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We’ve poked a lot of fun at Jordan Poole the last two years, but even as a “dogs over cats” guy, I’m impressed the Wizards guard influenced Steph Curry to get a cat.

Our All-Stars!

These should be the 2025 reserve selections

Before the action on TNT tonight, the “Inside the NBA” crew will announce the All-Star reserves at 6:30 p.m. ET, voted on by each conference’s coaches. The format has the coaches selecting two backcourt options, three frontcourt picks and two wild-card players. Just as a reminder, here are the starters that were announced last week.

I’m sure this will happen smoothly and without the internet claiming there were egregious snubs because of the haters … or whatever is being said these days. (Just remember, when you nominate a snub, you have to also remove someone from being selected.) We’ll get to that stuff tomorrow once we know the picks.

These were my selections Monday, when I was musing about potential All-Star reserve selections in NBA Rewind:

East reserves

• Backcourt: Damian Lillard (Bucks), Trae Young (Hawks)
• Frontcourt: Evan Mobley (Cavaliers), Jaylen Brown (Celtics), Pascal Siakam (Pacers)
• Wild card: Cade Cunningham (Pistons), Darius Garland (Cavaliers)

The toughest snubs for me in the East were LaMelo Ball, the unhealthy forwards from the Magic and either Nikola Vučević or Jarrett Allen for a frontcourt spot. Ball, who is currently out with an ankle injury, has the popularity and some fun numbers on a horrendous team. Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner having healthier campaigns would’ve made them no-brainers.

West reserves

• Backcourt: Anthony Edwards (Wolves), Norman Powell (Clippers)
• Frontcourt: Victor Wembanyama (Spurs), Anthony Davis (Lakers), Jalen Williams (Thunder)
• Wild card: Alperen Şengün (Rockets), Domantas Sabonis (Kings)

As is usually the case in the West, there were a lot more snubs. These were tougher snubs, too. I did not feel good having zero Grizzlies on there. James Harden’s numbers and impact are good, but his efficiency isn’t. Devin Booker is a tough omission. De’Aaron Fox, Kyrie Irving and even Ivica Zubac were tough to leave off. You could find more guys who should receive consideration, but let’s move on to other picks.

John Hollinger also put out his All-Star reserves selections, and this is what he had yesterday:

• We stayed the same on Wemby, Davis, Sabonis, Williams and Edwards in the West.
• Hollinger didn’t have Şengün or Powell. Instead, he picked Jaren Jackson Jr. and Kyrie Irving. 

I don’t agree with leaving Şengün off the roster, but JJJ has been pretty consistent and good for a Grizzlies team missing its best player a lot. And while I’d give Powell more credit this season for what he’s meant for the Clippers, Irving has been spectacular for the Mavericks. He’s tried to keep them above the fray during Luka Dončić’s absence.

• For the Eastern Conference, Hollinger and I were the same with the selections for Mobley, Cunningham, Garland and Lillard.
• He did not have Young, Brown or Siakam, though. Hollinger picked Tyrese Maxey, Franz Wagner and Tyrese Haliburton.

As good as Wagner has been for a good chunk of the season (most of it without Banchero), I do think missing 20 games is just too many at this juncture, even in the East. I don’t mind giving the nod to Haliburton over Siakam if you want a Pacer in there. I’m not sure I could justify Maxey over Young or Ball. But then again, we both decided to snub Ball in this exercise.

The Last 24

No Clark in NBA’s contest for now

🚫 No Caitlin Clark. NBA All-Star Weekend will not feature the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year trying to outshoot Steph Curry. She wants the WNBA’s contest first.

😞 Big injury in Atlanta. Jalen Johnson has suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. The Hawks’ playoff hopes take a hit.

😣 The Brow is out. Anthony Davis will be re-evaluated in a week after suffering an abdominal strain. Does this affect the Lakers at the trade deadline?

⭐ Rising Stars. Remember that eight of these guys will play in the All-Star Game’s new tournament. Will Wemby face himself if that happens?

📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Rockets (32-14) at Grizzlies (31-16), 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT. Houston has a chance to sweep the season series against Memphis.

You Can’t Be Serious

Why 10-minute quarters would be bad for NBA

The fact Adam Silver is so open to ideas around maximizing the NBA’s actual basketball product is truly a great thing. I love the NBA being so flexible in re-imagining what this league should be. We’ve seen great gambles with the NBA Cup and the Play-In Tournament, both of which I believe have boosted the product.

