On Thursday, the starters for the 2025 NBA All-Star teams will be announced, as the votes by fans, media, and players will be tallied and averaged out to determine the 10 players locked into All-Star Weekend in San Francisco. Next Thursday, we’ll learn the other 14 players that will join them, as selected by the coaches.
This year’s selection process will be pretty fascinating, as some long-time locks of the past either are just on the bubble or aren’t even contenders to make a roster this year. On the other side, there are a lot of up-and-coming young players with strong All-Star resumes, making for some interesting debates between the league’s rising stars and established veterans. Plus the teams at the top of the standings are different than we’ve seen in years past — the Cavs and Thunder have been dominant in each conference and coaches tend to reward that kind of dominance with multiple All-Star selections, while teams like the Rockets and Grizzlies have played well enough it’s going to be hard not to put a player from each on the roster.
That could lead to some really interesting roster crunches, as will the case of LaMelo Ball, who leads fan voting but isn’t a lock for a reserve selection among East guards if he ends up missing a starting spot after player and media voting comes in. With all of that in mind, I wanted to take a stab at predicting this year’s All-Star rosters and look at the most interesting battles for the 12 coveted spots in each conference.
(As a reminder, the teams will not be East vs. West, as the NBA is adopting a new format similar to the Rising Stars game, so the teams will get drafted a little farther down the road.)
EAST STARTERS
Donovan Mitchell
LaMelo Ball
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jayson Tatum
Karl-Anthony Towns
I don’t think there is any world where Mitchell, Antetokounmpo, Tatum, and Towns are not voted as East starters. The frontcourt in the East has a pretty clear breakaway with those three, and Mitchell has both the stats and team success that he ought to be top-2 in each voting sector. Ball is the swing spot, as there will be a pretty wide gulf between his top spot in the fan vote and where he lands with the media, meaning it likely comes down to the ever-mercurial player vote. Ball did fairly well in that area a year ago when he played 22 games and was hurt. This year, he’s averaging 29.3 points per game in 28 appearances, and I think he will do just well enough with the players to edge Brunson out of a starting spot — possibly via the fan-voting tiebreaker for the second-straight year.
WEST STARTERS
Shai Gilegeous-Alexander
Stephen Curry
Nikola Jokic
Kevin Durant
LeBron James
I’m going to go chalk on the West when it comes to the most recent fan-voting returns, although I do think there’s a chance Victor Wembanyama is ahead of KD or LeBron in the non-fan vote. Even so, I don’t think this is the year he breaks through as a starter, but we’ll see him in San Francisco as a reserve. Jokic and SGA are stone-cold locks, while Curry has been terrific, has the home All-Star bump, and Luka Doncic’s injury will likely drop him some in the player and media ballots.
EAST RESERVES
Jalen Brunson
Cade Cunningham
Jaylen Brown
Evan Mobley
Pascal Siakam
Damian Lillard
Trae Young
Snubs: Darius Garland, Franz Wagner, Jarrett Allen, Jalen Johnson, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro
I do not envy the coaches when it comes to picking the reserves for either conference. My locks here are Brunson, Cunningham, Brown, Mobley, and Lillard. Cunningham and Mobley have taken notable leaps, with Cade leading Detroit to an above-.500 record as the league’s second-best story behind the Rockets, while Mobley’s jump has been a catalyst for Cleveland running away with the top spot in the East at the midway point. The others — Brown, Brunson, and Lillard — are well-respected stars on top-4 teams having fantastic seasons, and I cannot imagine them not doing well with the coaches.
