The votes are in, and the starters for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game are set. LeBron James, Zion Williamson, Nikola Jokić, Stephen Curry and Luka Dončić will square off against Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell and Kyrie Irving.

Plenty of tough decisions remain. Every starter has a bulletproof case, but we'll need to do some hair-splitting to figure out the other seven members of each All-Star team.

As has been the case each time we've put these teams together, the toughest task is weighing one player's high volume of good numbers against another's lower volume of great ones. Even then, we have to balance catch-all metrics, on-off data, importance to the team and the confounding "popularity contest" element of the whole exercise. This is a meritocracy, mostly, but the All-Star Game is also an exhibition designed to give fans what they want.

All along, we've skewed more toward who should make the All-Star Game rather than whom fans would pick for the honor. Now that we're dealing with reserves selected by coaches, "should" and "will" align much more closely. Everyone listed here, including the snubs, deserves an All-Star nod. Here's hoping the vast majority of them get one.

East Guard Reserves

Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers

Injury and the anonymity that comes with playing in a smaller market cost Tyrese Haliburton what should have been his first All-Star start. If you weren't hip to the Indiana Pacers' point guard prior to this season, that's understandable. But there's no excuse for overlooking him now.

Haliburton is on pace to be the first player in history to average at least 20.0 points and 10.0 assists while shooting better than 39.0 percent from deep. You don't need to see Haliburton play to understand how those stats set him apart, but true appreciation for the 22-year-old's game is only possible by watching him work.

A play-before-the-play visionary, Haliburton thinks through the game at an advanced level, seeing angles and opportunities most don't. His feel and anticipation produce crafty highlights en masse. On the other end, Haliburton is a menace in the passing lanes, seemingly aware of where offensive players are going with the ball before they are. Since his 2020-21 rookie year, he's been baiting opponents into turnovers by feigning inattention and pouncing at just the right moment.

Production, aesthetics and an undeniably positive impact on his team's style make Haliburton an easy All-Star. He'll feature here at least a half-dozen times over the next decade.

Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics

Jaylen Brown has been a consistent presence among East reserves, checking in just a notch beneath the top two East guards in every iteration of these predictions. Although we've favored Haliburton as a starter over Kyrie Irving throughout, Brown's grip on this spot has been constant.

He may still be rightfully considered a luxury support piece to superstar Jayson Tatum, but that shouldn't be viewed as a slight. Brown shines in his own role and, yes, gets a little extra credit because his contributions are coming on a Boston Celtics team that has spent most of this season atop the standings.

Brown supplements career highs of 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 49.1 percent shooting from the field (including a phenomenal 58.4 percent on twos) with standout defense and an open-floor game that adds a key dimension to Boston's attack. Only three players in the league average more than Brown's 7.0 transition points per game.

East Frontcourt Reserves

Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers

Long before fan voting commenced, it was clear someone from the East frontcourt was going to get shortchanged. Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid were all having their typical monstrous seasons, but that quartet was competing for only three starting spots.

Embiid is the odd man out despite averaging the most points (33.8) and grading out better than his three superstar competitors in box plus/minus, RAPTOR, EPM and player efficiency rating. It must have been Embiid's availability that hurt him in the starter vote, because there's really no case for excluding the Philadelphia 76ers big man from the starting lineup on the basis of his production when healthy.

If any of the players who knocked Embiid out of the first unit deserve scrutiny, it's Antetokounmpo. He's less than 100 minutes ahead of Embiid in total playing time, and the two-time MVP is in the midst of his worst statistical season in at least a half-decade. "Worst" is a relative term here, as Giannis is tossing up averages of 31.3 points and 12.0 rebounds. But you have to go back to 2015-16 to find a lower true shooting percentage than the 59.3 percent he's posting this year. And his current plus-7.3 box plus/minus stands out among the last four seasons—in which he never finished below plus-9.0.

Embiid is merely the victim of a positional crunch. Unfortunately, the two-time MVP runner-up is familiar with dominating and still falling just short of a goal.

Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat

Don't hold the Miami Heat's gear-grinding offense or pedestrian point differential against Jimmy Butler. Everything works just fine as long as he's on the floor.

