Let's Do Some Math: How Joel Embiid Could Be an All-Star Starter
There is actually no math here.
The NBA changed their All-Star voting procedure this year. Previously, a fan vote determined the starters. This time around it’s a combination of fan vote (50%), media (25%), and players (25%). But how do 450-ish player votes, 100 or so media votes, and millions of fan votes all equal out? Fox Sports’ Andrew Lynch asked the league, and here’s their response:
After all votes are tallied, players will be ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score will be calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes…
For example, Player X finished 1st in fan voting for guards (50%), finishes 4th in player voting for guards (25%), and finished 6th in media voting for guards (25%).
1+1+4+6=12
12 divided by 4 = 3
Player X’s score is 3.
The two guards who finish with the best overall score (ie, the lowest numbers) are the starters.
So the number of fan votes doesn’t especially matter, just where you fell on the rankings.
Embiid’s path looks tough. At the last count, he was the 4th frontcourt player in the East. Even if he passed Kevin Love, there’s no way he usurped Giannis or LeBron. That would give him third in fan voting, and he would then need his media/player vote rank to definitely be higher. So far, we know Keith Pompey and Andre Iguodala cast a vote for him, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
Looks like Max’s skin is safe for now.