The best NBA team made up of non-All-Stars

There is a TON of talent in the NBA right now. In putting together this team, I combed through each and every roster for any player who could claim to be one of the best non-All-Stars in the NBA. As you can probably guess, my list was three or four times more than the 13 roster spots I had available. Thus, I came up with the following filters to shrink the list:

• No players who are currently injured (e.g., Clint Capela, Spencer Dinwiddie).      
• No players who have missed 15 or more games this season (e.g., Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins, Chris Paul, Caris LeVert).     
• No Jimmy Butler because as Zach Lowe aptly put it, you have to take a year off when you intentionally sabotage a team’s season.

After making those cuts, there were still 20-25 players with legitimate cases for being on this team. Therefore, the following qualifiers were also added:

• Team composition matters — there can only be so many guards on the roster. (Guys like De’Aaron Fox, CJ McCollum, Jamal Murray and Josh Richardson got squeezed out here.)      
• Production > intangibles (sorry to all the Marc Gasol, Al Horford-types).      
• Team record matters (not in the business of rewarding the Zach LaVines of the NBA).     
• No Sixth Men (apologies to Lou Williams, Derrick Rose and Domantas Sabonis).      
• Mike Conley has to be on the team — the NBA can snub him from the All-Star Game his entire career, but I refuse to do it!!

With those guidelines in place, I was finally able to whittle the team down to a roster of 13 non-All-Stars. Here are the starters:

Backcourt

1.     Eric Bledsoe

Eric Bledsoe is one player who should be peeved that D’Angelo Russell was selected as an All-Star replacement over him, as Bledsoe is the point guard of a great team. Like Pascal Siakam (below), Bledsoe’s numbers aren’t jaw-dropping (16-5-5), but when you watch him play, you realize that he has an impact beyond the box score. Like the rest of the Bucks starters, he also isn’t playing a ton of minutes (29.1) because Milwaukee is beating the brakes off most of their opponents this season. Perhaps Adam Silver dinged Bledsoe for his miserable performance in last year’s playoffs where Terry Rozier roasted him on and off the court all series? Something tells me Bledsoe will fare a little better this spring if there’s a rematch because he’s playing the best basketball of his career right now.

2.     Jrue Holiday

The Pelicans’ season may have turned into a circus with their early-season injuries and Anthony Davis’ trade demand, but don’t let that diminish the season Jrue Holiday is having — averaging 21 points, eight assists and five rebounds per game. On the defensive side of the ball, Holiday continues to be one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. Anyone who watched the Pelicans in last year’s playoffs should remember Holiday absolutely locking up Damian Lillard in the first round and then battling admirably against Kevin Durant despite giving up more than half a foot in height. He’s one of the best two-way players in the NBA and deserves more recognition than he gets.

Frontcourt

3.     Luka Doncic

I’m running out of adjectives to describe how awesome Luka Doncic has been in his rookie season. Even his biggest supporters during the draft process (like yours truly) could not have predicted a stat line of 21 points, seven rebounds and nearly six assists per game from him. He’s already one of the more prolific clutch scorers in the league and has an elite step-back as well as a full arsenal of creative moves that more than make up for his average athleticism. When you add in his incredible vision and passing, you’re looking at a player who should be an All-Star for the next 15 years. Happy to get him for one non-All-Star team appearance before he’s on the real team the rest of his career.

4.     Pascal Siakam

On cue, Pascal Siakam went out and scored 44 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked three shots in his last game before the All-Star break. While Siakam’s numbers normally don’t pop like that (16-7-3), he still had a legitimate case to be the Victor Oladipo injury replacement on Team Giannis. (D’Angelo Russell landed the spot.) Siakam is an athletic forward who can do a little bit of everything at an above-average level. You’ll watch him take a game over on both ends of the court and then wonder how his stats weren’t more impressive when you look at the box score later. If Kawhi Leonard leaves Toronto this offseason, expect Siakam to take a big leap next season.

5.     Rudy Gobert

Say what you will about the video of Rudy Gobert getting emotional while discussing his All-Star snub, but the dude had a legit gripe. Seriously, his snubbing has to be one of the worst in the last decade. Here’s a stat for all the advanced analytics guys out there: Gobert's offensive/defensive per 100 possessions rating split is 133/100. For the casual viewers, that means that for every 100 possessions he’s on the court, the Jazz outscore opponents 133-100. By comparison, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s net rating for the same is an MVP-level plus-22; Paul George’s is plus-15, Steph Curry’s is plus-12, James Harden’s is a plus-8. Rudy Gobert’s is plus-33!! Add in his 15 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks per game with other-worldly rim protection, and he should have been a surefire All-Star.

And now for the reserves:

Backcourt

6.     Devin Booker

Typically, I would refuse to reward a player on the second-worst team in the league, but Devin Booker is an exception because of his impressive production. With no true point guard on Phoenix’s roster, Booker has been asked to be the Suns’ version of James Harden. While this has impacted his shooting efficiency, Booker is still putting up 25 points and seven assists per game. Assuming Phoenix makes a bit of a jump next season, this could possibly be the last season Booker is on the outside looking in for the All-Star Game.

