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NBA Unveils 2025 All-Star Game Starters

January 23rd, 2025 at 7:01pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The 2025 All-Star Game starters were revealed on Thursday during Inside the NBA’s pregame show and confirmed by the NBA on social media (Twitter links).

In the Eastern Conference, a pair of Knicks made the cut, with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – in his first season in New York – earning nods. Joining Brunson in the backcourt is Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, while Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo secured frontcourt spots.

Lakers star LeBron James extended his all-time record to 21 consecutive All-Star selections in the Western Conference. Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accounted for the backcourt spots in the West while Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Suns joined James as frontcourt starters.

The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.

The reserves, who are picked by the league’s coaches, will be announced on Jan. 30. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets narrowly missed out on being a starter after ranking first in the fan vote, having finished third in player voting and seventh in the media vote. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama also barely missed out, finishing second in media voting but fourth for both players and fans.

Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Brown are among the names who could be voted in as reserves.

The 74th NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 will feature a new format, complete with a mini-tournament composed of four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in a semifinal while the other two will play in another. The victors in each of those games will meet in a final. The winner of each game is the first to 40 points.

The format change means that the 10 players named starters on Thursday won’t be the only players who actually start on All-Star Sunday. The 24 players ultimately named All-Stars will be split among three eight-man teams, with the roster’s drafted by Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

The draft will air on Feb. 6 on TNT. The fourth team of eight players will be made up of the winning team from the Rising Stars event.

The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the team that wins the final will receive $125,000, while members of the second-place team earn $50,000. Players on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.

The full voting results can be found here.

And-Ones: All-Star Game, Fernando, Snyder, NBRPA, Woj

January 22nd, 2025 at 8:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Six NBA reporters at The Athletic, including Sam Amick, Fred Katz, and Joe Vardon, made their picks for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star starters, with all six writers selecting the same three frontcourt players in the East: Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the only unanimous choices in the West. Meanwhile, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama each showed up on all but one of the six ballots from The Athletic’s reporters.

The NBA will officially announce this year’s All-Star starters on Thursday evening during a TNT broadcast. The starters are determined by votes from fans (50%), players (25%), and the media (25%).

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Veteran NBA big man Bruno Fernando, who was waived earlier this month by Toronto before his full-season salary could become guaranteed, is in talks with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, as Michalis Gioylenoglou reports for Eurohoops.net. Gioylenoglou describes Fernando as becoming more open to making the move to Europe after having initially been reluctant to head across the Atlantic. However, no deal is done yet.
Hawks head coach Quin Snyder is among the candidates receiving serious consideration to become the next coach of Australia’s national team, sources tell Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Boomers are seeking a successor to Brian Goorjian, who coached the national team at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.
Former NBA big man Antonio Davis, who appeared in over 900 games from 1993-2006 and made an All-Star team with Toronto in 2001, has been named the CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, reports Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). According to Spears, Davis will “drive the strategic visions, business operations, member services, and growth” of the NBRPA, a non-profit association representing former NBA players.
In a feature story for The New York Times, Bruce Schoenfeld checks in on Adrian Wojnarowski, exploring why the former star news-breaker, who was making $7.3MM annually at ESPN, accepted a job at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, that pays him about one percent of that amount ($75K per year).

Thunder Sign Branden Carlson To Second 10-Day Deal

January 22nd, 2025 at 10:07am CST by Luke Adams

Rookie center Branden Carlson is back under contract with the Thunder, having signed a second 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Carlson’s initial 10-day deal with Oklahoma City ran through January 19, expiring overnight on Sunday.

Carlson, an undrafted free agent out of Utah, was on a two-way deal with the Raptors for most of the offseason. He was waived in mid-October before the regular season began, but caught on with the Thunder on a non-guaranteed contract in November.

The big man saw little action while he was on that deal, logging just 25 total minutes across seven appearances. However, after being waived ahead of this month’s salary guarantee deadline on January 7, he returned to the Thunder and took on a larger role, appearing in all six games the club played during his previous 10-day contract.