Case in point: Butler's presence juices the Heat's offense to an extreme degree, triggering a spike that takes their attack from a sub-Houston Rockets-level 106.5 to a 114.1 that falls just a hair outside of the top 10. His overall on-off net rating split would be far larger than plus-3.0 if not for unsustainably hot opponent three-point shooting during Butler's minutes. Once other teams stop canning 38.6 percent of their treys when Butler's on the floor, that figure will grow.

Nobody else in the league matches Butler's four-category averages of 21.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.1 steals. That he stands alone in that regard while also shooting 52.6 percent from the field only bolsters his case as one of the most complete two-way weapons around.

At 33, Miami's superstar wing is on pace to post the highest box plus/minus in a career that already includes six All-Star nods, five All-Defensive honors and membership on four All-NBA teams. That's no small feat.

Pascal Siakam, Toronto Raptors

It's difficult to separate Pascal Siakam from the Toronto Raptors' disappointing season. A 48-win outfit last year, the Raps are looking increasingly unlikely to match that number and are far from guaranteed to even make the play-in round. A team's best player always gets the most credit or blame, depending on how things are going. But it'd be a mistake to pin Toronto's issues on the 28-year-old forward.

Criticism that Siakam isn't quite on the "best player on a championship team" level is fair. But precious few match that description, and that's not the bar he has to clear for an All-Star spot anyway. Siakam's averages of 25.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and a career-high 6.4 assists get the job done, and that's before noting he's on track to lead the league in minutes per game for the second straight season.

Even with such high demands from a volume perspective, Siakam is also in line to post a 56.5 true shooting percentage that would tie for his best since he was a much lower usage option back in 2018-19. And to bring it full circle, Siakam's plus-7.0 on-court net rating swing offers definitive proof that he's far from the reason Toronto has fallen so far short of expectations.

East Wild Cards

Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks

We're going to look back on Jrue Holiday's career and be dumbstruck by the fact that he only made one All-Star team from 2009-10 to 2021-22. We'll wonder how such consistent snubbery was possible for a player widely regarded as the best defender at his position—one who also logged eight seasons of at least 16.0 points and 6.0 assists on efficient shooting and played an integral role on a Milwaukee Bucks team that contended for championships across a half-decade, winning one in 2021, his first season with the team.

"At least he made it again in 2023," we'll say. Or, at least we'd better be able to say that. Denying him again would be unconscionable in light of the work he's doing in his age-32 season.

Holiday is averaging 19.5 points, 7.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds with a 46.7/37.1/85.8 shooting split, doing it all while shouldering a heavier load during the long absence of Khris Middleton. It should go without saying Holiday, regarded by his peers as an all-timer on defense, is also bringing it every night on that end. He boosts the Bucks' net rating by a ridiculous 13.3 points per 100 possessions.

If "Jrue Holiday: All-Star" is a tough sell for you, you're not paying close enough attention.

Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat

In addition to averaging 21.4 points and 10.0 rebounds, shooting 54.0 percent from the field and being arguably the best switch-defending big man in the league, Bam Adebayo also deserves recognition for saying the quiet part loud: Fan voting can be pretty ridiculous.

The final fan returns didn't even have Adebayo among the top 10 in the East frontcourt, trailing the likes of Kyle Kuzma, rookie Paolo Banchero and Julius Randle.

"I'll leave fan voting to fan voting," Adebayo said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. "There are guys that shouldn't even be on that list. But it's fan voting. That's what it is, and you got to live with that."

Adebayo's presence on the floor coincides with a net-rating boost of 10.4 points per 100 possessions, a figure that ranks in the 94th percentile among bigs.

Proven game-changing play in deep playoff runs, stellar stats this season and unquestionably positive impacts on both ends mark Adebayo as a clear All-Star. The coaches will rectify this, but it's jarring to see a player of his quality go so overlooked by fans.

East Snubs

James Harden, Philadelphia 76ers
If James Harden's All-Star case were only hampered by his status as the basketball equivalent of a designated hitter or the several hundred fewer minutes he's played than many of the other candidates, he might have squeaked through. But both issues are present here, and they combine to keep him in the snub category.

Averages of 21.4 points and 11.2 assists are nothing to sneeze at, and Harden is even shooting 38.8 percent from deep, his best hit rate since way back in 2011-12. But he remains an exceptionally shaky perimeter defender, and diminished burst off the dribble keeps him from getting to the foul line like he once did.

