Let's Talk About the All-Stars - Eastern Conference

Just a slight change of pace for a second, guys.  Let's have it out about the All-Star game and what everyone thinks of the reserve rosters and the starters.  It's well deserved that Amar'e has been chosen to start as it has been a damn long time since the Knicks have had an All-Star starter.  David Lee was an injury replacement recently, but getting voted to be a starter (while admittedly a popularity contest) is a big achievement.  Few people (Kelly Dwyer preferred Kevin Garnett) would argue against Amar'e starting but his play has certainly supported his selection.
But the real meat here is the Reserve Rosters which are chosen by the coaches.  Double cork with me, you Flying Tomatoes.

Soooo.... I wanna briefly go through the Starters and Reserves from each conference and start a conversation about how accurate the team choices are and who was snubbed and what not.  NBA All-Star Teams are normal sized teams and with 30 teams in the NBA, it's always going to be controversial and cause heavy debate.  Currently, the Starters are chosen by the fans from a ballot that is created before the season begins.  Nothing wrong with that as it allows for a lot of voting time.  The main issue most people take with the ballot is how it is position specific.  You must choose 2 guards, 2 forwards, and a center.  In this NBA where positioning is becoming blurry as more and more players are able to play multiple positions, many people find it outdated that the NBA still confines players to one position on the ballot (Pau Gasol was listed at Forward... however he has played the majority of this season as Lakers C.  Same goes with Amar'e who is listed as a Forward). 

It's less of an issue with the starters than it is with the Reserve Choices though.  All-Star Coaches choose the reserves for their team.  Rather than be free to choose 7 players of their choice, they are forced to choose 2 Guards, 2 Forwards, 1 center and 2 wild cards.  Sounds fine on first look, but the All-Star game is supposed to be fun and what happens if certain positions are more heavily stocked with all-star worthy players than others?  Would it be so wrong to have a team weighted towards bigger forwards if the guard selection is weaker?  If the players chosen to fill the spots are playing great, then who cares? It would add an interesting angle to the game at the least and maybe create less chance of snubs. 

EAST Starters

Thoughts:  Seems to me the fans got this one right.  Hard to argue that this 5 is not the 5 best players at their positions this season so far.  I can think of a few guys who have played well enough to start, like Ray Allen, Al Horford, Rajon Rondo to name a few. 

EAST Reserves

Thoughts: Oh look, how nice, 3 teams make up the whole damn thing, with FOUR Celtics chosen.  This sort of angers me and maybe it makes me a tad hypocritical after just saying how the coaches should be able to just form their own team with no restrictions.  My argument was position-wise though, not team-wise.  There aren't enough spots to have each team represented in the All-Star game, but while the Big 4 on the Celtics have been played excellent this half... do we really need all 4 of them?  Diversity, please.  Pick 2.  People would understand because there are FOURTEEN teams in the East.  And each team has at least one main attraction worthy of attention.  Even the Cavs.  Doesn't mean they have to be chosen, but 4 of the 7 total spots filled by one team?  Come on now.  So who got snubbed?  Unfortunately, not entirely too many guys, but there are a few guys who are worthy of roster spots.

In random order of snubility: 

I highlighted the couple guys I feel to be the biggest snubs.  Yeah, I put a few Knicks on the list.  Ray Felton is most deserving in my opinion.  People expected him to "breakout" this year and he has.  I don't think people expected 17ppg and 9ast though.  Chandler and Gallo have been excellent this season but I surely wouldn't expect for 2 Knicks to be chosen out of 7 spots. I get why Boozer wasn't chosen since he missed the 1st month of play, but dude is a 20-10 guy.  Certainly better than that Bosh asshole. Bogut is a legit snub too as he has been a beast for an injury riddled Bucks team and some even argue he has been a better defender than Dwight Howard.  Josh Smith deserves a spot on the all-star roster, but with Joe Johnson and Al Horford already there, I am ok with Atlanta not dominating the roster much like I don't think Boston should dominate either, nor Miami.  Two players from a single team is enough given the overall size of the rosters. 

 The rest of the list are good names, but no one REALLY stands out as a guy who should be on the team. At least not so much over who's already chosen.  I think a guy like Andray Blatche and DJ Augustin deserve heavy debate, but ultimately, maybe they are a year away from being legit additions.  I don't think it's fair to discount a guys play based on his team's performance though and a lot of these guys who not chosen predominantly for that reason.  Basketball IS a team sport, but the All-Star game is based on individuals.  We aren't assembling the USA team for a tournament run. 

Overall, the Eastern All-Stars are decent.  The starters are the most deserving and aside from the reserves being dominated by a single team and the overall team comprised of players from only 6 of the 14 teams in the East, the guys are pretty solid.  I don't see many glaring misses here save for maybe Felton and Boozer.  But even Felton can be argued against seeing how his January has played out (although...Dirk Nowitzki sucked in January too...) and Boozer did miss a good portion of the 1st half.  There isn't much controversy about the eastern picks.  Certainly not like the western Conference (which will have it's own post as well).

So let's discuss who you think was snubbed or if you would make any changes to the selection process.