With the league set to announce All-Star reserves, it's time to release our picks for the full 12-man rosters. Reminders:

I ignore the fan/media/player vote and start from scratch. It's more fun!

I use the same positional restrictions as voters (in picking starters) and coaches (in selecting reserves): four guards, six "frontcourt" players, and two wild cards.

I prioritize play this season. Other writers place more value on past performance. I get that. Pedigree matters. Fans want to see stars, and a player's track record can hint that any current uptick in play might be a fluke.

I might use past performance as a tiebreaker, but as long as we hold this concert disguised as a game every year, I prefer rewarding guys playing the best in each particular season.

Gulp.

Eastern Conference Starters

G Kyrie Irving G DeMar DeRozan FC Giannis Antetokounmpo FC LeBron James FC Joel Embiid

Reserves

G Victor Oladipo G Kyle Lowry FC Al Horford FC Andre Drummond FC Kristaps Porzingis WC Bradley Beal WC Kevin Love

• The last three spots came down to Drummond, Porzingis, Love, John Wall, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, Khris Middleton, Kemba Walker, and Anyone From The Kick-Ass Miami Heat and, honestly it was pretty depressing. Pick any four, and I wouldn't really argue.

A bizarre thing: Wall is the best player of that group, but gets left off. We haven't seen peak John Wall much this season. The last spot came down to Wall and Love, and I have never been less excited about an All-Star roster decision.

Wall is shooting 42 percent, his lowest mark since he was a rookie, and he just hasn't played with enough vigor on either end of the floor. One measure of that: He has spent 76.57 percent of floor time either standing still or walking, the largest such share among all rotation players, according to tracking data from Second Spectrum. Dirk Nowitzki is right behind Wall, and he's almost 40.

It's unclear how much that metric means. Most of the guys near the top are slow behemoths -- as we'd expect. LeBron is No. 4, and James Harden, Carmelo Anthony, and Jeff Teague all populate the top 20. Ball-dominant stars need to conserve energy. Some guys shift from walking to turbo mode without spending much time in between.

But regardless: Wall should not be freaking last. He too often stands around when he doesn't have the ball, or when a shot is the air and he might be able to help on the glass. He switches constantly on defense to avoid chasing his guy around picks.

Again: most stars do this to varying degrees. Wall's habits this season have drifted too far in the wrong direction. Teams take their cues from their best players, and the Wizards have spent a lot of this season playing casual, entitled basketball. Toss in Wall's icy 2-point shooting, a small drop in assists and 11 missed games, and Love gets the tiebreaker.

• Motion-tracking data on Wall makes for a nice contrast with the perpetually underrated Lowry. (Bill Simmons reacted with surprise on the Lowe Post last week when I listed Lowry as a lock.) Lowry is hyperactive, always moving, and his dangerous 3-point shot -- approaching 40 percent now -- gives that motion value: Bodies and eyes stalk him everywhere.

Lowry is a grittier rebounder than Wall, and a more consistent, alert defender. When both hit peak intensity, Wall is better. Lowry is the more worthy All-Star.

• No one should have penciled in Irving and DeRozan as starters without considering Oladipo. He is their equal in most statistical categories, and the best defender among them. Replace him with a league-average 2-guard, and the Pacers are deep into the lottery.

But both Irving and DeRozan have a little more creative responsibility in the half court -- both dish more dimes than 'Dipo -- for teams that have lapped the East. Boston has struggled to score at all without Irving, while the Raps are destroying teams when DeRozan spells Lowry, per NBA.com. (Boston has also managed quite well when Irving plays without Horford.) With all things about equal, let's defer to winning.

• Beal has been Washington's most reliable player, and deserves the nod over Wall.

• Love is a big reason the Cavaliers have the second-worst defense in the league. He is miscast as a last-line-of-defense center. On offense, he was a distant second option before Isaiah Thomas' return, and with Thomas back, he looks like a distant third option again.

