Nikola Vucevic moved from 12th to 11th in the latest returns of All-Star voting. He still faces a long road to make the trip to New York.
The NBA released the second returns on NBA All-Star balloting on New Years’ Day, and it showed Nikola Vucevic has climbed a spot. However, moving from 12 to 11 still foretells a very difficult path for Vucevic to make the All-Star team, at least by the fan vote. He likely will rely on coaches to vote him in — although judging by Erik Spoelstra’s continued high praise for the big man, he may have at least one voter in his camp.
Vucevic is 11th among Eastern Conference front court players with 48,667 votes. That puts him more than 235,000 votes behind Carmelo Anthony for the final spot among starters.
With just three weeks left to vote, it seems pretty unlikely Vucevic will climb that far to get a starting spot. Not that he would clearly deserve one at this point either. It is a good thing however, to see Vucevic’s name continue to climb, even if it is just a little bit. He surpassed Paul Pierce in the last week and is ahead of Hawks big men Paul Millsap and Al Horford.
Tobias Harris remains outside the top-15 with Bulls rookie Nikola Mirotic surprisingly making his foray into the top-15 of frontcourt players.
Pippen Ain't Easy
The current starting lineup for the Eastern Conference is LeBron James, Pau Gasol and Carmelo Anthony starting in the front court with John Wall and Dwyane Wade in the backcourt. That starting five seems deserved with, perhaps, Wade being the odd choice considering the games he has missed so far.
In any case, those are all players that deserve a spot.
The likely reserves would be Kyle Lowry and Kyrie Irving as backup guards with Chris Bosh, Kevin Love and former Magic center Marcin Gortat in the running for the backup forward spots. Gortat’s spot for now is based on votes, but with how well the Wizards are playing it would not be surprising to see him get in.
The final two spots on the team should probably go to Jimmy Butler and either Vucevic, Paul Millsap, Al Horford, Al Jefferson, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose or Bradley Beal. Because the Hawks and Wizards are winning, it seems more likely that Millsap or Beal would get this final spot over Vucevic.
Figure Vucevic is fighting Millsap, Horford, Jefferson, Noah and Gortat for one, maybe two spots on the All-Star roster among the coaches vote.
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Vucevic is averaging 18.1 points per game and 11.3 rebounds per game as the Magic have surprisingly inserted themselves into the Playoff race.
Out West, the current starters would be Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol in the front court with Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant at guard.
The Magic should be well represented at All-Star Weekend whether Vucevic makes the big game or not. Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton will undoubtedly participate in the Rising Stars Game consisting of the best rookies and sophomores in the league. Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams also might be looking for redemption in the Skills Challenge competition. And Oladipo probably still wants in on the dunk contest if he is allowed.