert and Towns each battling for their fourth career selections and Anthony Edwards looking to break in as a first-time All-Star. Well, the Wolves took a nap in the mud that is the bottom-middle of the Western Conference standings for the first month of the season. Gobert looked small standing next to 18-year-old French phenom Victor Wembanyama and never recovered. Towns was having the worst three-point shooting season of his career before he strained his calf. And Edwards showed up out of shape.
What once looked like it could be the best Timberwolves season ever quickly turned into another disappointment. The Wolves were out of the play-in, their only All-Stars were injured, and Edwards hadn’t made the leap we all promised ourselves he’d make this season. Basketball was not fun. And then point-Ant was born and re-kindled his hopes to become an All-Star debutant. During their three-game winning streak that the Dallas Mavericks snapped on Wednesday, Ant averaged 27.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game on 47 percent three-point shooting. Those are nearing Luka Doncic-level numbers, and he’s done it with Towns, Gobert, Taurean Prince, and Jordan McLaughlin on the bench.
Ant has the team back at .500 and squarely in the playoff race, and it came at the perfect time. Now that All-Star voting is open, Edwards has thrust his name back into the national conversation. But the Western Conference is loaded with great guards who are having All-Star-caliber seasons. If Edwards is going to make his debut in the All-Star game this year, he will have to beat out some stiff competition.
It starts with last year’s Western Conference guards voted in as starters, Stephen Curry and Ja Morant. Two of the most popular players in the game blew out the rest of the field in fan voting last season and finished first and second in both player and media votes. Both are having outstanding seasons this year. Even though Steph went down with a shoulder injury that should sideline him for the next 4-6 weeks, if both are healthy when the game tips, there’s no doubt they’ll both be there. Luka Dončić is another no-doubter. There’s always the argument about whether he’s a guard or a forward, but he’s listed as a backcourt player and will make his fourth All-Star appearance come February. And throw Devin Booker in the automatic section. He’s averaging a career-high 28 points per game in his eighth season.
Things open up a little more after the fab four. Damian Lillard is back with a vengeance after missing most of last season with an abdominal injury. If the Portland Trail Blazers stay ahead of the Wolves in the standings, it will be hard for Ant to overcome Lillard in the West backcourt pecking order. Here’s where things start to get really interesting. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having a breakout season and is third in the NBA in scoring. However, his team stinks, which is usually a killer for guys putting up big stats (just ask Bradley Beal). The saving grace for SGA is that his team was supposed to be even worse than they actually are, and the fifth-year guard is playing at an MVP level just to keep them out of the Wembanyama Sweepstakes.
Those six fairly clear-cut All-Star candidates stand in Ant’s way. Desmond Bane was probably on his way to his first All-Star game until a toe injury has sidelined him since Nov. 11 and will likely keep him out until early January. De’Aaron Fox is having a nice season with the upstart beam team, but the Sacramento Kings could revert to being the Kangz at any moment. Those are all of the realistic backcourt candidates outside of CJ McCollum having a case as the second-best performer on one of the best teams in the West. But the New Orleans Pelicans are not the Golden State Warriors of the last eight years. Therefore, they likely aren’t dominant enough to warrant a second All-Star behind Zion Williamson.
The way All-Star rosters are constructed isn’t very helpful here. There are two backcourt starters, two backcourt reserves, and two wild selections. That almost always means the four automatics will get the starter/reserve selections, while Ant, SGA, and Lillard will have to duke it out with fringe frontcourt hopefuls like Lauri Markkanen, Jerami Grant, and Domantas Sabonis for the wild card spots.
The best way for Edwards to punch his ticket to the festivities in Salt Lake City is by continuing to play outstanding basketball and for the Wolves to keep winning games. Becoming an injury replacement is the other way to earn an extra spot. Nobody ever wishes injury upon a player, but they happen. There were three injury replacements last season. It’s not how any player wants to get their first All-Star nod, but hey, Booker’s first two All-Star appearances were as an injury replacement. You’ve got to start somewhere.
As of this writing, Ant is most likely just on the outside looking in. But there are still almost two months until the All-Star game, and if Ant continues his point-Ant play, he will be an All-Star sooner rather than later.
