There’s nothing like the naming of the NBA All-Stars to get me all good and pissed off. Well, nothing except for the Grammy winners each year, but still, this annual debacle is a close second. But I digress …

Anyway, as usual, here’s the NBA Sim rebutal to the less-than-stellar voter/coaches selections this year. My selections are based on APP+ which is APP above positional average APP. In case that didn’t make any sense, let’s say Chris Paul and LeBron James have the same APP. APP+ would show Chris Paul as actually having the better season since the point guard average APP is lower than a small forward’s average APP. Or, in a quick visual demonstration (with completely made-up data):

The following data use 2010 NBA stats through 1/18/2010. Thanks, as usual, Basketball-Reference.com!

Eastern Conference All-Stars
Voter/Coach Selections					Who Should Be Playing
	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Pos.	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Diff.
Start	LeBron James		17.48	F	LeBron James		17.48	0.00
	Kevin Garnett		12.32	F	David Lee		17.29	↓ 4.97
	Dwyane Wade		19.21	G	Dwyane Wade		19.21	0.00
	Allen Iverson		6.08	G	Rajon Rondo		15.33	↓ 9.25
	Dwight Howard		16.63	C	Dwight Howard		16.63	0.00
Starters Difference								↓ 14.22
Bench	Gerald Wallace		17.12	F	Gerald Wallace		17.12	0.00
	Chris Bosh		15.98	F	Chris Bosh		15.98	0.00
	Rajon Rondo		15.33	G	Joe Johnson		12.46	↑ 2.87
	Joe Johnson		12.46	G	Derrick Rose		9.87	↓ 0.85
	Al Horford		14.56	C	Brook Lopez		15.41	↓ 0.85
Wild Card	Paul Pierce		11.83	WC	Antawn Jamison		14.64	↓ 2.81
	Derrick Rose		9.87	WC	Al Horford		14.56	↓ 4.69
Reserves Difference								↑ 4.61
Total Difference								↓ 17.11

Whew … something really smells and it’s coming from the East! Let’s take a look at the starters, first. Remember, these positions were voted on by the fans and had to come from this crop of players. When making my picks (according to APP+), I went by this player pool, as well.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard are easy locks. All three are the best at their respective positions and should be starting in this game for the East. However, Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson seem to have been chosen on sentimental value as they are just not performing at All-Star level this year. You’ll notice neither one makes my list! Rajon Rondo and David Lee should be their replacements. Rondo is a fairly obvious choice but, yes, I said David Lee!

Though usually playing “center” in Mike D’Antoni’s mish-mash, fastbreaking, 3-point shooting Knicks, he’s listed as a forward on the All-Star ballot. Yes, the Knicks playing at the 6th fastest pace in the game will inflate Lee’s stats a bit, but APP accounts for this and he still is leading Chris Bosh by a nose in performance. Remember, these selections are based off of stats from right around the time All-Star voting ended because since then, Bosh has made his move and is now doing better than Lee.

Anyway, the amount of performance that the Eastern All-Stars are losing because of fan selection is about what Andre Iguodala brings to the court each night. That is an incredible amount! Thanks, casual NBA fans!

Ok, onto the reserves who are selected by the coaches. Where voters overvalue name recognition and scoring, coaches respond mainly to team wins which irks me almost as much. All-Star status is a recognition for individual acheivement and yet coaches base many of their selections on a stat dependent upon multiple people! And – when you think about it – team wins are also a stat that is attributed to coaching! Perhaps this really is a way to pat each other on the back for a job well done rather than picking out the best players. Who knows?

It’s unanimous: both the coaches and I feel Chris Bosh and Gerald Wallace are the 3rd and 4th best Eastern Conference forwards (at the All-Star break). We also agree on Rajon Rondo and Joe Johnson’s inclusion, however their selection of Rajon has been pushed down because of the Iverson fiasco. Since my selections don’t suffer from the same mistake, I get to bring in another deserving guard: Gilbert Arenas with an APP+ of 11.96. Oops. Actually, it sounds like Gilbert won’t be able to attend the party in Dallas, so I’ll go with the next best guard: Derrick Rose.

