The Boston Celtics have the best record in the league and will certainly be represented in the All Star game in Indianapolis. The only question is just how many will be there. As Sam pointed out, the whole starting five showed up in the top 10 in voting (at their positions).
Clearly Jayson Tatum will be there, likely voted in as a starter. He has established himself as one of the premier players in the league and is quietly having an outstanding year.
Jaylen Brown is the team’s 2nd leading scorer and would be the next logical choice. Some of his stats have fallen off (in large part due to a slow start to the season) but he’s playing well within the context of the team.
Then there’s Kristaps Porzingis who has been a revelation for Boston. He serves as a deep threat, a roll threat, a post threat, and a defensive hub. He’s doing a bit of everything and giving the Celtics dimensions that they’ve been missing.
Speaking of doing a little bit of everything, Derrick White is what I would call a superstar role player. He’s absolutely elite at doing all the small things that don’t always show up in the stat sheet (and a few that do).
Finally there’s Jrue Holiday, who has been an All Star in the past. He’s never been a big stats guy, but is widely considered one of the best defensive guards in the league (and underrated on offense).
Now as much as I’d love to see all 5 of them make the roster, at some point it becomes a numbers game. There are only 12 spots to go around for the whole Eastern Conference and there are a lot of high quality players in the East.
So to really make your case, I would suggest naming the players you would put on the Eastern Conference team (and perhaps a few names you’d leave out). it should be noted that injuries sometimes open up roster spots (get well soon Tyrese Hailburton).
Perhaps another way to frame this topic is to ask you to power rank the Celtics in the order that you think they should be considered. Above I ordered them based purely on scoring average, but that’s not always the best way to measure these things. Especially on this team. Would you rank Derrick White ahead of Brown? Where does Porzingis fit in?
Another note: Because Joe Mazzulla and his coaching staff went to the All Star game last year, they are ineligible to coach the game this year.
So tell us how you would rank the Celtics players for the All Star game and how many you think should make it.
