Update: It was announced on 2/10 that Trae Young will be replacing Giannis Antetokounmpo in the All-Star Game. Enjoy this piece as a hypothetical, and as a discussion of what might happen if another East All-Star goes down in the next couple of days.
Jarrett Allen was left out in the cold as three of his teammates were named to the All-Star Game. Has the door opened back up for the Cleveland Cavaliers to have four All-Stars?
It's an exceptionally rare feat for one team to have four All-Stars. It has only happened nine times in the entire history of the NBA, most recently with the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors. For a team that hasn't won a title with their group to have four, you go back to the 2015 Atlanta Hawks...and that's it. Every other team to get such affirmation were both dominant in the regular season and had achieved significant postseason success.
Could the Cavaliers become the 10th team? That possibility seemed dead when only Evan Mobley and Darius Garland were named All-Star Reserves, joining starter Donovan Mitchell but leaving out Jarrett Allen. Given that Allen is often lowest on the offensive pecking order and his value is often defined by all of the "little things" that he does, that was not surprising, but it had to be disappointing for the one-time All-Star center.
Now the door has been cracked back open with the announcement that Milwaukee Bucks superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is expected to miss multiple weeks with a calf strain. The former MVP will miss the All-Star Game on February 16th, and it has been reported that the NBA will replace Antetokounmpo for the game.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver will select two injury replacements for the All-Star game with Anthony Davis (adductor strain) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (calf strain) out for a period of time. https://t.co/yv8HKp0Gjo
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 10, 2025
With Antetokounmpo sidelined, is Jarrett Allen in the running to replace him in the All-Star Game?
Jarrett Allen remains an All-Star long shot
There was a period of time when All-Star Replacements were usually chosen as a like-for-like replacement of the original All-Star. A guard was replaced with a guard, a big with a big.
In recent years, however, that guideline has been relaxed. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who will make the decision on which player replaces Antetokounmpo, has tended to ignore position and size of the injured player when selecting a replacement for them. Guards have replaced bigs and vice versa over the last double handfuls of All-Star Games.
If that is the case, Allen is a longshot. Multiple Eastern Conference guards were the most outspoken "snubs" when the NBA announced the All-Star Reserves. Trae Young in particular has been playing extremely well of late and could get his name called by the commissioner. The same goes for Tyrese Maxey, who has had an inefficient but productive season.
If Silver wants to validate the fan involvement he could also turn to LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets, who was the leading vote-getter among the Eastern Conference guards but was not named an All-Star Starter after media and player voting pushed him down the list. NBA coaches then left his name off the list as well.
What could introduce some uncertainty into the process is if the new All-Star Game format influences the decision in any way. Instead of two teams competing against one another, the All-Stars were divided into three teams, and they will compete in a short tournament-style competition along with the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge. Winners advance to a title game and one eight-player team will be crowned the champion.
While the teams were theoretically "drafted" by the celebrity coaches -- Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith -- they clearly scripted things to give each team a theme. The "old lions" led by LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry; the "young stars" led by Anthony Edwards and Jalen Brunson (including Darius Garland and Evan Mobley); and the international team featuring every non-American plus Donovan Mitchell.
Yet even if that influences Silver's decision, it won't help Jarrett Allen. Antetokounmpo was on Team Chuck, the international squad, and it's loaded with big men. In fact, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Donovan Mitchell are the only non-bigs on the roster. If Silver decides to replace Antetokounmpo based on the team he was on, he will either select an international player (perhaps Domantas Sabonis, and have Anthony Davis replaced with an East player) or a perimeter player like Trae Young or LaMelo Ball.
The Cavaliers are continuing to dominant the NBA, and Jarrett Allen is playing at an "All-Star level" this year. That likely won't be enough to elevate him into the All-Star Game even with Giannis Antetokounmpo bowing out. The Cavaliers will have to be satisfied with three representatives at All-Star Weekend.