But he's performing that role well. Love is shooting 40 percent from deep on a high volume, and he can drain 3s against heavy pressure. He remains a plus passer, even if the Cavs rarely put him in position to record assists. He pings the ball around the perimeter, and has been frisky off the bounce when defenders rush to contest his 3-pointer. He is one of the league's most effective high-volume post-up players, unleashing old-school, ground-bound craft -- including subtle arm bars -- to draw bundles of shooting fouls.

Love mostly tries on defense. It's not his fault Ty Lue slotted him at center, and I'd bet the Cavs try starting Tristan Thompson there again soon. Love gets zero help from any of Cleveland's perimeter defenders. Last weekend's 148-point humiliation against Oklahoma City might have been the laziest, most flat-footed game I've ever seen LeBron play on defense.

• Porzingis has hit half of his shots in three of his past 16 games. He doesn't rebound or pass enough; his go-to move is catching the ball 15 feet from the rim, whipping around without taking a dribble or scanning the court, and launching. When he's going badly, Porzingis almost looks like a rich man's Harrison Barnes -- a guy who gets buckets one-on-one in the middle of the court, but doesn't really elevate his team in doing so.

But Porzingis is 7-3, and he's shooting 39 percent from deep on a team that was starved for perimeter talent before Tim Hardaway Jr.'s return. Porzingis's outside shooting unlocks valuable lineup flexibility for Jeff Hornacek and open looks for teammates.

Reuniting with Hardaway has already perked up Porzingis a bit. The Knicks average 1.13 points per possession when a Hardaway-Porzingis pick-and-roll leads directly to a shot (for one of those two, or a teammate one pass away), drawn foul, or turnover -- the fifth-best mark in the league among almost 300 high-volume combinations, per Second Spectrum.

Porzingis also draws a ton of fouls on those quick-hitting post-ups; he's so tall, defenders raising a hand to cloud his vision end up whacking him in the elbow.

Anecdotally, it seems like he has been passing better over the past two weeks. Toss in his defense -- Porzingis ranks among the league's best rim protectors by most public measures -- and he's deserving, despite his annual post-November slump.

• Detroit is 8-17 over its past 25 games, and it's fine if you want to vaporize the Pistons from All-Star Weekend. They certainly don't merit two, and Drummond edges Harris here. His free throw shooting is one of the season's happiest stories, and his willingness to revamp his game -- stepping out of the post, and into an inside-out passing role -- has changed the entire look and feel of Detroit's offense. That it has fallen apart of late isn't really his fault.

Drummond's defense still comes and goes, but he's generally played harder, and opposing coaches lose sleep over his rebounding.

• I badly wanted to take a Heat player, but it's hard to make a case for any of them. Goran Dragic comes closest, but the numbers and overall impact aren't quite there. Hassan Whiteside missed too many games. The Heat are winning because they have so many good, B-plus NBA players -- not because of any singular talent.

• I have no idea what to do with Simmons. He is the best defender among the group fighting for the last three spots, and maybe by a lot. He's also a very peculiar player figuring out the NBA, and it's obvious the rest of the Sixers are trying to figure him out, too.

Philly has scored just 99.6 points per 100 possessions when Simmons plays without Embiid -- below even Sacramento's league-worst offense. It's fair to ding him for that, considering how Brett Brown shuffles lineups so there are almost always two and even three starters on the floor. Simmons himself is shooting 59 percent when he plays with Embiid, and just 46 percent going solo -- a disastrous mark considering he never shoots from beyond the foul line.

But a certain No. 1 pick who may or may not exist was supposed to share ball-handling duties and space the floor for Simmons during some of those non-Embiid minutes. Whoops.

In the end, it just felt a year early. The numbers aren't that overwhelming.

• I flip-flopped and slotted Embiid as the last starting frontcourt player over Horford. His numbers are overwhelming. Philly disintegrates whenever Embiid sits, and they've outscored opponents by more than five points per 100 possessions -- a healthy margin -- when he plays without Simmons. Missing five more games than Horford is not enough to cost Embiid his spot.