After writing the Western Conference side of my official media poll for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, it seemed like a good idea to do the same for the East. Know, never leave a job done, and all that.
A quick reminder: You vote for five players in each conference, fan voting counts for 50% of the final score, and player and media votes count for 25% each. The biggest difference this year? Instead of selecting three frontcourt players and two backcourt players from each conference, the vote went completely blank. Just pick five guys, and keep going.
(Jonathan Castro/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
East
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
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Cade Cunningham, Pistons
Tyrese Maxey, 76ers
Jaylen Brown, Celtics
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
All stats and records going into Friday’s games.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks
Yes, the Buckeyes are tough – 17-24, two games out of playoff spots in the East, in the bottom 10 both offensively. again defensive efficiency. Most of that frustration, however, comes when Antetokounmpo is unavailable: Milwaukee is 14-13 when he plays, and just 3-11 when he doesn’t.
As it turns out, it’s very useful to have a man who scores almost a point per minute – 28.8 points in 29 minutes per game – while hitting two-thirds of his 2-pointers, including almost 10 rebounds and six assists per game, creating more 3-pointers for teammates per 100 possessions than anyone in McConnell outside the NBA! despite missing 14 games.
With Giannis on the floor, the Bucks have outscored opponents by a whopping 7.2 points per 100 possessions in his non-trash minutes, according to Cleaning the Glass — a team average of 57 wins — and have scored at a clip that matches the Nuggets’ league-leading offense. The big fella is still moving the needle at a rate unmatched by any other power in the Eastern Conference … which is probably why his relative satisfaction levels, contract status and expected next move are so closely watched and so often discussed, so most people.
Cade Cunningham, Pistons
Somehow Underneath what is often commented on is Giannis’ future: The current beauty of the Detroit Pistons, who have firmly established themselves as the class of the conference. Cunningham led that charge, moving on to last season’s All-Star and NBA wins as the straw that shook the drink for the East’s No. 1 seed. 1.
Only Nikola Jokić is averaging more assists per game or points created with an assist than Cunningham, who is on pace to become the seventh player in NBA history to average more than 25 points and nine assists per game in multiple seasons. His 3-point accuracy dipped, but he countered that by getting to the free throw line more often and reducing his turnover rate. He’s also been an even more active contributor to the Pistons’ defense, trailing only Oklahoma City in points allowed per possession: Cunningham is one of eight guards in the NBA this season to steal. again block at least 2% of the opponent’s offensive items.
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One of the other seven guards on that list?
Tyrese Maxey, 76ers
Maxey’s rise on defense has been accompanied by a strong jump that puts him in the conversation to be the best point guard in the conference.
Amidst preseason questions about how the Sixers can find a chance to compete given the lingering issues surrounding Joel Embiid and Paul George, Maxey offered a simple and compelling answer, a big reason why Philly is in the top four in the East: Let me cook, and never take me off the floor.
The 25-year-old leads the NBA in total minutes despite missing two games in mid-December, and in minutes per game by a country mile; the gap between him (39.4 minutes per game) and second-place Amen Thompson (37.1) is about the same as the gap between Thompson and 14th-place Mikal Bridges (34.9). Getting him out has been key for Nick Nurse’s team: Six has outscored opponents by 2.7 points per 100 possessions in his minutes, scoring and defending at nearly top-10 rates, and be he was outscored by 3.8-per-100 points in his rare offseasons.
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Maxey made the most of all those minutes. He joins Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as one of three players to average more than 30 points per game this season, and he’s doing so by being very efficient in scoring, recording a career-best 52.6%, 40.5% from beyond that on 9.1 starts a night, and 87.4th-highest per line attempt at 87.4% game. He married that elite three-level scoring ability with continued growth as a playmaker; only four players in the NBA this season have both as high an assist rate as Maxey and as low a turnover rate.
