The NBA announced the starters for the 2026 All-Star Game on Monday. There weren't any major surprises based on the latest returns from the fan vote.
As usual, coaches will now select seven reserves from each conference. This year's edition of the All-Star Game is fully positionless, unlike in years past, so there are no positional quotas that coaches will have to fill. If they want to nominate seven guards or seven frontcourt players for either conference, they're free to do so.
In its latest flailing attempt to salvage the All-Star Game, the NBA is switching to a U.S.-vs.the-World format this year, which could open the door to even more players being named All-Stars than usual. Two teams of U.S. players will take on one team of international players in a round-robin tournament, and each team will have a minimum of eight players. If exactly 16 U.S. players and eight international players aren't named All-Stars, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will fill out the rest of the rosters himself.
The international team already has five players between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić, Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Depending on who else gets selected as a reserve, Silver may have to hand-pick multiple American players to fill out the two U.S. teams.
Goofy new format aside, this year's edition of the All-Star Game could feature plenty of first-time selections. Here, we've highlighted five players who deserve that honor based on their production through the first half of the 2025-26 season.
Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks
Only two players this season are averaging at least 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists per game. One is Jokić, the league's three-time MVP. The other is Jalen Johnson.
When Trae Young went down with an MCL sprain early this season, Johnson took over as the Hawks' alpha, and he hasn't looked back since. He's setting new career highs nearly across the board, including points (22.8), rebounds (10.1), assists (8.0) and made three-pointers (1.6) per game, and he's shooting 51.4 percent overall to boot.
The highlight of Johnson's season thus far came in early December, when he became only the 12th player in NBA history to rack up triple-doubles in four straight games. He's only the third player ever to do it before turning 24, according to the NBA, joining Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. That's fairly decent company.
Johnson played so well in Young's absence that he effectively convinced the Hawks to trade Young for pennies on the dollar. Although he has cooled off a bit since the start of the new year and the Hawks are five games below .500, his well-rounded production should make him a lock for one of the East's reserves regardless.
Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers
If the results from the All-Star starter voting are any indication, Deni Avdija should also be headed for his first All-Star Game this year. He finished fifth in the fan vote, ninth in the media vote and 10th in the player vote among all Western Conference players.
Avdija's breakout began after the All-Star break last year, when he averaged 23.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in his final 20 appearances of the season. He carried that momentum right over to this year and is averaging a career-high 26.2 points, 6.9 assists and 2.3 three-pointers to go with 7.1 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 35.3 minutes per game. Prior to this year, Avdija had never averaged more than 16.9 points per game in a season.
The Trail Blazers are still hanging around in the play-in mix at 22-22 in large part due to Avdija. Coaches typically avoid selecting players on the NBA's bottom-feeding squads, but team success shouldn't be a knock against Avdija. In fact, that could give him the edge over Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, who's averaging a career-high 27.9 points and 7.2 rebounds, albeit on a squad with a 14-29 record.
Even if the coaches somehow overlook Avdija, he could sneak in as an addition to Team World if at least three international players aren't selected as reserves. However, he clearly deserves an actual spot, not just an Adam Silver Sympathy Selection.
Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets
Jamal Murray is among the best active players who has yet to be named to an All-Star Game. He's likely a few weeks away from shedding that distinction.
Although Playoff Jamal is a thing of legend on par with Playoff Jimmy Butler, Regular-Season Jamal hasn't quite lived up to that moniker until now. This year, however, Murray is averaging a career-high 25.9 points, 7.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 three-pointers while shooting a career-best 49.0 percent from the floor and 44.7 percent from deep.
Murray erupted for 52 points against the Indiana Pacers in early December—the second-highest-scoring total of his career—and just hung 42 on the Washington Wizards a few days ago. With Jokić, Cam Johnson and Christian Braun all sidelined by injuries at the moment, Murray, Aaron Gordon and the Nuggets' bench players have been tasked with keeping the team afloat, and they've done a shockingly good job of it thus far.