Known for his ability to stretch the floor, Carlson made at least one three-pointer in each of those six outings, averaging 5.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.3 minutes per night, with a .529 3PT% (9-of-17).

With Carlson back in the fold through January 31, the Thunder will have some added depth in their frontcourt for the next four games, with Isaiah Hartenstein (left soleus strain) and Chet Holmgren (right iliac wing fracture) both currently unavailable.

Carlson’s 10-day deal will pay him $66,503, the rookie minimum, with OKC taking on an identical cap hit. It will expire a week ahead of the trade deadline, giving the club some flexibility ahead of February 6 to take on an extra player in a deadline deal.

If the Thunder ultimately determine they want to bring back Carlson after his second 10-day contract expires, they would need to re-sign him for the rest of the season, since a team isn’t permitted to sign a player to a third 10-day deal.

Community Shootaround: Western Conference Playoff Race

January 21st, 2025 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Of the 15 teams in the Western Conference, only two are clearly focused more on the 2025 draft lottery than the 2024/25 standings. The 10-31 Jazz and 14-28 Trail Blazers don’t have realistic postseason aspirations this season, with management prioritizing the development of young players and the possibility of landing another high draft pick.

Those two teams are sandwiching the 12-32 Pelicans, who definitely didn’t expect their season to play out like this. Plagued by injuries since top offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray broke his hand on opening night, New Orleans has won its past four games but likely dug too deep a hole in the first half to seriously vie for a play-in spot this season, even if the roster gets (and stays) fully healthy.

Still, that leaves 12 teams in the hunt for eight playoff spots in the Western Conference.

We can safely pencil in the Thunder for one of those spots — and it will almost certainly be the top one. At 35-7, Mark Daigneault‘s squad has a seven-game cushion on the next-best team in the conference.

The Rockets (28-14), Grizzlies (28-15) and Nuggets (26-16) round out the current top four in the West and appear well positioned to claim playoff berths. That’s not necessarily a lock, given how competitive the conference is — a single injury could be all it takes for one of those teams to fall back to the pack. But they’re in strong positions.

After the top four, things gets interesting. Here are the current Western Conference standings from five through 12:

Los Angeles Clippers (24-18)
Los Angeles Lakers (22-18)
Dallas Mavericks (23-20)
Sacramento Kings (22-20)
Minnesota Timberwolves (22-21)
Phoenix Suns (21-21)
Golden State Warriors (21-21)
San Antonio Spurs (19-22)

These eight teams are separated by a total of 4.5 games. The gap from No. 6 to 11 is just two games. A five-game winning streak or losing streak for any of these clubs could significantly change the perception of how their season is going.

To that point, as recently as January 4, the Kings were 12th in the conference at 16-19, while the Spurs were in eighth place at 18-16. A Sacramento hot streak and a San Antonio cold spell have resulted in those two clubs swapping places in the standings just seven games later.

The Spurs are probably a little ahead of schedule in their rebuild and didn’t necessarily expect to make the postseason this year, so if they continue to slump, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for them. But the rest of the clubs listed above had serious playoff aspirations this season. The Clippers, Lakers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Suns, and Warriors are all spending into the tax on their rosters, and the Kings aren’t far off.

Barring a major collapse from one of the top four seeds, one of these clubs (or two, if San Antonio sticks around) will finish outside the top 10, missing out not just on the playoffs but on the play-in altogether. Two more will be eliminated in the play-in tournament and will fail to clinch one of the eight playoff spots in the West.

What happens at the trade deadline could go a long way toward determining how this race plays out down the stretch, but we want to know what you’re thinking at the halfway point of the season.

Which teams do you expect to finish outside of the top 10 in the West? Which teams will be eliminated in the play-in? Which clubs besides the Thunder are the most serious contenders to represent the conference in this year’s NBA Finals?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

And-Ones: MVP Race, Maledon, Flagg, Dybantsa

January 21st, 2025 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s Most Valuable Player race for this season already looks like it’ll be a two-man race, according to Zach Harper of The Athletic, who points to the current betting odds as evidence.