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One of those four players is Jalen Brunson. His name, as you may have noticed, does not appear in my vote. Considering both his high placement in the results of fan polls, his second place among guards in both player and media polls last year, and the fact that he has been good again this season – eighth in the NBA with 28.2 points per game and 20th place in assists with 6.1 per game, shooting 48.1% from the field, 38-2% free throws, 38-8. line – it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he ends up taking first place when all is said and done.
However, as I looked, once I passed Giannis (the best player in the conference) and Cunningham (the best No. 1 player in the conference), the last three starting spots came down to four guards: Maxey, Brunson, Mitchell and Brown. (With apologies to Scottie Barnes, who deserves an All-Star spot for his fine two-way career in Toronto.)
Jaylen Brown, Celtics
As Maxey carried the Sixers, Brown took on a big offensive job – the highest usage rate in the NBA this season, behind only Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić – for a Celtics team that not only missed All-NBA First Teamer Jayson Tatum, but also the basics of champions Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Powder and Alziņfordisr. He proved more than up to the challenge of being Boston’s No. 1 option, averaging a career-best 29.4 points per game and 4.9 assists per game on 49/37/79 splits and the best scoring of his career.
Only five players who have run such a high-profile offense have ever hit this offense well over the course of a full season: Giannis, Embiid, Dončic, James Harden and Bernard King. That’s it the kind of company Brown was keeping, leading the Celtics to the NBA’s second-best point total, fourth-best net rating and second place in the East — places no one outside TD Garden thought Boston would take part of what we all thought would be a gap year, but instead it’s turned into an opportunity for Brown, and Paynerd, and Paynersh Prize, and Payney Prize, and Payney Prize, and Payney Prize, and Warney Prisons, and Derels White Queta, and on, and on) to show everyone how much they can do when given the chance to work their stuff out.
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
While the Celtics bested their preseason ratings, the Cavaliers struggled to meet their lofty expectations with a 64-win campaign. On the other hand, the fact that Cleveland is sitting 2.5 games behind New York in the top spot, in seventh place, feels like a huge disappointment. On the other hand, given the plethora of injuries the Cavs have dealt with — only five teams have lost multiple players this season, according to Spotrac, with Darius Garland rarely matching his All-Star status and rookie Max Strus still yet to be eligible — and the abysmal performances of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, it’s a pretty low grade. a testament to how good Mitchell has been throughout what has arguably been the best season of his career.
The ninth-year point guard is averaging 29.7 points per game, shooting 58.9% from 2-point range and 38.7% from 3-point range while taking 10 triples per game – all career highs. With Garland struggling as he works his way through a lingering toe injury, with Mobley’s efforts to develop as a shooter and offensive center seemingly on the rise, with 2024-25 key Ty Jerome no longer with the team, and last season with Lonzo Ball struggling to make an offensive impact and impact Cleveland, Mitchell. to attack. The Cavs score like a top-three offense with Mitchell in control, and like the Wizards or Haliburton-less Pacers when he’s out; their net average improved by 13.3 points per 100 minutes over Mitchell, one of the biggest swings for any player to log significant minutes this season.
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Brown and Mitchell scored more points per minute and per possession than Brunson; Maxey did very well. Mitchell and Maxey outscored Brunson in a number of advanced metrics – average plus and minus, LEBRON, value above replacement player, player efficiency rating, win shares, win shares per 48 minutes, box plus and minus, etc. Brown isn’t doing that — his game has never been measured particularly well by advanced metrics — but he’s been very effective at increasing the value of a larger and larger multipositional defender … which ended up being a hair-splitting experience.
As good as Brunson is, I found his role in the Knicks’ post-NBA Cup slump hard to ignore when he stacks up against loaded players. like that Significant burdens for teams to lose without them — especially when considering all three other players thought to outperform Brunson at the defensive end, which has been the most consistent pain point during New York’s slump, and where advanced metrics often rate Brunson as one of the worst big-minute players in the league. In a situation marked by narrow margins, that’s enough to beat the others ahead of him, just a little bit, in my vote.