Murray finished 11th in the player vote, ninth in the media vote and 14th in the fan vote, which suggests he's firmly in All-Star reserve territory. But like Avdija, he could also backdoor his way into a selection if Silver needs to pick another international player depending on how the reserve choices shake out. It shouldn't have to come to that, though.
Austin Reaves, Los Angeles Lakers
Austin Reaves has been sidelined since Christmas with a calf injury, which has already cost him any chance of earning an All-NBA nod this year. It's unclear whether he'll even be back by the All-Star Game, although Lakers head coach JJ Redick recently told reporters that he's hoping to have Reaves back soon.
Even if Reaves hasn't returned by the end of the month, coaches shouldn't overlook what he did over the first two months of the season. With LeBron James sidelined for the first few weeks due to old age/sciatica, Reaves and Dončić got the Lakers off to a hot start. Reaves in particular put the league on notice in the first week of the season by erupting for 51 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists against the Sacramento Kings and adding 41 points, five assists and four rebounds the next night against the Trail Blazers.
On the year, Reaves is averaging career highs in points (26.6), assists (6.3) rebounds (5.2) and minutes (35.3) per game while shooting a scorching 50.7 percent overall and 36.5 percent from deep. He couldn't have timed this explosion much better, either, as he's set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer once he inevitably declines his $14.9 million player option for the 2026-27 season.
Although Lakers fans are often guilty of overhyping their players, Reaves is a rare exception who has actually lived up to it.
Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons
Speaking of players in the midst of well-timed contract years… Jalen Duren chose to bet on himself by not signing an extension ahead of the rookie-scale deadline in October, and it's paying off thus far.
After finishing with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and nine rebounds in the Pistons' 104-103 win over the Boston Celtics on MLK Jr. Day, Duren is now up to a career-high 17.8 points and 10.7 rebounds in only 28.3 minutes per game on the year. He's blocking slightly fewer shots (0.9) than he did last season (1.1), but his offensive leap more than makes up for that minor downtick in rim protection.
Duren is a throwback big in this pace-and-space era, as he has attempted exactly six three-pointers—including zero this season or last—over his entire four-year NBA career. A grand majority of his shot attempts come within 10 feet of the basket, although he is attempting a career-high 46.7 percent of his shots from between 3-10 feet this year.
Thanks to his partnership with All-Star guard Cade Cunningham, Duren is one of the most potent roll men in the league this year. He's found a way to survive without a three-point shot by smashing opponents on the glass and mauling them inside en route to easy shots around the basket.
Coaches tend to prefer rewarding the top seeds in each conference with multiple All-Stars, even if it means using team record as a tiebreaker between a handful of close calls. With the Pistons sitting 5.5 games ahead of any other team in the East, it would be fairly surprising if they didn't get at least two All-Stars this year. Duren is the obvious candidate to join Cunningham in L.A. in mid-February.
Honorable Mention: Michael Porter Jr., Brooklyn Nets
Michael Porter Jr. averaged 18.2 points and 7.0 rebounds for the Denver Nuggets last season, but that didn't stop them from trading him this past offseason. Their proximity to the aprons caused them to send Porter and a fully unprotected 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam Johnson.
The rebuilding Nets have given Porter a green light to help rebuild his trade value, and he's done exactly that. He's averaging a career-high 25.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from deep. Granted, that production hasn't amounted to much, as the Nets currently have the NBA's fifth-worst record at 12-29.
Potential suitors for Porter don't appear to be holding the Nets' record against him, nor should they. He isn't the one who decided to roster five rookie first-round picks this year, after all. He has, however, quickly supplanted Cam Thomas as the No. 1 scoring option on the Nets' roster.
Coaches might not want to reward someone on a team that's 17 games under .500 with an All-Star nod, which might be Porter's undoing. But in terms of raw production, he's putting up All-Star-caliber numbers this year in Brooklyn.
Other candidates: Keyonte George, Utah Jazz; Chet Holmgren, OKC Thunder; Norman Powell, Miami Heat