BetOnline.ag currently lists Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the frontrunner at -400, followed relatively closely by Nuggets center Nikola Jokic at +250. After those two, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks is all the way down at +4000, with Celtics forward Jayson Tatum at +5000.

Last season’s MVP Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander were among the three finalists for the award in 2024 alongside Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, who has already missed more than 17 games, taking him out of the running due to the 65-game rule. 2023 MVP Joel Embiid will also fall short of 65 games and has been eliminated from contention.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Tony Parker, the president of ASVEL Basket in France, said during an interview with RMC Sport (YouTube link) that he believes current ASVEL standout Theo Maledon will receive NBA offers in the offseason, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops relays. Maledon, who previously played 177 regular season NBA games for three teams from 2020-24, has averaged 18.0 points and 4.5 assists per game in 22 EuroLeague outings this season, posting a shooting line of .457/.387/.889.
Within the same interview, Parker expressed interest in getting ASVEL involved in the NBA’s rumored foray into European basketball, Askounis notes. “When you see what the NBA is doing, they are very strong. Whether it is marketing or the new TV rights contract that will start next year,” Parker said. “We need to be associated with that. I want there to be NBA Europe and for us to be part of it.”
Duke standout Cooper Flagg has solidified his place atop the 2025 NBA draft class with his recent play, according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, who says Flagg’s performance over the past month – 23.4 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 4.6 APG, and a .561/.500/.881 shooting line – is arguably the best stretch for a college freshman since Zion Williamson was a Blue Devil.
Meanwhile, Jared Weiss of The Athletic checks in on some of 2026’s best prospects, including A.J. Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, who were taking part in the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. over the weekend. While Dybantsa wasn’t at his best during the event, Weiss says he spoke to multiple scouts who believe the 6’9″ wing could eventually become the NBA’s second-best player behind Victor Wembanyama.

Western Notes: Daigneault, Simons, Green, Curry, Beal

January 19th, 2025 at 9:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Thunder‘s Mark Daigneault has been named a head coach for the All-Star Game with the team clinching the Western Conference’s best record through Feb. 2, the NBA announced on Sunday (via Twitter). Under the new format, the All-Stars will be split into four teams. One of Daigneault’s assistants will also serve as a head coach.

“An honor. A huge thank you to all the people that are behind the scenes in the organization that work with the players, not only this season, but in previous seasons,” the coach told sideline reporter Nick Gallo (Twitter link). “This has been a build, and a lot of people have their fingerprints on that.”

We have more from the Western Conference:

Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons sat out Sunday’s game against Chicago due to a right elbow strain, the team’s PR department tweets. Simons, who had made just eight of 34 field goal attempts in his previous three outings, has now missed four games this season.
Warriors forward Draymond Green has officially been ruled out of Monday’s game against Boston with a left calf strain, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Stephen Curry is listed as questionable due to an ankle sprain, though he told reporters on Saturday he plans to play.
Suns wing Bradley Beal went through a workout on Sunday and is hopeful of playing against Cleveland on Monday. He’s listed as questionable after missing two games due to an ankle sprain. “It’s been good, it’s been smooth,” Beal told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. “I haven’t had any setbacks or anything out of the ordinary. All the imaging came back fully expecting to be nothing crazy. Just a little sprain.”

Trade Rumors: Ingram, Pistons, K. Williams, Lakers

January 18th, 2025 at 2:15pm CST by Luke Adams

There hasn’t been much chatter on the rumor mill about Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram in recent weeks, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link). However, Fischer suggests there’s still a chance that Ingram could return prior to the trade deadline from his ankle injury, giving potential suitors a chance to take a look at him for multiple games leading up to February 6.

Even if that happens, there’s certainly no guarantee Ingram will be moved this season. Fischer hears that the Pelicans – like the Heat with Jimmy Butler – don’t mind postponing their decision on Ingram until the offseason, since they’re confident they’ll still have a good deal of leverage at that time, even with the forward entering unrestricted free agency.

