We all know that Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Zion Williamson were expected to be starters for the 2023 NBA All-Star game. Unfortunately, they have all been injured during this regular season and are unlikely to take the court as Team LeBron and Team Giannis will select their players.
Since these three NBA stars were not looking healthy for this game, a decision had to be made on which players would be selected in order to replace them. Despite missing games, a few fans felt that Anthony Davis deserved to play in the game. Finally, the NBA informed us about which players were given a chance to become starters for this game. Let us take a look at who was chosen and whether they deserve it.
Ja Morant, Joel Embiid, and Lauri Markkanen have been selected as 2023 NBA All-Star game starters
Unfortunately for Lakers fans, the NBA did not feel like he deserves to play in the 2023 NBA All-Star game. Instead, the players that they have chosen to replace Stephen Curry, Zion Williamson, and Kevin Durant are Ja Morant, Lauri Markkanen, and Joel Embiid.
They were already on the NBA all-star reserve list. However, they ended up falling a bit short of making the starters. The injuries to the other stars allowed them to be promoted into starters for this game. All 3 of them have certainly been playing at a high level this season.
Perhaps Anthony Davis was snubbed. He has been averaging 26.6 points, 12 rebounds and 2.5 assists this season. However, he played in only 32 games so far with more than half the season done, and only had brief stretches of dominance.
In fact, AD didn’t even make the reserve list. When Ja, Lauri, and Embiid became the starters, Anthony Edwards, Pascal Siakkam, and De’Aaron Fox got the reserve spots that they left behind. Anthony Davis wasn’t even considered good enough to make the reserve list.
Considering that he scored only 13 points in a home loss against the OKC Thunder, perhaps the NBA got this one right by not giving him an all-star appearance. His team has been struggling and made several moves after it became clear that they were not heading in the right direction.
Hopefully, Davis is able to use this as motivation and get back in form, playing at a high level and carrying the Lakers back into relevance. That is all he can do, considering that he will likely not be winning any other award this season.