NBA fans are paying attention. So it looks like DeMar DeRozan will be an All-Star game starter.
DeRozan Thursday in the first All-Star fan voting returns was first among Eastern Conference guards by a wide margin over James Harden with almost 1.5 million votes. Harden was just below 900,000. Trae Young trailed Harden by about 30,000 votes with Zach LaVine fourth.
If the margin for DeRozan holds, it will be his second All-Star game start. He was a starter in 2018 after being selected as an All-Star reserve three previous times.
The voting continues through January 22 for the Feb. 20 game in Cleveland to celebrate the NBA's 75th anniversary. The 50th anniversary was celebrated at the All-Star game in Cleveland in 1997. The starters will be announced on the TNT show Jan. 27 with the reserves revealed the following week. Fan voting accounts for 50 percent of the final total with players and media 25 percent each.
The three frontcourt leaders to start in the Eastern Conference are Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.
In the Western Conference, the front court voting leaders are LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Paul George. The West guard leaders are Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic. The East and West voting leaders will be captains of their teams for a draft to determine the two teams to play in the game. Durant leads in the East and Curry in the West.
The format to a playground type of selection game mixing conferences was changed in 2018, the year DeRozan was a starter in his fourth All-Star game. That was the last time DeRozan made an All-Star team.
But coming to the Bulls in a free agent/sign-and-trade transaction last summer DeRozan at 32 is having one of the best seasons of his career, the highlight just last weekend with a first-time-in-NBA-history back to back game winners on consecutive days in the Bulls games in Indiana and Washington.
That helped propel the Bulls into first place in the Eastern Conference with a 25-10 record as they face a rematch with Washington in the United Center Friday. DeRozan was twice in the last month the winner of the Player of the Week award.
DeRozan is averaging 26.9 points per game and leading the NBA in fourth quarter scoring and scoring efficiency. It's the second highest scoring average of his career in his 13th season. He's also averaging five rebounds and 4.5 assists and shooting 49.4 percent overall and a career best 36.2 percent on threes. Both of DeRozan's game winners were three-point shots.
DeMar DeRozan jams in a reverse jam in Philadelphia.
DeRozan had mostly dropped out of the NBA star conversation because of the current era's focus on three-point shooting. DeRozan's speciality is his mid-range shooting, which was why his acquisition by the Bulls this summer was often criticized, at least nationally. Locally, it was mostly applauded considering the higher level of basketball intelligence generally attributed to Chicago media compared with most national basketball media.
LaVine even with the addition of DeRozan still is having an All-Star season and should be at least selected as a reserve for his second consecutive All-Star selection. LaVine also was a member of last summer's gold medal winning USA Basketball team in Japan.
LaVine's statistics are almost identical to DeRozan's.
LaVine is averaging 26.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists. He is shooting 49.7 percent overall and 42 percent on threes. He has become one of the elite scorers in the NBA, averaging more than 25 points per game cumulative the last four years while remaining a reliable shooter at almost 40 percent on threes in that same stretch.
Nikola Vucevic was 10th among Eastern Conference front court players in the voting.
Other notables in the voting include former Bulls Jimmy Butler fifth among front court and Derrick Rose seventh among guards. Kyrie Irving despite not playing his first game this season until Tuesday was sixth among East guards.
In the Western Conference, Golden State's Andrew Wiggins fourth and Draymond Green fifth were next among the front court players. Ja Morant was third among guards. Klay Thompson, who hasn't played yet this season but could return from injuries this weekend, was fourth among West guards. Chris Paul was sixth. Donovan Mitchell was seventh, the top vote getter among Jazz players even as they have the league's third best record. The voting totals tend to remain reasonably static throughout the process.