First Time All Stars with Law Murray | Slam N Jam
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What is the premise of the First‑Time All‑Stars draft discussion?
Welcome to the Slam and Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily. On today's show, we've got Law Murray on to discuss first-time All-Stars. We do it every year, and we're doing it this year with Law Murray. It should be very fun. And then we're gonna close with some trivia. Trivia that Alex said to me earlier. I've got some really good trivia. And he said it in a menacing way, so I'm terrified. Um No?
No, I th I think it's fun trivia. I think you guys are gonna l really enjoy it.
Okay. That that's that feels that feels uh that still feels menacing. Um with us Law Murray of the Athletic. Um you know you know him from uh player tiers, you know him from power rankings, and you also know him for covering uh a a team that is endlessly interesting in all the bad ways, the LA Clippers. Law, what's up?
I'm really happy to see you guys and really happy to not talk about the LA Clippers.
Yeah. Yeah, this is not a clippers uh centered podcast. Um we're we're talking about guys that we think could be full first time all stars. Alex, will you help walk us through this exercise?
Yes, we we're gonna do a draft. Uh but before we get to the draft, I do wanna give some preamble because uh it might it might influence who you pick. So we've done this is the fifth year we've done this, and originally when I did it, I went back twenty five years, so to nineteen ninety seven. So now I have twenty nine years worth of data. On average, every season there are six point one first time all-stars. Every season, Which always surprises me that the number is that high. And yet it keeps happening. Even last year, we had six first time all stars. Happened again. Now, I broken them down by years of sir, like years of service in the NBA, just to give you an idea of like who you might be wanting to pick.
Because when it comes to rookies, extremely rare. The last rookie who did it, of course, was, speaking of the Clippers, Blake Griffin. Blake Griffin. He was 21. He was technically in his second season because he had missed his first season due to injury. Before that, you got to go back to 22-year-old. old Yao Ming. Before that you have to go back to twenty-four-year-old David Robinson. It's very rare. It can happen, but it's rare. Second year guys That happens a little bit more frequently. We get like 0.7 per year, but it's been happening more frequently recently, uh Wemby being being an example. Third year players, we get about one per year. Fourth year players, it's about 1.2 per year. The majority of first-time all-stars tend to be guys who are off their rookie scale deals.
I would consider them vets. So these are guys who are in their fifth year or later. They make up 3.1 of the first-time all-stars every season. And there's always names that surprise us. Last year we did this draft. There were four of us and we each picked three players, so twelve guys, and still none of us picked Jalen Duran and none of us picked Norm Powell. And Norm Powell falls into that vet uh bucket. And there were four vets last year, six in total. One other thing I wanted to bring up that could influence you is the difference between the conferences. So uh law, I went back through your tiers. Now, your first five guys, I mean Giannis and Ant are in there are both in a tier, but if we say Ant is number five, those first five guys, all from the West.
However, if you look at the top 20, so this goes all the way through tier two B, only eight of those guys are currently in the Western Conference. Twelve are in the Eastern Conference. Two West All-Stars from last season. LeBron and and maybe Kawhi move to the East. Plus, we're getting a full season of Jason Tatum and a full season of Tyrese Halliburton. Two guys who I would think would be traditionally an all-star lock if healthy. So just something to think about. I would say, based on that, there's a lot more room in the West. to to to make some moves. If I look at like locked in guys in the West, I really only see like Curry, Jokic, SGA, Wemby, Ant, and Luca. Now there's there's some guys who like I mean maybe I don't know, would you consider KD?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the premise of the First‑Time All‑Stars draft discussion?
0:02–9:05
2
How do the hosts decide which players qualify as first‑time All‑Stars?
9:05–21:11
3
Which veteran players are highlighted as likely first‑time All‑Stars this season?
21:11–32:33
4
What criteria do the hosts use to rank second‑year and third‑year prospects?
32:33–44:45
5
Why do the hosts favor Cooper‑Flag (Cade Cunningham) as a top pick?
44:45–54:00
6
How do team context and conference balance affect the All‑Star predictions?
54:00–1:01:10
7
What are the key moments and outcomes of the trivia round?
1:01:10–1:08:35
8
What final picks and takeaways do the hosts leave listeners with?
1:08:35–1:17:21