Ingram would likely need New Orleans’ help to get to a preferred destination via sign-and-trade, so the Pelicans could decide at that point whether they want to work out a deal with a new team or simply let the former All-Star walk for the sake of cap flexibility.

It’s also worth noting that, unlike the Butler situation in Miami, the relationship between Ingram and the Pelicans hasn’t deteriorated to the point where a divorce seems inevitable — Fischer hears that New Orleans remains open to the idea of re-signing Ingram beyond this season if the two sides can agree on a price, which didn’t happen last season when they discussed an extension.

Here are a few more trade rumors from around the NBA:

Although their unexpected success this season has the Pistons reconsidering how they might use their remaining $14MM in cap room at the trade deadline, Fischer says Detroit has left potential trade partners with the impression that a “truly massive move” isn’t in the team’s plans. In other words, while the Pistons may decide to use that remaining cap space on a player who can help them this season rather than someone on an unwanted contract who would be immediately waived, they’re likely not looking to make significant changes to their roster.
Within an item about why the Thunder probably aren’t a serious suitor for Cameron Johnson, Fischer notes that there’s plenty of “mutual fondness” between the team and forward Kenrich Williams, who is considered a strong culture-setter and probably won’t be included in a trade as simple salary filler. Williams has played a regular rotation role again this season and has been effective, with 5.8 points and 3.0 rebounds on .496/.386/.933 shooting in 13.8 minutes per game.
After acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith from Brooklyn last month, the Lakers don’t appear likely to make a major move at the trade deadline, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic (YouTube link). “My sense lately, that I’ve been hearing, has been trending more toward them making a smaller move and probably using second-round draft capital,” Buha said (hat tip to Mike Chiari of Bleacher Report). “The issue there is that their second-round draft capital isn’t really worth that much, because it’s their (2025) pick and the Clippers’ (2025) pick. And both of those picks are projected right now to be between 45 and 52, depending on where those two teams finish in the standings. So those aren’t the sexiest second-round picks. You typically want a first half of the second round-type pick.”

Latest On Cameron Johnson

January 18th, 2025 at 1:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Confirming recent reporting from ESPN, Jake Fischer writes at The Stein Line (Substack link) that Brooklyn’s asking price for forward Cameron Johnson is indeed high and that the team doesn’t feel compelled to move him by February 6.

According to Fischer, in their conversations with certain teams about Johnson, the Nets have sought as many as two first-round picks to go along with a young player. It remains to be seen whether any team will meet that price. If not, the question will be whether Brooklyn ultimately decides to make an in-season deal for a slightly more modest return or opts to hang onto Johnson into the offseason.

Here are a few more updates from Fischer on one of the NBA’s top trade candidates:

Following up on a report from The Athletic identifying the Cavaliers as a team with interest in trading for Johnson, Fischer says that interest appears “preliminary at best.” While Fischer confirms that Cleveland inquired on Johnson, he’s not sure the Cavs have the assets to appeal to Brooklyn, since they can only trade one first-round pick and it wouldn’t convey until 2031. People around the league believe the Cavs are more likely to make a minor move that reduces their luxury tax bill, Fischer notes.
Fischer is prepared to cross the Thunder off of the list of suitors for Johnson after having reported himself last month that Oklahoma City was keeping an eye on the Nets sharpshooter. While there’s still some chatter around the league about the potential fit between Johnson and OKC, there has been no “credible evidence” that the Thunder have talked to Brooklyn about a deal, Fischer explains. Like the Cavaliers, the Thunder seem reluctant to make a significant move that shakes up their roster and risks disrupting their chemistry, given their success so far this season, Fischer adds.
The Pacers and Kings are among the teams to continue to watch as possible suitors for Johnson. One Western Conference executive who spoke to Fischer believes a Sacramento package of Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles, and a first-round pick is viewed by some people around the league as the early benchmark to beat. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Nets would accept that offer if it’s the best one they have at the deadline, but it sounds like it might be the best one they have so far.

