NBA All-Star 2026: Picking the Western Conference starters
For the seventh straight year, the NBA asked me if I wanted to be one of the media members who votes on which players should start in the NBA All-Star Game. For reasons passing understanding, I said yes. Here’s how I used my ballot.
A quick reminder: Yes, the NBA has yet again changed the format of the All-Star Game — this time to a round-robin tournament featuring two teams of American players and one “world” roster, resulting in 16 U.S.-born players and eight international players being selected … unless the voting results in fewer than 16 U.S.-born players or eight international players making the cut, in which case NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will just start naming Americans or international players to balance out the sides. (Find all that confusing? You’re not alone!)
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Despite the latest grasp at a structural change to inject some juice into the proceedings, the nuts-and-bolts of the voting remain the same: You vote for five guys in each conference, with fan voting accounting for 50% of the final result, with player and media ballots accounting for 25% each. The main functional difference this year? Rather than choosing three frontcourt players and two backcourt players in each conference, the ballot has gone fully positionless. Just pick five guys, and keep it movin’.
Let’s start out West:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
Nikola Jokić, Nuggets
Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Luka Dončić, Lakers
Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves
All stats and records entering Thursday’s games.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing I don’t have to burn too many calories on convincing you that Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić — the top two finishers in Most Valuable Player voting in each of the last two seasons, and potentially this season’s top two, barring eligibility concerns — deserved a starting vote.
Gilgeous-Alexander has come back from winning his first MVP trophy and NBA championship seemingly better at everything. He’s second in the NBA in scoring, averaging 31.9 points per game on sparkling 55/39/89 shooting splits, producing points more efficiently and turning the ball over less as the preeminent mover on a Thunder team that opened the season 24-1 and that — despite what qualifies as a “slump” in OKC these days — remains atop the West, on pace for 68 wins (and with the point differential of a 70-win squad). With SGA on the floor, the Thunder have blown opponents’ doors off by 16.5 points per 100 possessions — the largest margin of any player in the NBA, according to Basketball Reference.
Hey, here’s something I just looked up: Only three guards in NBA history have averaged 30 points and five assists per game while shooting 50% from the floor. Stephen Curry did it during his unanimous MVP season in 2015-16. Michael Jordan did it five times. Gilgeous-Alexander, in Year 8, is on pace for his fourth … in a row.
Which is to say: This is a legitimately historic run, one that could wind up landing SGA in some awfully lofty conversations before all’s said and done. For now, though, it’ll land him on his fourth straight All-Star team.
Nikola Jokić, Nuggets
Before hyperextending his left knee, Jokić was off to the best start of his career. And when you’ve already won three MVPs, man, is that saying a whole hell of a lot.
Jokić is fifth in the NBA in scoring at 29.8 points per game while leading the league in rebounding and assists; he is 12 total points away from being on pace to join Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook as the only players in NBA history to average a 30-point triple-double for a season. On a per-minute and per-possession basis, Jokić has never scored this much, thanks partly to him splashing 43.5% of the 4.8 3-pointers he’s attempting per game, both of which would be career highs.
He’s on pace to post the highest true shooting percentage in NBA history among players who use at least 25% of their teams’ offensive possessions, topping … himself. He is also on track to set new all-time records in win shares per 48 minutes, box plus-minus and player efficiency rating, and to become the seventh player ever to assist on more than half of his teammates’ baskets; the Nuggets have scored an absurd 130.1 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions in his minutes, which is light years beyond what even the best offenses in league history have mustered. Missed games be damned: The list of players who’ve had a more consistently pronounced on-court impact than Jokić this season is either one name long or it doesn’t exist. An easy choice.
Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
So, too, was Wembanyama, the centerpiece of the Spurs’ rise to third place in the West and — by virtue of knocking off defending champion Oklahoma City three times in four tries and making it to the championship game of the NBA Cup — a spot among the ranks of bona fide title contenders.
Some voters might feel more compelled to knock Wemby out of a starting spot due to his injury absences: Thanks to an early-season calf strain, followed by a knee hyperextension that’s led to him being on a minutes restriction, he’s played just 26 games and 753 minutes — well below the other serious candidates for starting spots. I hear that. I also don’t really care about it.
I mean, come on: Dude’s averaging 24 points, 11 rebounds and three assists per game on 51.4% shooting at age 22 — no one’s done that since Kareem, 56 years ago — while also profiling as the most menacing defensive force on the planet.
There’s plenty of credit to go around for San Antonio’s surge up the standings: to Stephon Castle, making a massive second-year leap; to De’Aaron Fox, reminding everyone exactly why the Spurs went out, got him and paid him; to a roster full of guys (Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, Julian Champagnie) playing like stars in their roles; to head coach Mitch Johnson, ably carrying the weight of carrying the mantle left for him by one of the greatest legends the coaching profession has ever seen; etc. All of it, though, starts with the man in the middle — and 750 minutes of what he’s been putting on tape was more than enough to earn my vote.
Luka Dončić, Lakers
Dončić, for his part, leads the NBA in scoring at 33.4 points per game on .606 true shooting to go with 8.8 assists (fourth-most in the league) and 7.9 rebounds a night — the lead guard at the controls of a Lakers team that is vying for a top-four spot in a tough-as-nails top of the West.
There are nits to pick with these Lakers, who sit 10 games over .500 despite being just plus-1 for the season — not one point per 100 possessions; one point period — and have outperformed their point differential and 23rd-ranked defense thanks in large part to being an NBA-best 13-1 in “clutch” games. But L.A. is winning on the strength of its offense, which ranks seventh in points scored per possession and is at its best with Luka leading the dance: The Lakers have scored like the Thunder with him on the floor and like the Pelicans with him off it.
Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves
The fifth starting spot came down to a handful of strong candidates in the midst of excellent seasons. Kevin Durant and Alperen Şengün have kept the Houston Rockets in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency, and in the hunt for a top-four spot out West, despite the preseason loss of starting point guard Fred VanVleet. Ongoing salary-cap-circumvention investigations notwithstanding, Kawhi Leonard has been lights out for nearly two months — 30.1 points on 50/40/93 shooting with 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.1 stocks per game since Thanksgiving — to turn the previously lifeless Clippers into one of the NBA’s hottest teams. Out in the Bay, Curry is scoring as much on a per-minute and per-possession basis as he did during his unanimous MVP season a decade ago, and doing so with characteristically unbelievable shooting efficiency for a Warriors team that, as ever, only goes as far as he can carry it.
In the end, though, I landed on Edwards, in recognition of both his role in fueling Minnesota’s rise up the standings — just a game out of second in the West entering Thursday’s games, with the NBA’s best record and fourth-best net rating since Thanksgiving — and his scintillating individual production.
Edwards’ impressive run of increasing his scoring volume and efficiency in every year of his career has continued. He’s averaging a career-best 28.9 points per game on .626 true shooting — a combination of volume and efficiency that represents incredibly rare air among NBA scorers — while reducing his turnover rate despite more frequently serving as Chris Finch’s point guard, getting to the free-throw line more often, and continuing to play a key on-ball role in a Minnesota defense that’s tied for fifth in points allowed per possession.
He’s also been absolute nails in crunch time — an area of concern for Minnesota in recent years — shooting a scorching 70.7% from the floor (29-for-41), 57.1% from long range (8-for-14) and 83.3% from the foul line (10-for-12) when the score is within five points in the final five minutes:
The two-way play, the growth as a facilitator, the ongoing scaling-up of his scoring and efficiency and that close-and-late excellence — all in service of keeping the Wolves in the hunt in the West — earned Edwards the last spot on my ballot.
