Blogs.Bulls.com

Pau Gasol in line to be All-Star starter

by

Jan 8

The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or their Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

Pau Gasol seems almost certain to earn his first All-Star game start, according to the latest fan voting returns released Thursday.

Gasol remains second among Eastern Conference front court players behind only votes leader LeBron James. Carmelo Anthony is third followed by Chris Bosh and Kevin Love. The top three players will be starters. Gasol has almost a 200,000-vote margin over fourth place and has pulled well ahead of Anthony in second.

Among the Eastern Conference guards, Jimmy Butler remains fifth just ahead of Derrick Rose. Butler did increase his margin over Rose, but remains well behind Kyle Lowry and Kyrie Irving, who are third and fourth. John Wall and Dwyane Wade are first and second and likely to be voted in as starters.

The fan balloting ends Jan. 19 with the starters announced Jan. 22.

Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol remain the frontcourt leaders in the Western Conference. If the totals stay the same, the Gasols would be the first brothers to start against one another in an NBA All-Star game. Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant are well ahead among the guards and likely to be Western Conference starters.

All the conference coaches vote to select the seven reserves. The All-Star coaching staff will be from the team with the best record at the end of the month.

Here are the latest complete fan vote totals:

Eastern Conference

Frontcourt
1. LeBron James (Cle) 971,299
2. Pau Gasol (Chi) 527,582
3. Carmelo Anthony (NY) 456,186
4. Chris Bosh (Mia) 354,609
5. Kevin Love (Cle) 260,269
6. Marcin Gortat (Was) 155,636
7. Joakim Noah (Chi) 139,307
8. Jonas Valanciunas (Tor) 125,796
9. Al Jefferson (Cha) 77,518
10. Kevin Garnett (BKN) 76,595
11. Nikola Vucevic (Orl) 68,722
12. Paul Pierce (Was) 59,264
13. Paul Millsap (Atl) 55,224
14. Nikola Mirotic (Chi) 52,562
15. Al Horford (Atl) 48,465

Guards
1. John Wall (Was) 564,977
2. Dwyane Wade (Mia) 507,326
3. Kyle Lowry (Tor) 406,974
4. Kyrie Irving (Cle) 372, 065
5. Jimmy Butler (Chi) 263,914
6. Derrick Rose (Chi) 240,092
7. DeMar DeRozan (Tor) 97,093
8. Louis Williams (Tor) 43,652
9. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Mil) 31,700
10. Bradley Beal (Was) 28,387

Western Conference

Frontcourt
1. Anthony Davis (NO) 922,381
2. Blake Griffin (LAC) 490,786
3. Marc Gasol (Mem) 476,660
4. Tim Duncan (SA) 374,814
5. Kevin Durant (OKC) 330,297
6. LaMarcus Aldridge (Por) 315,405
7. Dwight Howard (Hou) 211,531
8. DeMarcus Cousins (Sac) 209,742
9. Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) 186,017
10. Kawhi Leonard (SA) 115,194
11. Rudy Gay (Sac) 97,856
12. DeAndre Jordan (LAC) 75,777
13. Tyson Chandler (Dal) 63,906
14. Nick Young (LAL) 62,502
15. Serge Ibaka (OKC) 60,842

Guards
1. Stephen Curry (GS) 958,014
2. Kobe Bryant (LAL) 862,568
3. James Harden (Hou) 690,843
4. Chris Paul (LAC) 401,945
5. Damian Lillard (Por) 210,794
6. Klay Thompson (GS) 170,827
7. Rajon Rondo (Dal) 165,427
8. Russell Westbrook (OKC) 159,264
9. Jeremy Lin (LAL) 148,763
10. Tony Parker (SA) 75,325

What do you think? Leave a comment below: