CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers own the best record in the NBA after beating the best team in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder, on Wednesday night inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Many things were evident during the marquee matchup, one of the few nationally televised games the Cavs have had all season. Among them is the fact that the Cavs deserve multiple All-Star selections. However, some have failed to recognize this in the first portion of All-Star fan voting.
In the first returns for All-Star voting, only two players were included in the top 10—Donovan Mitchell ranked second in guard voting, and Evan Mobley ranked 10th in frontcourt voting in the East.
Missing from the list were guard Darius Garland and center Jarrett Allen—both playing at All-Star caliber this season.
While, of course, biased, that's not something that the team agreed with.
"We think we have four All-Stars. Of course, I'm biased. I would probably ask all of the Cleveland fans, they'd say the same thing," said head coach Kenny Atkinson.
There's been a push to get the core four to the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. Mitchell is well on his way, and Mobley is scratching the surface. However, the team made it clear that Garland should also be among them.
Veteran Tristan Thompson made the strong pitch for Garland in the locker room Wednesday night.
"The last 10 games..you had Jamal Murray, body bag. Golden State, body bag. They traded D'Lo [D'Angelo Russell] so you couldn't give him the smoke. You had [Lonzo] Ball, body bag. Listen, I'll fight for him, I'll be the bad guy. I'll be Charles Oakley, " Thompson said. "I think Darius Garland should be [an All-Star] and everyone you guys put in front of him, he's rang the bell...you know we're doing everything we need to do and you know all the coaches, y'all gotta vote for him."
Thompson then continued with some stats to make his case.
"Come on now. You see the performances he's put in. Dagger to end the game," he continued. 74% in the clutch. Another reason why [he should] get All-Star. He's the only guy in the NBA that's shooting 49%, 40% from three, and 90% from free throw. Come on now, what else do you guys want?"
There's a lot of passion behind the pitch to make the core four All-Stars. However, as a small market team with limited national coverage, the Cavs may not have gotten the exposure needed to make that feat possible in fan voting.
The second fan returns, released on Thursday, showed more recognition but was not quite where the Cavs wanted it to be.
Garland did crack the top 10, ranked 8th in guard voting now with 238,358 votes. Mitchell remains at No. 2 with 1,181,310 votes. Mobley moved up to No. 8 in voting with 294,256 votes.
But Allen—averaging 14.1 points, 10.1 rebounds and shooting 70% from the field—has still been snubbed in the fan voting.
Votes found for triple on Friday might give the Cavs a chance to add that fourth name to the list. Voting can be done online by CLICKING HERE.
Fan votes make up 50% of the vote, while current players and a select group of media representatives account for 25% of the vote each. Reserves are selected by NBA head coaches. Voting ends on Jan. 20.
At 32-4 on the season, all the Cavs can do is keep playing their impressive brand of ball and hope that the world continues to notice how much they deserve to be sent to the All-Star game in San Francisco this February.