With that being said, the idea Silver floated on “The Dan Patrick Show” yesterday made me incensed. Patrick asked him about wild ideas the NBA has considered. This is the one he offered up:

“Something else that I’m a fan of, and I’m probably in the minority, as we get more involved in global basketball, the NBA is the only league that plays 48 minutes. And I am a fan of four 10-minute quarters. I’m not sure that many others are. Putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think that a two-hour format for a game is more consistent for modern television habits. People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but I think as a television program, being two hours, as Olympic basketball is two hours …”

Patrick cut him off and said if the commissioner likes it, then it has “kind of a push there.” The latter admitted it’s such a dramatic change that it would have to be talked about more over time. He likes what Major League Baseball did with the pitch clock to speed up games. He also likes MLB’s willingness to make changes, even as such a traditional league.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver floats the idea of changing the game from 12 to 10 minute quarters #NBA pic.twitter.com/ymajYHTgi4

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 29, 2025

As of now, none of this is imminent, but as I watched that segment and heard what Silver said in floating that “wild idea,” I respectfully (and I can’t emphasize that word enough) had the same reaction as Michael Bolton (not that one, but I do celebrate his entire catalog) hearing about Tom Smykowski’s “Jump to Conclusions mat” idea.

Silver also claimed that switching to 40-minute games could help resolve load management and issues around players resting. He didn’t have the exact math off the top of his head, but he said it would be the equivalent of taking 15 games off the regular season. He also emphasized this isn’t close to happening.

This is a terrible idea for a few reasons off the top of my head:

1. Star players will still play big minutes. You won’t get the same percentage cut of the minutes pie in an NBA game. If a game is only 40 minutes, the stars of the league aren’t going to play 28 minutes instead of 36 minutes. They will still play 36 minutes, and coaches won’t need longer portions of the game covered in their absence. That’s just a basic understanding of how coaches work. Tom Thibodeau would beg for overtime to get regular minutes for his guys.
2. Load management would still be a thing. I think it’s great to worry about the fans, but this wouldn’t solve load management. What this idea would do is destroy the NBA’s middle class of players. Fewer minutes in a game means fewer minutes for the “other” players on the roster. If anything, the union should be obliterating this idea in every public setting. Eliminating opportunities for the players is a massive labor issue.
3. Conforming to international standards. Yes, the Olympics, FIBA and college basketball each have 40-minute games. Remind me again, though: Isn’t the NBA the gold standard for basketball? Doesn’t everybody in the world work their ass off to get to the NBA? Why would the NBA lessen its product to model a world trying to reach its level?
4. Game promotion, not structure, is the problem. The commish was very honest about the league needing to promote the game better. I’ve hammered that point way more than criticizing 3-point shooting or load management.

Thankfully, I don’t think this 40-minute game idea has any real future.

On This Day

Magic returned to hoops

On this day back in 1996, Magic Johnson did the impossible: He played in an NBA game once again. It seemed improbable because he hadn’t done so since losing to the Bulls in the 1991 finals. It was coming up on five years since he’d last been on an NBA court, due to testing positive for HIV in 1991. But 29 years ago today, he was playing for the Lakers again.

I vividly remember watching this game on TNT. The Lakers played the Warriors, and Johnson came off the bench when he checked into the game. He was really good, racking up 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 27 minutes. And he had this ball fake against Latrell Sprewell that sent 14-year-old me into a frenzy.

This is what I wrote about that fake in my NBA Lookahead column that came out today:

I swear every time I think about that play, the fake is far more dramatic and outstretched with his arm, and maybe even Latrell Sprewell goes for the fake so hard that he falls right into the area of P.J. Carlesimo with his hands around his neck, and then we immediately plunge into a blackhole to time warp to Spree being traded to the New York Knicks. That’s how I remember it, but as you can see from the video, it’s not quite as dramatic when you check the replay.

Johnson went on to play 32 games for the Lakers that season, with the Lakers going 22-10 in his appearances. His numbers were good as he even shot the 3-ball well with the shortened line. His career ended after the Lakers lost in the first round against the Rockets, but none of that mattered. He wasn’t just alive — he was back for a brief moment in time to remind everybody he could still command an NBA game.

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(Top photo: Jemal Countess / Getty Images )