While I agree Al Horford deserves to be an All-Star, he’s certainly not the second best center in the conference – that would be Brook Lopez of the lowly New Jersey Nets. Finally, the coaches feel a burning desire to let Paul Pierce show up to another of these games even though Antawn Jamison deserves it so much more.

As usual, the coaches do a much better job at picking All-Stars than voters (though that’s not saying much), as the amount of performance they’re leaving out is only 4.61 APP+ – or about what Anthony Randolph has done this year. Remeber, this production would be ADDED to the reserve group’s performance, not substituted for any reserve, so it’s still like leaving free money on the table.

Alright, let’s head to warmer (and hopefully better selected All-Stars) parts of the NBA …

Western Conference All-Stars
Voter/Coach Selections					Who Should Be Playing
	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Pos.	Player	Team(s)	APP+	Diff.
Start	Tim Duncan		18.53	F	Tim Duncan		18.53	0.00
	Carmelo Anthony		17.23	F	Dirk Nowitzki		18.51	↓ 1.28
	Steve Nash		15.82	G	Chris Paul		22.77	↓ 6.95
					Brandon Roy		16.47	↓ 0.67
	Kobe Bryant		15.80	G	Deron Williams		16.02	↑ 6.75
	Amare Stoudemire		11.01	C	Marc Gasol		14.47	↓ 3.46
Starters Difference								↓ 12.36
Bench	Dirk Nowitzki		18.51	F	Carmelo Anthony		17.23	↑ 1.28
	Kevin Durant		16.71	F	Kevin Durant		16.71	0.00
	Chris Paul		22.77	G	Steve Nash		15.82	↑ 0.65
	Brandon Roy		16.47	G	Jason Kidd*		13.11	↑ 0.65
	Pau Gasol		18.51	C	Pau Gasol		18.51	0.00
Wild Card	Deron Williams		16.02	WC	Zach Randolph		16.37	↓ 0.35
	Zach Randolph		16.37	WC	Kobe Bryant		15.80	↑ 0.57
Reserves Difference								↑ 8.68
Total Difference								↓ 3.46

I don’t know what is more surprising to me: the fact that the voters and I only agree on one player who should be starting for the Western Conference All-Stars, or the fact that the person we agree upon is 33-year old Tim Duncan! Listen, I’m fairly confident that the gentleman is the best power forward the sport has seen and I’m willing to show my math (someday), but who would guess he’s still outperforming an entire conference at his ripe old age?

Carmelo Anthony. Kobe Bryant. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, fans, I realize both guys put up a lot of points, are super recognizable, and Kobe is the leader of the defending champions, but Dirk Nowitzki and Brandon Roy are outperforming them this season. Steve Nash is still impressive even though he’s older than everyone (even Duncan) but it is a crime that Chris Paul’s dominance at the point guard position is not being rewarded by the NBA audience. And Amare? An All-Star? A CENTER? There are several players in the West who are playing better than Marc Gasol and could’ve filled out the “center” position better than Amare, but I stuck to those listed as such on the ballot and he came out tops.

The Western starters were screwed – but not as badly as the East. Still, the combined loss of performance (12.36 APP+) is roughly what Kevin Garnett is putting out for the Boston Celtics in 2010. Wouldn’t you like that amount of production in your team?

The coaches did their best to right the ship – everyone they selected made my list as well. In fact, the only person that didn’t make my cut is Amare so the sum difference being denied to this team is what he lacks in comparison to Marc Gasol (3.46 APP+). That’s about the amount of performance the worst starter on a team (Mehmet Okur, Mike Bibby) is delivering each night. As a result, I predict the West should decisively defeat the East.

If anyone actually played like they cared in the All-Star contest, that is.

Anyway, being a fan, I voted every day that I had access to a computer (baring weekends). I remained disciplined and only voted based on APP+, though I did exclude any injured player. Here were my voting results:

* I didn’t realize Richard Hamilton was injured after his first game and accidentally voted him in twice when I should’ve probably sent those votes to Rajon Rondo.

Finally, each day, I wrote in the most deserving player who wasn’t listed on the ballot. Well, except for the first day in which I sent in my homer vote for Erick Dampier. The other (real) votes were: Zach Randolph (20 votes), Joakim Noah (15 votes) and Chris Kaman (3 votes).