My 2024-2025 Eastern Conference All-Star Ballot

Requirements

12 roster spaces are available, divided into 5 starters and 7 reserves.
Starting lineups must feature two guards and three frontcourt players.
Reserves must include at least two guards and three frontcourt players. The remaining two reserve slots are positionless “Wild Cards.”

Eligibility notes

Eliminated due to games missed: Joel Embiid, Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jimmy Butler

My Criteria

I am isolating my evaluation to that of their on-court performance in the first half of the 2024-2025 season. Historical production is irrelevant and I am not deferring to pedigree.
I do not abide by the custom of awarding sympathy All-Star nods to players on winning teams because “they deserve to have someone make it.” It should not be difficult to imagine a team with several B+ players outperforming a team that is being dragged to bare competence by a single A-level player. Such a phenomenon does not render any select one among the B+ coalition worthy of All-Star honors above a superior player languishing in an inferior environment. I will not have any Houston Rockets or Los Angeles Clippers on my roster.
The traditional PTS/REB/AST slash line, scoring efficiency as determined by True Shooting %, and Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM) as available on dunksandthrees.com will be weighed evenly in my consideration. This statistical hodgepodge will account for ~60% of my final judgment.
The remaining 40% will be derived from my independent assessment and notes taken while watching several hundred games in full.

EASTERN CONFERENCE STARTING LINEUP

Guard: Darius Garland (21/3/7 on 63% TS, 4.4 EPM [11th])

Guard: Cade Cunningham (25/7/9 on 56% TS, 3.0 EPM [28th])

Frontcourt: Jayson Tatum (27/9/6 on 59% TS, 5.0 EPM [6th])

Frontcourt: Giannis Antetokounmpo (32/12/6 on 62% TS, 5.1 EPM [5th])

Frontcourt: Karl-Anthony Towns (25/14/4 on 66% TS, 4.3 EPM [12th])

What fun would this be without a tiny morsel of controversy? As I see it, there are four guards with equally viable claims to starting backcourt honors this season. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell have been integral in contrasting but complementary ways to the Cavs dominance. Donovan is their most explosive athlete and toughest shotmaker, Garland is a virtuosic passer who has supercharged the team’s offensive efficiency with his understanding of how to leverage the Cavs perpetual size advantage, and both players stretch defenses past the point of rupture with absurd range and accuracy from beyond the arc. As I’ll talk about with Cade in a moment, Mitchell’s efficiency gets misleadingly deflated by the responsibility he bears late in the shot/game clock. When conventional offense fails, the Cavs lean on Donovan as a failsafe to generate a decent shot in isolation, attempts which by nature will never approach the conversion rates of those taken in the flow of the offense. He is also a rather underrated defender, disrupting lesser scorers regularly with his 6’10” wingspan and 220 lb frame, a compliment which cannot be echoed for the slimmer, frailer Garland. That being said, I ultimately came to the conclusion that Garland’s scalding efficiency and quasi-psychic exploitation of every defensive scheme has been the chief catalyst for Cleveland’s ascent to league-best offensive output, and on that basis awarded him the first backcourt position in my imaginary ballot.

I struggled similarly between Cade and Brunson, though I wonder if my subconscious is irrationally resisting awarding both spots to the Cavalier teammates. Cade is a walking mismatch at 6’6” and 225 lbs, a masterful three-level scorer with nightmarish deceleration and world-class court vision. He’s both vertically explosive and eternally balanced, a flamethrower of a passer with ambidextrous facility, and embraces the toughest defensive assignment on a nightly basis for a surging Pistons team that adores him. What Jalen Brunson lacks in athleticism and defensive prowess, however, he makes up for in spades with superior efficiency and ball security. Cade turns the ball over twice as often as Brunson, who in addition makes a higher percentage of his shots from every distance on the court. Some of this can be attributed to offensive environment, as Jalen is luxuriating in New York’s elite five-out spacing while Cade throws futile lobs to handless men with Malik Beasley as his team’s second-leading scorer, but Cade nevertheless needs to tighten his handle and sharpen his decision-making around the edges. I am open to persuasion here (including in the direction of Donovan Mitchell), but I ultimately am deferring to my eyes here (and admittedly my love for these Pistons) which tell me that Cade has been the superior difference maker.

The starting frontcourt, mercifully, is an absolute layup. Giannis continues to vie for best player in the world status, Tatum’s consistent excellence is masking a distressingly lifeless start to Boston’s title defense, and KAT is scoring more efficiently than Jokic for the best offense in New York Knicks history.

EASTERN CONFERENCE RESERVES

Guard: Donovan Mitchell (23/5/5 on 57% TS, 4.0 EPM [13th])

Guard: Jalen Brunson (26/3/7 on 60% TS, 2.7 EPM [41st])

Frontcourt: Evan Mobley (19/9/3 on 65% TS, 4.0 EPM [14th])

Frontcourt: Pascal Siakam (20/7/3 on 61% TS, 3.5 EPM [20th])

Frontcourt: Jarrett Allen (14/10/2 on 73% TS, 3.0 EPM [30th])

Wild Card: Damian Lillard (25/4/7 on 62% TS, 2.9 EPM [37th])

Wild Card: Trae Young (23/3/12 on 56% TS, 1.8 EPM [61st])

With Donovan and Jalen’s positions secured, I am left with five spots, three of which are reserved for frontcourt players. To dispense with the trivial, Evan Mobley and Pascal Siakam should be near-unanimous selections as reserve forwards. Mobley is a game-breaking mismatch and a defensive terror, and Siakam’s hot start from beyond the arc has made his Pacers unguardable again in their re-ascent to elite offensive efficiency. Thus remain three spots, one of which will go to Dame Lillard, who has accounted for diminished burst with renewed efficiency and better chemistry with Giannis.

Truth be told, if the remaining spots were positionless, then I would almost assuredly leave Jarrett Allen off my roster. As it stands, I need a third frontcourt reserve, and with Franz falling short of the attendance requirements (I desperately wanted to slot him in anyway, he’s been unbelievable when healthy), options are somewhat limited. Jaylen Brown has really struggled this season as both a creator and on-ball defender, and my eyes tell me that EPM has his gallingly low estimated impact correct within the isolated sample of this season. The runner-up here was Nikola Vucevic, who is putting together an under-the-radar terrific bounceback campaign, but when in doubt among players of this (4-star) caliber I break ties with defensive aptitude. Jarrett is a world-class rim protector and is leading the league in scoring efficiency for the #1 overall seed, so he’s my preference among underwhelming options.

Ideally, his spot could have been taken by Lamelo Ball, who I am distressingly going to be leaving off my roster here. This final guard spot, as evidenced in the list below, is more or less an impossible decision to make with any real confidence. Trae, Lamelo, Maxey, Lavine, and Derrick White all, in my opinion, have strong arguments to be chosen here. Trae and Lamelo are both scintillating one-man shows but enormous defensive liabilities, Zach Lavine is the most efficient high-volume scorer of the bunch, Maxey has been inefficient due to brutal circumstances but is otherwise maybe the best player here, and Derrick White is a defensive technician and lethal shooter but shoulders the easiest burden. Though I’m sensitive to schematic considerations here, Lamelo has been infuriatingly unserious on the defensive end and outright mortifying in his shot selection down the stretch. He is the most talented player in this group and a surefire future All-Star, but I’m slightly more comfortable with Trae’s judgment and control.

Honorable Mentions

Guards