7.     DeMar DeRozan

Although his scoring has slipped to 21 points per game, DeMar DeRozan has turned into a more complete player in his first season under the tutelage of Gregg Popovich, as he is averaging over six rebounds and six assists per game — both career highs! It may stink for him to go from being an All-Star starter in the Eastern Conference to watching this year’s game at home. It may also stink for him to watch his old team compete for the Eastern Conference Championship this spring while he watches the latter rounds of the playoffs from his couch. However, this season should make him a better overall player through the rest of his prime (probably three to four years) and help him secure another max or near-max contract in his early 30s.

8.     Buddy Hield

Buddy Hield?!? Damn right, I’m putting Buddy Hield on this team. Look at his numbers for goodness sake:  He’s averaging over 21 points and five rebounds per game on insane 47.5/44.9/86.1 shooting splits (FG/3FG/FT). He’s making nearly half of his three-pointers against NBA defenders while shooting nearly eight threes a game!! It’s difficult to put into words how absurd that is — after Steph Curry, Hield might be the most lethal volume shooter in the league. Hield’s improvement from last season to this season has been remarkable. It’d be great for the Kings to make the playoffs and for him to get the recognition he deserves as one of the premier shooters in the NBA. He’ll have to settle for the non-All-Star team for now though.

9.     JJ Redick

A Roman philosopher named Seneca once said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Who knew that he was forecasting the twilight of JJ Redick’s career all this time? Redick, a maniacal perfectionist, has had the good fortune of being one of the NBA’s top catch-and-shoot three-point shooters during an era when the emphasis on the three-point shot has never been higher. That’s how Redick, who is 34-years-old and in his 13^th season, is averaging a career high in points (18.6) for the second consecutive season. His and Joel Embiid’s dribble-handoffs have become one of the deadliest offensive actions in the NBA despite neither player being a primary ball-handler or passer. Redick will never make an All-Star team, but he deserves some recognition for how impactful he’s been for Philadelphia the past two seasons.  

Frontcourt

10.  Tobias Harris

The next non-All-Star team spot goes to JJ Redick’s newly acquired teammate Tobias Harris. Harris is having the best season of his seven-year career, averaging 21 points and eight rebounds per contest while flirting with the 50-40-90 Club (50-43-87). Had he been in the Eastern Conference putting up these kinds of numbers all season, he would have been a lock for the All-Star team. (Although, I’m sure he doesn’t mind that he got to be the go-to guy in L.A. and pump up his stats before he hits free agency this offseason.) It’ll be interesting to see if Harris, who is not known as a good defender or playmaker, can round out his game as the fourth option in Philadelphia the rest of this season, as he won’t have the ball in his hands as much as he did in L.A. His theoretical experience coming off the bench on this non-All-Star team should help with his transition.

11.  John Collins

From a statistical standpoint, John Collins has a case to be a starter on this non-All-Star squad because he’s averaging a hair under 20 points and 10 rebounds every night to go along with a 21.4 PER in just his second NBA season. However, he gets slightly penalized here because of the Hawks’ record — if he were putting up 20 and 10 on a decent Eastern Conference team, he’d probably have made the actual All-Star Team. John The Baptist’s game is predicated on his elite athleticism combined with his soft touch around the rim. He was a big-time scorer at Wake Forest, and all indications point to him becoming a big-time scorer in the NBA, especially if his outside shot continues to develop (shooting 36 percent from three-point land this season).

12.  Steven Adams

The Big Kiwi gets the nod over a plethora of other qualified frontcourt candidates (Jusuf Nurkic, Andre Drummond, Myles Turner, etc.) because of the eyeball test. Sure, he’s averaging career highs in scoring (14.7) and rebounding (9.5) in his sixth season, and his offensive/defensive rating per 100 possessions splits are excellent (123/106), but when you watch this guy play, you come away thinking that he’s one of the better big men in the NBA. He anchors the fourth-best defense in the league with his ability to defend big men in the post. He moves well enough laterally on the perimeter to switch out onto guards. He also protects the rim and has surprisingly quick hands (1.6 steals per game). On offense, he displays the ability to score in the post, facilitate from the elbow and crash the offensive boards (second in the league in offensive rebounds). He’s the perfect teammate and body guard for Russell Westbrook and Paul George, and if he wasn’t so deferential to those two (especially Russ — watch how many uncontested rebounds he lets Russ grab), he’d probably be averaging something like 18 points and 13 rebounds per game.

Special commemorative player 

13.  Mike Conley

Like Team LeBron and Team Giannis, Team Non-All-Star also gets a special commemorative player spot on its roster. While Vince Carter would make sense here, there’s no way in hell that I’m snubbing Mike Conley. Not only is Conley at the top of every “Best Player to Never Make an All-Star Team” list, but he’s also a guy who, if he’d been in the Eastern Conference during his prime instead of the point guard-heavy Western Conference, he’d probably have made three or four All-Star teams. Once again, this season, despite averaging 20 points and over six assists per game, he was barely even given consideration. Hopefully, the Grizzlies trade him this offseason to an Eastern Conference contender so that people can gain an appreciation for the great player he is before he’s past his prime. If the Bucks don’t re-sign Eric Bledsoe this summer, Conley would be an excellent fit in Milwaukee.  Same goes for Indiana and Toronto. (The Raptors tried to trade Kyle Lowry for him and Marc Gasol this deadline.) Even if he can’t make an All-Star team, he can take a contender to the next level.