Now that the starters have been decided, what are Isaiah Thomas' All-Star chances?
Here are the final voting results for the Eastern Conference All-Star team, via NBA.com:
LeBron James, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony will start in the frontcourt, with Dwyane Wade and Kyle Lowry getting the nod in the backcourt. East coaches will now determine the remainder of the roster, which will consist of three forwards/centers, two guards and two wild cards.
The first bit of good news for Isaiah Thomas' chances is that Lowry beat out Kyrie Irving in the fan voting. Lowry, who's putting up 20.9 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 6.5 APG for the second-seeded Raptors, was likely going anyway (the game is also in Toronto). Irving, who's only played in 15 contests this season, won't be chosen by the coaches.
Lowry's teammate DeMar DeRozan (23.1 / 4.5 / 4.2) is a good bet for a reserve backcourt spot, as is Jimmy Butler (22.4 / 5.0 / 4.3).
Andre Drummond (17.7 / 15.5 / 0.9) is a no-brainer in the frontcourt. After Drummond, Paul Milsap (18.5 / 8.7 / 3.5) and Chris Bosh (18.9 / 7.7 / 2.4) may be the two most deserving candidates.
That leaves the following players (and potentially a few others) competing for the two wild-card slots:
Thomas (21.7 / 3.0 / 6.7)
John Wall (19.9 / 4.2 / 9.7)
Reggie Jackson (19.1 / 3.8 / 6.6)
Kemba Walker (19.9 / 4.1 / 4.9)
Nicolas Batum (15.1 / 6.3 / 5.4)
Pau Gasol (16.3 / 10.8 / 3.1)
Kevin Love (15.7 / 11.0 / 2.4)
Brook Lopez (19.8 / 8.4 / 1.6)
I can't envision envision Wall, the conference's leader in assists by a wide margin, being left out.
It'll be close, but Isaiah should get the nod over everybody else listed above for the final spot. He's fifth in the conference in scoring, and the rest of the top seven will all be on the squad. Thomas is also third in the East in assists per game, making him the only player who's in the conference's top five in two of the three major statistical categories.
There's also a good possibility that someone like Wade or Anthony will have a "nagging injury" and decide not to play, which could open up another roster position. If I had to guess, I'd say Thomas has roughly a 75-80 percent chance of being an All-Star this year.
Follow Mark Vandeusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan
