NBA fans love hearing players on their team talk about team goals and putting the team first. While the team goals should be more important than individual accolades, there is no doubt the individual stuff still matters.
Tyler Herro confirmed he wants to make his first All-Star game on the The OGs Podcast. His lead-by-example play this season places his name in a large hat of potential Eastern Conference guards. Some of these guards have been there before and are virtual locks. Herro doesn't fit that description, but there aren't too many guards with 100% better cases than him—many of these selections are interchangeable.
While the debates will rage on as we get closer to All-Star weekend, Herro must keep his head down and torching nets. His case revolves around being a top-five shooter in the NBA and the best player on a winning team. Those heavy factors didn't do much to sway fan voting, but Herro was never making it through that route anyway.
Guards from losing teams shouldn't affect Herro
The NBA's second All-Star fan vote return wasn't too kind to Herro. Fans have 50% of the power on who they want to see in the starting lineup, while coaches vote in the reserves.
Herro ranked 10th in Eastern Conference backcourt fan voting behind LaMelo Ball, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, Jalen Brunson, Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham, Jordan Poole, and Darius Garland.
The fans own half the power in fan voting, with media members and players making up the other half of the All-Star starters process. You can scratch off some guards from the fan-voting selections.
Washington Wizards Jordan Poole won't be in San Francisco as an All-Star participant. His comeback season has been a joy, but there's no shot he catches up in fan voting, and the coaches aren't rewarding a player on a team in the Cooper Flagg chase.
LaMelo Ball is in that same group. The kids love him, and you'll see his Puma shoes all over the floor at AAU gyms nationwide. He's having a stunning season, and with a 30 PPG average sitting by his name, you'd think he'd be a lock. But he's also on one of the worst teams in basketball, and while he's a great player, a lot of his eye-popping numbers stem from his historical usage. I don't see players and the media voting him in with his current playing style and team record. (Zach Lavine didn't even crack the top 10, but he, too, is having a helluva year and deserves a shout.)
These familiar faces should be considered locks
Mitchell and Lillard are perennial All-Stars on good to great teams. Lillard's rocky start was exaggerated. He's been the offensive maestro we're accustomed to seeing. Lillard isn't the No. 1 option like many of his peers in the backcourt, but he has so much cachet built up in his career. You can all but assure the second half of the Bucks duo will get in. Mitchell is the leader of the best team in the NBA. He's definitely not doing it alone, but the best player always gets the lion's share of the praise.
Brunson isn't a perennial All-Star yet, but we'll need to look at him through that lens when he's selected this year. Brunson is the engine of the third-best team in the East and is looking to rack up his second straight All-Star appearance. He and Mitchell should start in the backcourt, but Lillard is a big enough star that he might usurp Mitchell and Brunson amongst the players or media voting. No matter the order, those three will be in San Fran. Book it.
Last year's success doesn't count toward this season
Tyrese Maxey and Tyrese Haliburton were media darlings last season. Both made the All-Star game, and things were trending upward. Every year is its own story-- neither has rocked socks like last year.
Haliburton has picked it up lately and has the Pacers rolling. They are up to fifth in the East, four games above .500. Still, his early-season inconsistencies led to reporters suggesting that the bed he sleeps in explains his home/road discrepancies. His play as of late gives him a chance to sneak in as a reserve, but coaches could hold his early up-and-down play against him.
Maxey has been the No. 1 option most of the season, with Joel Embiid only suiting up 13 times this year. Maxey is the better player between him and Paul George in 2025, so all the best player on the team attention has gone to him. Maxey's efficiency has suffered the most with this new burden. His scoring is virtually the same, while his 3p% has gone from 37 to 33%. His -4rTS% is a nasty figure for a player of his magnitude, but with Embiid's absence plaguing their season, the Sixers haven't been a good team. That's the most damming thing about Maxey's case against Herro.
Making the All-Star game is an individual accomplishment, so team success isn't the be-all and end-all. But winning could be a deciding factor for some when things are razor close. Herro's scoring slightly less than Maxey, but he's more efficient and rallies his guys. These next three guards rally the troops and have strong All-Star cases—they could keep Herro in Miami come February.
3 guards that could keep Herro out of the All-Star game
Last season, six guards from the East made the All-Star game. If Mitchell, Brunson, and Lillard are locks, that leaves two or three spots.
Five made it initially, and Trae Young got in as an injury replacement (injury replacements occur every year). That injury replacement selection was much deserved, and Young is having a better year than last year.
Young leads the league in assists with a bonkers 12 APG (the highest since 1995). Young is on a so-so Hawks team, so we can't use the bottom-feeder argument against him, but here's where you could argue Herro is more deserving.
Herro is much more efficient than Young (62 TS% vs. 56%). He's taking better shots than Young this year, as shot selection has never been Traes' strong suit. Herro is definitively the best player on his team. Young plays with another potential first-time All-Star in Jalen Johnson, who Atlanta is 2-4 without. That could hurt Trae, as the league has shown he hasn't been given the benefit of the doubt that a guy like Lillard has.
There's no case for Bam Adebayo or Jimmy Butler to be named All-Stars over Herro this year (besides the frontcourt being weak compared to the backcourt in the East). We're splitting hairs here, Herro being the guy could slide him over Young.
Cade Cunningham has resucued the Detroit Pistons from NBA hell. The Pistons have surpassed last year's win total, and we're only in January. That says a lot about where Detroit was last year and Cunningham's growth.
Cade is no efficiency God, but he's burdened with so much. There's no other All-Star caliber talent on his roster. Night in and night out, defenses can load up on the fourth-year star without fear. He makes them pay as a passing savant—Cunningham is third in APG, and he's doing it with veterans teams didn't want.
The story of turning the Pistons' fate around could single-handedly get Cuningham to San Fran. When you watch him operate, you can immediately spot he's a special talent elevating decent talent around him. Expectations play a role here, but nobody expected Detroit to hover around .500 in January, not even their president. Cunningham's growth and leadership got them here. He's going to make it.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are far from a team with decent talent. They have four All-Star caliber players and are vocal about representing the Cavs.
Garland spoke out about making it, and I think it's because he's on the fence the most. Garland is deserving, but the east backcourt is loaded. He has been more efficient than Herro, shooting 50/40/90 and downright one of the most clutch players in basketball. Cleveland is the best team, so where does Herro get an edge over Garland?
Like Young, Herro is burdened with a heavier load, seeing that he's not playing with another great offense initiator he leans on.
Garland is Clevland's lead ball-handler and decision-maker, but he always has Donovan Mitchell to fall back on. That same argument could be made for Garland instead of Mitchell, but again, we know the best player on the team will get most of the credit (and blame).
That distinction won't disqualify Garland from making it—he and Herro would make it in a perfect world. But head-to-head against Herro, one could value how Herro's balling out without All-Star players aiding him.