The NBA All-Star weekend is the last weekend of February and the five starters that are going to represent the Western and Eastern conference have already been chosen. The Eastern Conference All-Stars are Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Dwight Howard. The All-Star game reserves are to be named tonight on TNT at 7 p.m. (ET) and there are two Atlanta Hawks players whose names could be announced.
The two players are forward Josh Smith and guard Joe Johnson. Smith is averaging 15.6 points per game and Johnson is leading the Hawks with 18.6 points per game. Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears predicts that Johnson will make it but Smith, while deserving, wont.
The Hawks seemed poised to get two All-Stars before a recent slide that could hurt their chances. While Smith is deserving, Johnson is the Hawks' leading scorer and is a perennial All-Star. Prediction: Johnson in; Smith out.
ESPN's Marc Stein believes the exact opposite, that Smith will be in but Johnson will be out.
It's not the lefty thing with Smith. It's the combination of his all-around game and visions of how good he'd be flying around in an All-Star setting that made me want to take Josh over Joe Johnson as the Hawk to reward for Atlanta's ability (so far) to withstand the loss of All-Star center Al Horford.
SB Nation's Tom Ziller doesn't think either of them will be named to the All-Star reserve roster but that they could both be injury reserves.
For more on the Hawks, head to Peachtree Hoops and for more on the All-Star rosters go to SB Nation's stream.