Julius Randle, New York Knicks

This is a tough pill to swallow for Julius Randle and any New York Knicks fans who've watched him level up over the last several weeks. He's averaging 28.4 points and 13.4 rebounds per game since Christmas, a run that has boosted his full-season numbers beyond what they were during an All-NBA effort in 2020-21.

Randle is averaging more points and rebounds on better shooting efficiency than he did during that breakthrough campaign. And yet, here he is among the snubs because Holiday and Adebayo were just too good to be denied those last two wild-card spots.

Also Considered: DeMar DeRozan, Darius Garland, Jalen Brunson, Trae Young, Nicolas Claxton, Kristaps Porziņģis

West Guard Reserves

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

Quick! Name every player to average at least 30.0 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 steal and 1.0 block over a full season.

The fact that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's name is right there in the heading is a dead giveaway that he's one such player. But it's really the company he has in that group that makes the All-Star case for the Oklahoma City Thunder's superstar guard. The other names on that list: Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

That's mind-boggling. It's not like we're cherry-picking stats to set SGA apart. This isn't a leaderboard of players who make at least 53.0 percent of their third-quarter bank shots from the left wing on Tuesday road games during the month of March. This is points, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals—as simple as it gets. And if you want to modernize things by including efficiency, that's even better news for Gilgeous-Alexander. He's on pace to post a true-shooting percentage of 62.7 that would rank ahead of any Jordan, James or Wade season in our data set.

The only reason SGA lands here is because he happens to share a conference (and a position) with two surefire Hall of Famers in Curry and Dončić.

Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies

Ja Morant spent the first few weeks of the season entrenched on the MVP short list and now has to settle for a reserve spot among West guards. There's your best evidence that this position is bursting at the seams with talent.

The Memphis Grizzlies are behind last year's 56-win pace, but they've joined the Denver Nuggets in the two-team upper class of the West and have as good of a shot as anyone to finish with the conference's top seed. Unlike last season, when Memphis curiously went 20-5 without Morant and got outscored during his time on the court, the team is better on both ends with Morant in the game.

Morant's averages of 27.3 points, 8.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds look mostly unchanged from 2021-22 (when he was also an All-Star, by the way). Look deeper, and you can see the growth he's made in his fourth season. Morant is drawing more shooting fouls than ever and has never been more accurate on long twos. Maybe the dip in three-point accuracy is a disappointment, but signs abound that Morant is learning how to be more efficient in other ways. When that long ball eventually comes around, it'll be curtains for every defense tasked with stopping him.

West Frontcourt Reserves

Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz

Account for availability and sheer volume of playing time, and Lauri Markkanen has been one of the most valuable players in the league this season. That's the tale estimated plus/minus tells, anyway, as Markkanen's 9.6 estimated wins ranks fifth overall, just ahead of Kevin Durant and immediately behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

That's just one catch-all number, and Markkanen isn't the same kind of singular shot-creator that typically populates the tops of those lists. He's not a serious MVP threat. Still, we're just talking about a reserve frontcourt spot in the West here. Markkanen's elite work as a leading scorer, ace rebounder, floor-stretcher and all-around defense-bender more than warrants that relatively modest honor.

With averages of 24.9 points and 8.6 rebounds to go along with a 52.0/43.2/87.0 shooting split, the 25-year-old forward could cut down to part time and still turn in the best year of his career. Remember, this is a player who hadn't topped 61 games in a season since he was a rookie. He'll be right around the 50-game mark by the All-Star break.

Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings

The main driver of the Sacramento Kings' double-take-inducing presence in the West's top three, Domantas Sabonis is averaging 18.5 points and 7.3 assists while also leading the league at 12.3 ebounds per game. Nikola Jokić is the only big man handing out more dimes, and there are just two players with at least 500 field-goal attempts who top Sabonis' 66.8 true shooting percentage: Jokić (again) and Durant.

The defining feature of the Kings' top-three offense is a whirling handoff game that ties defenses in knots, creates space for shooters and morphs into a brutalizing post-up operation whenever opponents are foolish enough to switch. None of it would work without Sabonis as the fulcrum, and we know that because Sacramento scores 13.1 more points per 100 possessions with its 26-year-old hub on the floor.

Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers

It was a little surprising to see Anthony Davis fall short of the votes necessary to start, considering his name showed up on more fan ballots than Zion Williamson's. But maybe the playing time issue was too much to overlook. AD was out from Dec. 18 to Jan. 24 because of a stress reaction in his foot, but he immediately reminded everyone why he was a viable MVP candidate and DPOY short-lister upon his return.

In 26 minutes on Jan. 25, Davis racked up 21 points, 12 boards and four blocks as the Lakers outscored the Kings by eight points during his time on the floor.

Davis may fall just short of the 1,000-minute mark by the time the All-Star Game rolls around, but his rate stats make up for the lack of volume. Jokić and Dončić are the only players ahead of him in RAPTOR, and Davis' No. 7 ranking in EPM backs up his case as one of this season's top per-minute producers.

Maybe you can keep a player with Davis' comparatively limited court time out of the starting lineup. But one of the league's top defenders who also happens to be averaging 26.7 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 blocks while making a career-best 58.4 percent of his shots can't be denied a reserve spot.

West Wild Cards

Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers

It seems like an age ago now, but we're only a year removed from a time when it looked like Damian Lillard had lost it. While struggling through an adductor injury that ultimately required surgery and ended his season on Dec. 31, 2021, Lillard was a shell of himself. Given the circumstances—Lillard, then 31, looked two steps slow and was posting career-worst percentages all over the floor—it was reasonable to think he was heading down the steep path of decline that claims many small guards in their 30s.

Turns out it was clearly an injury issue. Lillard is back to posting a 30-point scoring average, has his true shooting percentage back above the magical 60.0 percent mark (a career-best 63.7 percent, to be exact) and is even showing impressive athletic burst. He's getting to the foul line more often and finishing at the rim better than ever.

The Portland Trail Blazers haven't made the leap they hoped for, even after executing some win-now moves designed to maximize Dame's competitive prime. This may not be the Blazers' last chance to give their franchise icon a shot at a deep playoff run. Fortunately for them, it looks like Lillard's best years are far from over.

Paul George, Los Angeles Clippers

This last spot came down to Paul George and Devin Booker, a pair of no-doubt All-Stars in terms of talent. It's just that both have lost significant chunks of time to injury.

Booker remains out with a troubling groin strain that has limited him to 29 games and 1,002 minutes on the season. George has missed several smaller chunks but is back on the court and has already surpassed Booker in both games and minutes played. With the volume edge in hand, George's elite rate-stat contributions and compelling placement in several catch-all metrics give him the edge.

PG is eighth in RAPTOR, and 15th in EPM, ahead of Booker in both stats. He also has a 59.9 true shooting percentage that tops Booker's 58.5, plus an advantage in defensive box plus/minus (plus-0.5 to Booker's minus-0.5).

The last slim advantage for George, who's averaging 23.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals, shows up in the on-off data. The Clippers are a whopping 13.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor (Booker is a plus-9.2), and even George-led lineups that don't include Kawhi Leonard are outscoring the opposition, with the most-used such unit slaying opponents by 11.3 points per 100 possessions.

West Snubs

Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns

This feels wrong, doesn't it? Devin Booker was so clearly an All-Star when he was on the floor, but we're now at a point where his 1,002 minutes represent only about half of the playing-time loads of starters like Luka Dončić and fellow snubs such as Anthony Edwards.

Booker missed five games prior to going down on Christmas when his groin injury flared up, and he hasn't played since. Though he was posting averages of 27.1 points, 5.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds for a Phoenix Suns team that was 19-15 at the time, Booker's contributions on the season stopped there.

Several starters at other positions have played less, but many of them were at MVP-candidate levels for a good chunk of their healthy stretches. Booker wasn't quite that good and hasn't been able to compensate with a high volume of minutes. He'll be back, and perhaps even starting, next year.

Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves

Anthony Edwards leads the league in minutes, but he had to use the first few hundred of them to play his way into shape. In the end, the early part of the season he spent catching his wind may have cost him his first All-Star nod.

Edwards was up and down through much of November and early December, but the 37 points he handed the Chicago Bulls on Dec. 18 were a signal that his ramp-up period was complete.

Since then, the 21-year-old is averaging 27.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists on a 46.5/37.3/82.8 shooting split. As a result, he's climbed into the top 30 in RAPTOR WAR and EPM Wins. That's not quite good enough to crack a crowded West roster, but Edwards' fans should take solace in knowing this will be the last All-Star Game he misses for a long time.

Also considered: Jaren Jackson Jr., De'Aaron Fox, Aaron Gordon, Kawhi Leonard

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate through Jan. 30. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.