Celtics guard Rajon Rondo is set to appear in his third All-Star Game. (Elsa/Getty Images)

Celtics guard Rajon Rondo has been picked as a replacement in the All-Star Game for Hawks guard Joe Johnson, who will be out with tendinitis in his left knee. All-Star selections tend to rile up folks, and Rondo’s selection over a handful of candidates will do just that.

Two weeks ago, I named Rondo as a reserve on my All-Star team. So, in theory, I’m fine with the selection. But over those two weeks (through Tuesday):

• Boston has gone into a tailspin, losing six of seven to fall to 15-16 and into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference.

• Rondo has alternated brilliant games (67 points combined on 53 percent shooting in back-to-back games against Chicago and Detroit) with five-point stinkers in depressing losses to the Raptors and Pistons.

• Rondo earned himself an inexcusable two-game suspension for tossing the ball at a referee over the weekend. He has now missed nine of Boston’s 31 games, or nearly 30 percent, and if you want to select someone else simply because of durability this season, that’s understandable. You might be lending too much weight to a 30-game stretch during a crazy, compressed season, but the All-Star Game is (in theory) supposed to reward single-season performance.

Here are your non-Rondo candidates:

• Josh Smith. The eighth-year forward appears to be the people’s choice, at least judging by Twitter, and he has played every game for a Hawks team that has needed his all-around skills more than ever in the absence of Al Horford. Smith is putting up the best rebounding and passing numbers of his career, and Atlanta has long depended on his ability to work all over the court on defense.

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After revealing my official Eastern Conference All-Star roster, I give you my Western Conference roster, using the same rules …

STARTERS

Fans chose Blake Griffin over Kevin Love, but Love is better. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)

• G Chris Paul, Clippers

• G Kobe Bryant, Lakers

• F Kevin Durant, Thunder

• F Kevin Love, Timberwolves

• C Marc Gasol, Grizzlies

I suspect we’re all in agreement on those first three, who comprise the Nos. 2-4 spots in the overall PER rankings and earned well-deserved starting nods from the fans. The same fans chose Blake Griffin over Love for the second forward spot, and while Griffin is having another excellent season, Love has been the better player. Neither is above-average defensively, though both are improving and holding opposing players to sub-35 percent shooting in the post, per Synergy Sports. Love strikes me as a bit more alert and quick on his feet, but let’s call defense a wash.

Love has opened up a small gap on offense because of his ability to stretch the floor as a high-volume three-point shooter, score from the block, earn bundles of free throws and actually make those free throws. He is a legit 80 percent foul shooter who leads the league in made free throws, while Griffin has hit just 49 percent of his freebies in what probably is just a run of bad luck.

And Love’s shooting is starting to open up shots for teammates in much the same Dirk Nowitzki’s shooting does in Dallas. More and more, teams are defending Love pick-and-rolls by having his man stick very close to him rather than jump out on the ball-handler, a strategy that prevents the Love pick-and-pop jumper but opens the kind of driving lanes guard J.J. Barea thrived on as Nowitzki’s pick-and-roll partner in Dallas. And when he’s not involved in the pick-and-roll directly, Love can act as a spot-up decoy behind the three-point line, dragging a help-defense big man away from the rim.

Griffin is outstanding. He’s a better finisher, nearly as good a defensive rebounder and perhaps a slightly more polished passer putting up better assist numbers than Love this season. But in an either-or choice, I’m taking Love. Read More…

It’s ridiculous, of course, but the calendar says it’s time to select the NBA’s All-Stars, and we will abide by the calendar. So here are my picks, but first a few ground rules:

1. I’m choosing entire rosters as if the fan vote to select the starters (released last Thursday) never happened, and I’m following the NBA rules across the board. That means the five starters must come from the position-by-position groups on the official ballot, but that I get more leeway in choosing the reserves. In picking seven backups, coaches must select two guards, two forwards, one center and two “wild cards,” but the league gives them the freedom to designate a power forward as a center if they believe no player listed as a center on the ballot is worthy.

2. I’ve long been a believer that the All-Star Game should reward players excelling within the current season, but the lockout screws up that calculus a bit. We have only 25 games to work with, and though I’m still giving more weight to those games than past achievement, the limited schedule means we have to look with some skepticism at guys who have made a giant jump in this limited sample size. That also works against rookies, which matters in only one case.

The limited schedule also magnifies the importance of injuries. It’s hard to make an argument for a spot in the 2012 All-Star Game if you’ve missed nearly half the games your team has played in 2012.

3. As always, I’m looking for two-way players — guys who contribute on both ends. I’m not interested in sending no-defense, highlight-making machines to the All-Star Game just to entertain fans. If this is to be a meaningful honor that comes up later in judging a player’s career, we should reward the most deserving players.

With that out of the way, here is The Point Forward’s official Eastern Conference 12-man All-Star roster … Read More…