Is Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball an All-Star? If he is, is he a starter? These questions have permeated the early voting period for the NBA All-Star Game this year, and the fans have rendered their verdict. The media, however, might disagree. The Hoop Collective, featuring Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and Tim McMahon, discussed this.

The early returns on the second round of fan voting have LaMelo Ball with a huge lead. He has the fourth-most votes among Eastern Conference players and the most among Eastern Conference guards. The fan vote is 50% of getting in as a starter, but Ball is well on his way.

The other 50% comes from player and media voting. The media has never shied away from saying that Ball probably shouldn’t be an All-Star despite a 29.9/5.4/7.3 slash line. This time, Tim Bontemps said,”LaMelo is probably going to stay ahead in the fan vote, wouldn’t surprise me… However, despite the fact that he’s putting up big numbers, it’ll be very interesting to see how many votes he gets from both media and players.”

With an incredulous look on his face, Tim McMahon interjected, “He’s not an All-Star starter.” Bontemps believes it will be close between Ball and Damian Lillard in terms of starting the All-Star Game, with Donovan Mitchell more than likely taking the other spot.

At this point, with Ball surging in the fan vote, the Hornets guard is very likely to make the All-Star game, so the discussion has now shifted away from Ball being undeserving of an All-Star bid to now being undeserving of being named a starter.

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