NBA All-Star Game 2021: Least Deserving Starters, Top Snubs After Lineups Reveal

Kevin Durant and LeBron James, the floor is yours.

The familiar NBA foes were the top All-Star vote-getters in their respective conferences, and as such they will be responsible for captaining rosters they'll draft at a later date.

Joining Durant in the Eastern Conference All-Star starter pool were Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal. Out West, it was James, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Kawhi Leonard.

It's usually tricky to second-guess these decisions, since they are subjective honors and only so many players can make the cut. But there are opportunities to nitpick every year, and this is no exception, so let's examine the least deserving starters and top snubs.

In terms of raw production, Kyrie Irving's case is borderline ironclad.

Entering Thursday night, he was pairing a career-high 28.3 points per game with an absurd 53.4/44.2/91.8 shooting slash. Those aren't just video-game numbers, they're the-game-is-cheating-and-I'm-about-to-break-my-TV type of ridiculous.

So, why are throwing a side-eye in Uncle Drew's direction? Two things.

First off, he hasn't exactly helped the Brooklyn Nets with their biggest problem: their 26th-ranked defense. That matters, even if it is often that the game's less glamorous end often goes unmentioned in these discussions. Second, he only played in 20 of the team's first 30 games, due in large part to a self-imposed seven-game absence in the middle of January.

Most snub talk you will find will reserve this spot for James Harden. That's defensible when he's pacing the league in assists (11.3) and minutes (37.6) while averaging 24.5 points on 48.2/38.4/89.7 shooting. But like Irving, Harden is another culprit in Brooklyn's defensive woes, and his messy split from the Houston Rockets doesn't seem like it should be rewarded with an All-Star start.

So, the East's top snub "honor" instead lands with Jaylen Brown, who has done everything in his power to keep the Boston Celtics afloat despite the loss of Gordon Hayward, the spotty play of Kemba Walker and loads of inconsistency with the second unit.

Brown has effortlessly moved into a featured scoring role, averaging a personal-best 25.9 points while shooting career rates from the field (50.6) and from three (40.9). He's also a tireless, versatile defender and has shown massive improvement as a shot-creator.

The Western Conference is stacked at the top in a way that splitting hairs becomes a necessity for this exercise.

It's hard to gripe too much about the selection of Luka Doncic when he has forced his way into the MVP discussion despite a sluggish start by his Dallas Mavericks. He's almost a walking triple-double, and he could be a hot streak away from seizing control of the scoring race.

His per-game contributions include 29.1 points, 9.4 assists and 8.6 rebounds. Those numbers alone are certainly All-Star-starter quality.

But Dallas' record should matter, as should its 27th-ranking in defensive efficiency. Neither number falls directly on Doncic's shoulders, but when the competition is this stiff, those are the kinds of things that could have (and arguably should have) tipped the balance in someone else's favor.

The Portland Trail Blazers are fourth in the Western Conference standings. Maybe that ranking doesn't automatically jump off the page, but it should when accounting for everything this club has had to endure.

Zach Collins hasn't played a game this season. CJ McCollum hasn't appeared in half of Portland's contests. Same goes for Jusuf Nurkic. That's at least 40 percent of the Blazers' preferred starting group, and depending on how coach Terry Stotts planned to use Collins, maybe 60.

The Blazers would be doing well by treading water. Instead, they're swimming with basketball's biggest fish and more than holding their own thanks to Damian Lillard.

The soon-to-be-six-time-All-Star has been spectacular. He's having his second-best season in points (29.8) and assists (7.7) and matching his previous best in threes (4.1). He's also the single biggest factor in the Blazers' crushing opponents by 21.8 points per 100 possessions in the clutch, which might forever be known as Dame Time—at least in the Pacific Northwest.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted.