We have an 2017 NBA All-Star vote. Here are our picks for the starters

It’s All-Star time and one half of the Flanns and Zillz team has an actual vote to select the starters. (Reminder: the fan vote counts for 50 percent, the players account for 25 percent, and a collective media panel that includes us is worth 25 percent). Let’s review the picks in this week’s F+Z:

FLANNERY: Breaking news: I have an All-Star vote, meaning F+Z is no longer a theoretical discussion. This time, it counts. (Wait, wrong All-Star marketing pitch). I’m not really thrilled with the media’s role in this, but this is the system they chose and we’re a part of it whether we choose to participate or not.

We noted in this very space about a month ago that this was going to be hard, and let me tell you, there were some sleepless nights. There were two spots in particular that caused me considerable angst: the second backcourt spot in the East and the third frontcourt nod in the West.

Here are my picks:

East Backcourt: Kyle Lowry, Isaiah Thomas

East Frontcourt: LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo

West Backcourt: James Harden, Russell Westbrook

West Frontcourt: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis

(For more on these picks, listen to the latest Drive & Kick podcast).

ZILLER: That ballot is a complete disgrace. Oh wait, it’s the same as mine. I don’t think it will be the final results, though — we’ll get into that in a minute.

If anything, the past couple of weeks have clarified the East races. Jimmy Butler is a top-10 player right now, having ripped Paul George’s spot from him. (Sorry, good people of Indiana.) Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to thrive. And Isaiah Thomas has been marvelous in helping to push Boston to where many of us expected them.

That said, while I haven’t considered this has deeply as you, I might bring John Wall above Thomas for that second guard spot with Lowry. Since I don’t have an official vote, I don’t feel the need to be as definitive as you were. But I slightly favor Wall there. As we’ve discussed before, there are a wealth of good options, including DeMar DeRozan, Kemba Walker, and Ron Baker.

I, however, am with you on Davis. He’s been incredible on both ends, having perhaps the greatest big man season in 15 years. And because he’s trapped on a bad team, it’s gone by quietly. I had Boogie Cousins here before, but even given his considerable impact on the fortunes of the Kings, AD has just been better.

FLANNERY: Wait, hold on. I thought I was going to have to fight you about AD over Boogie. Cool.

So, the East backcourt. I began the exercise thinking Wall had the edge. (Lowry is a no-brainer to me.) Then I looked at the numbers and edged toward Thomas. I talked to some people around the league and they also favored IT.

Then Isaiah outplayed Wall last Wednesday, and while that wasn’t the deciding factor, it did point back to something else I factored into the equation: the Celtics have had a much better year than the Wizards. Taken separately, none of those things were decisive. Taken as a whole, I went with Thomas.

I did so knowing that you could make a great case for Wall (and Kemba, for that matter.) I’ve seen some of my colleagues have favored DeRozan and/or Kyrie Irving. I don’t agree, but neither of those picks are egregious. It was very, very tough. I went back and forth on it a number of times.

ZILLER: This is where the new voting system gets really interesting.

Kyrie is leading East guards in the fan vote, which counts for half of the total. He has a real good shot at becoming a starter if he finishes top-five in the player and media votes. Wall and Kemba, meanwhile, are at a severe disadvantage because they were at Nos. 7 and 9 respectively in the fan vote as of a week ago.

Given the fan vote’s heavy weight and the low likelihood either finishes No. 1 in media or player votes, they are sunk. So you’re looking at DeMar (strong fan vote), Lowry (likely strong media support), and Isaiah (who might have fellow players behind him). It’ll be interesting.

We also don’t know how players are going to vote. This is an unprecedented move to have players help decide who among them should be All-Stars. Like I said, it’ll be interesting.

Davis is definitely a better bet than Cousins in the West because he’s way past him in fan vote and because there is no [expletive] way Boogie is finishing top-three in media vote. Draymond Green is the other wild card there. He’s behind Davis in the fan vote but might get ahead in media and player votes. We’ll see.

Also, Steph Curry is going to be a starter, knocking Westbrook down to the reserves ... unless the media or players get Chris Paul ahead of Curry in their voting. Which is unlikely, because so few would leave Harden or Westbrook off their ballots for CP3 and not the two-time reigning MVP (especially with Paul’s recent injury). So, Steph is almost assuredly in.

FLANNERY: There’s a lot to parse here and the gymnastics are going to be wild to untangle.

I want to back up for a second though, and bring up something else. We all know that part of the reason why the media has a vote is to negate something like the Zaza Pachulia phenomenon. That’s what we do. We hate fun. But another consequence of the media vote is the case of Dwyane Wade, and that’s trickier.

D-Wade was sitting second in the fan balloting after the last public reveal. My feeling has always been that if the fans want to vote for a legend — even a legend that’s past his prime — then fine, that’s their prerogative. We just listed six deserving Eastern Conference guards and not one of them was named Dwyane Wade. His tally will suffer in the media portion, and it will be interesting to see how the players resolve this. (It will be interesting to see how the players vote, period.) That’s the other reason for the media’s inclusion and it’s frankly uncomfortable.

Wade is one thing — he’s still active and not even hinting at retirement — but what about Kobe Bryant in his final year?

ZILLER: Carmelo would be even more interesting here had fans not largely abandoned his campaign. (Seriously New York, have you no pride?)

Wade could absolutely disrupt my calculations via the player vote — he gets a ton of respect — but I don’t think Kobe would have made it. Wade as an All-Star starter would be a small miscarriage of basketball justice; Kobe’s was a complete and utter travesty. I don’t think even fellow players, many of whom grew up idolizing Kobe, would have voted him in.

I know you like to let the fans have their way, but how do you feel about the Zaza movement?

FLANNERY: Yeah, I’m not so sure about your Kobe assertion. Remember Kevin Durant chastising the media for being critical of Kobe, whom he referred to as our Michael Jordan? It would have been fun to find out!

The Zaza movement is fine. It does nothing for me, but I don’t think it’s a threat to the republic.

So, I’ve had my own internal debate about this and ultimately decided to vote. How do you feel about the new rules?

ZILLER: I like them. The fan vote paradigm had gotten stale, and the new system opens up further intrigue and interesting comparison points to see how fans, the media, and players judge different players. There’s only so much one can say about who fans like the best, right?

I’d like to note that aside from the Zaza phenomenon, I’m super pleased to see Giannis doing so well. It appears that he has fully broken through to the masses. Hallelujah.