Then there’s the last frontcourt spot and the last Wild Card. Right now, with the recent surge by the Pacers, I think Siakam has made the strongest case and, fair or not, recency bias tends to play a role in All-Star selections. Wagner was, before his injury, a near-lock in my mind for an All-Star spot, but he’s played just 25 games and I think has probably slipped behind Siakam. Jarrett Allen also will get some love for his role as the anchor of the Cavs defense and steadying presence inside for the offense, but I don’t think we will get a 2015 Hawks situation with the Cavs. For the final Wild Card spot, I think it will almost assuredly be a guard, and while he’s been snubbed before, I just can’t imagine leaving Trae Young off the roster. He’s leading the lead in assists by a hysterical margin (86 more overall than Haliburton and 1.8 more per game than Jokic), the Hawks have been better than expected, and he is the catalyst for that (along with Jalen Johnson, who I also think has a case but won’t get there this year).
That would mean leaving Garland off the roster, which also feels crazy given his play this year. He’s more than deserving of a spot, but that’s the domino effect of the LaMelo Ball starting scenario. However, if Ball isn’t the starter and Brunson is, I think Garland makes it in over LaMelo for the final East roster spot.
WEST RESERVES
Luka Doncic
Anthony Edwards
Victor Wembanyama
Anthony Davis
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Jalen Williams
Alperen Sengun
De’Aaron Fox (Injury Replacement for Luka Doncic)
Snubs: Kyrie Irving, Domantas Sabonis, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Ja Morant
Doncic is going to make it, even with his injury, because his numbers were so insane before he went down. I also think coaches will, at times, vote for an injured guy as a way to create an extra All-Star spot, with Adam Silver filling that (almost always with the next guy on the coaches list). From there, I only think one other guard is going to make it on the coaches voting, as the West feels like the opposite of the East, with frontcourt getting both Wild Card spots. I will guess Anthony Edwards gets the nod over De’Aaron Fox and Kyrie Irving, but it’s a very interesting debate as they have extremely similar resumes. In all honesty, given it’s the coaches vote, I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple coaches feel Fox had a role in Mike Brown’s ouster and leave him off their ballots for that, which is an incredible shame, but just the way this can work. However, I do think Fox has a good shot at being the injury replacement for Doncic when going up against Irving in a resume comparison, especially with Dallas stumbling while the Kings are surging.
In the frontcourt, Wembanyama, Davis, and Jackson Jr. feel like locks. Wemby’s been outrageous on both ends of the floor and has the Spurs ahead of schedule. Davis has been terrific this year on both ends in L.A., while Jackson has taken a leap in Memphis and has been the Grizzlies best player on both sides of the floor. From there, I can’t see OKC only getting one All-Star, and Jalen Williams would be the pick for their second player, while there’s just no way they can leave the Rockets completely unrepresented. The challenge with Houston is there’s not one guy that’s leading the way, but Sengun (somewhat ironically having a slightly worse year than he had in 2023-24) is averaging 19 and 10, which probably gives him the best resume for an All-Star spot, unless they opt for Jalen Green as their top scorer. Personally, I’d stump for Amen Thompson being Houston’s representative, but I have a very hard time seeing a guy averaging 13/8 getting that spot even if I think he’s deserving for his impact.
That would mean Domantas Sabonis misses out (again) as a tough snub, but I can’t see the Kings getting two All-Stars while a team like Houston misses out entirely, and Fox probably has a better shot of getting in over the other guards in the West than Sabonis does against this year’s frontcourt competition. Whether you agree that should be part of the All-Star selection process is its own argument entirely, but knowing how the coaches have voted in the past, team success does matter a lot when it comes to reserves. The other snubs here are guards, but I don’t think any are particularly egregious. Devin Booker is well respected and has solid averages, but the Suns have just not been good enough. Ja Morant is having a down year (and hasn’t played a ton) compared to his previous All-Star seasons, and while Norman Powell has been fantastic for the Clippers (who have been better than expected), I just don’t see his path to a spot.
This year feels like the season where we will have the most arguments about snubs, as there are a lot of guys at a lot of spots that have legitimate cases. Some years there are pretty clear gaps between tiers of players, but things feel muddier than usual this year because of the depth of talent and the rise of some young players and teams. That will almost assuredly lead to some very upset players, teams, and fan bases when reserves are selected and some very deserving players get left out.
