All Stars

I think it more has to do with that current basketball caters to those 2 positions more. Current NBA allows a lot of offensive leeway for players that can handle the ball and there is a lot of 1 on 1 play. This is why point guards and ball dominant wings have much better stats than other positions. I’m not arguing that these players are not the best in the NBA, it just seems that teams put their best players into those positions, or roles, to have success (like your examples of Harden and Butler). If rules were different (no 3 point line, no 3 in the key), I would believe that big men would seem like the deepest positions in basketball.

In the West I would say Westbrook, Curry, and Lillard (assuming Harden will be treated as an SG) all have to get in with Paul most likely getting in too. Durant, Kawhi, and potentially Hayward at the SF

In the East Wall, Irving, Lowry, Isaiah, and Kemba all deserve spots so it depends on if people will take team success into account (in that case, Wall and probably Isaiah wouldn’t get in), or just their individual stats this season (Lowry and Kemba would probably be the odd ones out). However, there’s only a couple SGs that deserve to get in and not a whole lot of big guys in the East that deserve it more than those 5 guys, so I could see a scenario in which 4 of them get on the team. As for the SF spot, Lebron, Giannis, Jimmy, George, and Melo could all be voted on, and I could see them sliding a couple of them up or down in position to make room for them. You could make Lebron, Melo, or George a PF, Jimmy an SG, or Giannis basically anything

 I have a dark horse candidate. How about Gordon Hayward? He is playing out of his head right now and carrying the Jazz to a way better than exepcted rwecord. 23 pts a game, 6.5 boards, 4 ast. Around 28 per game over his last 10. What say you guys?

After taking a brief look, I think this is who I’d pick right now.

East:
Guards: Irving, Lowry, DeRozan, Thomas
Forwards: James, Giannis, Butler, George, Porzingis, Drummond
Additionals: Walker, Love

West:
Guards: Westbrook, Harden, Curry, Lillard
Forwards: Durant, Davis, Cousins, Griffin, Leonard, Aldridge
Additionals: Hayward, Paul

Can people elect to not play or has anyone chosen not to play in the allstar game with out having any injuries?

For example lets say Russell W elects to not play this year as he wants to focus on winning the MVP

or

If say Lebron wants to preserve himself for the playoffs?