Chet Holmgren Progressing, Will Be Reevaluated In 3-5 Weeks

January 17th, 2025 at 6:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Thunder big man Chet Holmgren is continuing to make progress in his recovery from a right iliac wing fracture, according to the club, which announced on Friday that he’ll be reevaluated in approximately three-to-five weeks.

Holmgren suffered the injury, a form of pelvic fracture, on November 10, with Oklahoma City announcing the following day that he would be reevaluated in eight-to-10 weeks. That was approximately nine-and-a-half weeks ago, so an update from the team had been expected around this time.

The Thunder have handled Holmgren’s absence admirably, posting a 26-4 record without him. For most of that time, they’ve started Isaiah Hartenstein at center in place of Holmgren, though Hartenstein has missed some time with health issues of his own — he’s currently on the shelf with a left soleus strain.

Oklahoma City still hasn’t gotten a chance to see Hartenstein, the club’s top offseason free agent addition, on the court at the same time as Rookie of the Year runner-up Holmgren, since the two big men have yet to be healthy at the same time. There’s still hope that will happen at some point before the end of the regular season, but Holmgren’s recovery process will take at least a few more weeks.

Before getting injured in his 10th game of the season, Holmgren had averaged 18.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks in 28.9 minutes per game across nine outings, with a .519/.400/.776 shooting line.

In other Thunder injury news, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to be a game-time decision on Friday vs. Dallas due to a sore right wrist, tweets Christian Clark of The Athletic.

Thunder Notes: Culture, Wallace, Williams, Carlson

January 16th, 2025 at 10:17pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The Thunder were able to fast-track their timeline for contention by establishing a firm culture under head coach Mark Daigneault that focused on skill development and small details, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes.

“I think that’s why we’ve been able to accelerate our development,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “All those little things that go into winning, they mean a lot to us because of our competitiveness and what our common goal is as a group.”

Oklahoma City saw success last season but was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, falling short of the Western Conference Finals. Instead of sending out their assets for another star or big name, the Thunder targeted role players in Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso who could help push their core to the top of the league.

“They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Daigneault said. “I think that’s one of the things that [Thunder general manager Sam Presti]’s nailed in this process. The types of people that we’ve brought in the door, regardless of whether they’re still here or they’re not, by and large, have been committed professionals that are ambitious, but they’re also willing to complete the team.”

We have more from the Thunder:

After emerging as a rookie contributor on a contending team last season, Cason Wallace began this season in a slump, averaging 6.5 points on 41.8% shooting through his first 33 games. But as Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman writes, it looks like Wallace is out of his funk after averaging 13.2 points on 58.7% shooting in his last five outings. It’s obviously a small sample, but Wallace’s mentality helped break him out of the dry spell. “Just being a hooper,” Wallace said. “Knowing that you’re gonna have shooting slumps. And I had mine early. I had one last year, just wasn’t as loud as this. Just sticking with it, knowing it would come back.“
Jalen Williams has a solid case to make the All-Star Game according to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater, which would make him one of two players from the 2022 class to do so so far (joining Paolo Banchero). Entering Thursday, Williams held averages 20.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game for the contending Thunder. Gilgeous-Alexander believes Williams is worthy of the honor. “For our team to be as good as we’ve been, obviously coming up on the All-Star Game, I think it’d only be right for him to be an All-Star,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You don’t have this record because of one All-Star. You don’t have this record because of one good player.”
Branden Carlson got his first shot at extended minutes in a big matchup against the Cavaliers on Thursday, Lorenzi writes. He scored 11 points in 17 minutes off the bench, playing in the first quarter. After going undrafted in 2024, Carlson signed a two-way contract with the Raptors, but was waived before the season began. The big man joined the Thunder on a non-guaranteed contract, was cut again, and was brought back last week on a 10-day deal. Although he’s only under contract for 10 days, Oklahoma City relied on Carlson with their frontcourt depth depleted as a result of injuries to Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren.