All-Star reserves were announced on TNT's Inside the NBA on Thursday, and there weren't a ton of big surprises.

In the Eastern Conference, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, Bam Adebayo, Julius Randle, Tyrese Maxey and Paolo Banchero received the honor.

Out West, it was Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Paul George and Karl-Anthony Towns.

But of course, no one's going to agree entirely with either of those lists. Snubs are an annual and instant topic on this night. And this year, there are plenty of guys who at least have cases.

What Is a Snub Anyway?

There's no single, definitive way to pick or react to All-Stars. But if you sort every qualified player in the league by the average of their ranks in the most readily available catch-all metrics, Towns, Randle, Brown, Adebayo and Banchero are all outside the top 30.

Among players who weren't named as All-Stars on Thursday, there are 11 across the league who are in the top 30: Domantas Sabonis, Lauri Markkanen, James Harden, Alperen Şengün, Chet Holmgren, Trae Young, Scottie Barnes, Kristaps Porziņģis, Victor Wembanyama, Kyrie Irving and De'Aaron Fox.

That feels like a pretty good group to start with when it comes to potential or outright snubs.

With that exercise, other individual numbers, team success and subjectivity as our guides, we'll look at this year's biggest snubs.

But before we do, a word on those who were picked.

Arguing for one player's inclusion obviously implies that someone else shouldn't be. That's just the nature of this debate. But it's worth mentioning that every player who was actually named to the team, at the very least, has a case.

There are no bad calls from the coaches here. The NBA is packed with talent, and there just happens to be another dozen or so with their own convincing arguments.

Potential Snubs

Jamal Murray: Some sort of assumed Murray making his first All-Star Game in 2024 was a given after his historic 2023 playoff run, but 13 missed games in November and December may have cost him.

Pascal Siakam: He's ahead of Randle, Brown, Adebayo and Banchero in the aforementioned catch-all exercise, but spending most of the season on the sub-.500 Toronto Raptors may have impacted his case.

De'Aaron Fox: Fox got off to a hot start, but his numbers have tailed off a bit of late, and the Sacramento Kings no longer have the breakout factor boosting their notoriety.

Victor Wembanyama: The West is absolutely loaded this season, so arguing for any rookie to make the game is tough. But Wembanyama is averaging 24.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.4 blocks in just 26.4 minutes over his last 16 games.

Scottie Barnes: Barnes has been one of the game's best defenders, and his 5.8 assists suggest he's ready to be a lead playmaker. He has the same issue with team success that Siakam has, though.

Alperen Şengün: Şengün is having a young Nikola Jokić-like campaign with 21.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists, but the Houston Rockets' recent slide to a below-.500 record probably hurt his chances.

James Harden: His offseason trade request and midseason trade may have doomed his case long ago, but the catch-all exercise suggests Harden's had a bigger impact on the Los Angeles Clippers' success than Paul George. Harden's averaging 17.2 points and 8.5 assists, while shooting a career-high 41.3 percent from deep.

5. Rudy Gobert

As I said before, the numbers referenced up front aren't definitive. They put Rudy Gobert at No. 40, but it's not hard to say his impact on the Minnesota Timberwolves has outweighed KAT's this season.

By a pretty wide margin, the T-Wolves have the best defense in the NBA, and Gobert deserves the lion's share of the credit for that.

As he was throughout his prime with the Utah Jazz, Gobert has been a one-man defensive scheme for Minnesota this season (he just happens to be surrounded by more competent perimeter defense).

He covers a ton of ground inside the three-point line, is better than most seven-footers when switched onto guards and wings and may have the best rim-protecting instincts in the league.

Beyond his 13.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 63.9 field-goal percentage, Gobert legitimately changes games for Minnesota.

When he's on the floor, the team is plus-9.7 points per 100 possessions, compared to plus-1.2 when he's off. That 8.5-point swing dwarfs Towns' 0.7-point net rating swing.

4. Derrick White

There's nothing wrong with the Boston Celtics getting multiple All-Stars. By both record and net rating, they've been the best team in the NBA for the overwhelming majority of the season. And while Jayson Tatum was the obvious selection for the first Celtics spot, there's really no right (or wrong) answer between Brown, Porziņģis and Derrick White.

We're defaulting to White here for a few reasons.

First, he's half of the league's best defensive backcourt and probably the biggest factor behind Boston's second-ranked defense.

He leads the team in both defensive estimated plus-minus (one of the most trusted catch-all metrics in NBA front offices) and defensive rating swing (the difference between a team's points allowed per 100 possessions when a given player is on or off the floor).

Second, on a team that shares playmaking duties about as well as any, White leads the way in assists per game. His creation is an important part of Tatum and Brown both making the All-Star team, and his offensive impact doesn't end there.

White has also become a more-than-reliable catch-and-shoot option for a team that loves to get threes up. This season, he's shooting an even 40.0 percent from deep.

White's raw averages of 15.8 points, 4.7 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.0 steals may not leap off the screen, but like Gobert, his case goes beyond the basics.

3. Trae Young

Trae Young is another star likely penalized for playing on a sub-.500 team, but his production should probably transcend that knock for purposes of an All-Star selection.

Frankly, laying the blame for the Atlanta Hawks' shortcomings at Young's feet has felt unfair for most of his career. For the fifth straight season, their point differential is better when Young is on the floor.

And when you combine that with his absurd basic production, it gets tougher to justify his exclusion.

Young's 27.0 points per game rank 10th in the league. His 10.9 assists are second only to Tyrese Haliburton's 12.5.

And even if all the typical "but we're in an era of juiced numbers!" caveats apply, it's hard to emerge from Thursday's announcements without feeling like we might be taking 27 and 10 for granted.

Criticisms of his defense and lack of team success are fair, but Young is still one of the game's best offensive engines and is on pace to become just the fifth player in NBA history to average 27-plus points and 10-plus dimes.

2. Lauri Markkanen

They've cooled off of late, but the Utah Jazz's 15-3 stretch in December and January put them back in the play-in picture and gave Lauri Markkanen a very real argument to make the All-Star game for a second straight season.

On the season, Utah has a point differential around that of a 47-win team when Markkanen is on the floor and one around that of a 17-win team when he's off.

That's a massive impact that's the product of one of the NBA's most unique and efficient games. And I mean efficient in both a statistical and more physical sense.

There are so few wasted catches, movements and possessions with Markkanen. When he gets the ball, his decisions are quick and generally right. He either keeps the rock moving, launches from deep (where he's shooting 39.6 percent) or blows past a closeout.

Among players with at least 30 appearances, Markkanen is fourth in points per touch.

But even that doesn't quite do justice to Markkanen's approach. His Moneyball-like game has him 18th in the league in total threes and tied for 26th in total dunks. He and Tatum are the only players in the league in the top 30 of both categories.

1. Domantas Sabonis

As stated in the Fox blurb, it almost feels like the Kings having their "Light the Beam"-fueled breakout last season is working against them.

They aren't garnering as much national attention this season, so the fact that they're fifth in the West and ahead of the Phoenix Suns (who got two All-Stars in Kevin Durant and Booker) is flying under the radar.

But that's where they are, and shutting them out feels weird.

Sacramento's best player, Domantas Sabonis, is averaging 19.9 points, a league-leading 13.0 rebounds and a wildly underappreciated 8.0 assists.

The only players his height (6'10") or taller in NBA history to exceed that last mark for an entire season are Nikola Jokić, Wilt Chamberlain and Ben Simmons. That's wild stuff.

And the playmaking has Sabonis just one triple-double behind Jokić for this season's league lead.

We're in the middle of a point center revolution in the NBA, and the second-best example of it isn't in the All-Star Game.