Jones: Some of this year’s All-Stars don’t deserve to be

The NBA got it right — eventually — with DeMarcus Cousins. They got it wrong with Damian Lillard and Kevin Durant.

LeBron James, Pau Gasol and the trio of Atlanta Hawks all belong in the NBA's All-Star Game. Camelo Anthony? No way should he be in Madison Square Garden a couple of Sundays from now. At least not in uniform.

Yes folks, it is that time of the year, the time when we get the results back from the All-Star Game fan voting and the reserves are announced. The time when you look at the rosters, the snubs, and you get to analyze it all.

And that brings us to the respective rosters. We all love Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. We know Durant is without question one of the top three players in the NBA, and he's the one guy other than possibly Anthony Davis who's in the same realm of James as a basketball player.

But Durant doesn't deserve All-Star recognition. Not over Lillard. Durant has played in 21 of 46 possible games this season. And five games over the halfway mark, OKC's 23-23, sitting 10th in the Western Conference and isn't a lock to jump New Orleans and Phoenix for a playoff spot.

Durant has been good, even very good. But to this point, he hasn't been DURANT. Maybe it's the lingering injury he's suffered, but he still hasn't been great.

Lillard has been. Lillard's been better than last season, when he did make the All-Star game. Lillard's been the engine behind the Portland Trail Blazers' push to the top of the west.

My good friend and colleague Steve Luhm said it best on Twitter the other day: The NBA needs a rule. If you haven't played in 75 percent of your team's games, you shouldn't qualify for the All-Star Game. Implement that one criteria, and a ton of non-deserving players will be weeded out.

One more tweak the NBA needs to make: It needs to bring back the center distinction on fan balloting. It almost cost Cousins a spot. The Sacramento Kings big man has been one of the best players in the league this season; unstoppable in the post, but versatile enough to score from the perimeter.

And yet, when the initial reserves list came out, Cousins wasn't on it. If not for Kobe Bryant's season-ending shoulder injury, Cousins would've become one of the more egregious All-Star snubs in recent history. But he got the nod from commissioner Adam Silver over Lillard. Good for Cousins. Bad for Lillard.

In all fairness, you have to understand how difficult the task was for the Western Conference coaches this season. The pool was incredibly deep, because the talent and the conference as a whole is as good as it's ever been.

How good is the West this season? People like Monta Ellis, DeAndre Jordan and Mike Conley would merit serious consideration in the Eastern Conference, but are afterthoughts in the West. There was even a question as to whether Klay Thompson from Golden State would make the cut, although Bryant's injury ended any doubt of that.

So we knew a great player was probably going to be squeezed out. Lillard turned out to be the one. And that's why the 75-percent rule should be in effect. Because Damian Lillard deserves to be in the All-Star Game. Kevin Durant doesn't.

tjones@sltrib.com

Twitter: @tjonessltrib