Will Heat’s Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and/or Tyler Herro be selected as All-Star reserves?

As expected, the Miami Heat did not have a player voted into the 2023 NBA All-Star Game as a starter.

Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell are the two Eastern Conference guards who were voted in as starters, with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant and Boston’s Jayson Tatum as the three East frontcourt players who made the cut. The All-Star starters were announced Thursday night on TNT.

The Heat’s top three candidates for the Feb. 19 All-Star Game, which will take place at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, are Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro. Adebayo and Butler are both considered frontcourt players and Herro is considered a guard on the All-Star ballot.

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The Western Conference All-Star starters are LeBron James from the Los Angeles Lakers, Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets and Zion Williamson from the New Orleans Pelicans in the frontcourt, and Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors and Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks in the backcourt.

To determine the All-Star Game starters, fan balloting represented 50 percent of the vote, with all current NBA players and a media panel each accounting for 25 percent of the vote.

Among East frontcourt players, Butler was fifth in the fan vote, seventh in the player vote and received no media votes, while Adebayo finished 11th in the fan vote, fifth in the player vote and also did not get any media votes.

Among East guards, Herro was 16th in the fan vote, 12th in the player vote and did not receive any media votes.

After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups — fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes.

When the final score was calculated, Butler finished fifth and Adebayo finished eighth among East frontcourt players, respectively. Herro closed 14th among East guards.

The next question is: Will Adebayo, Butler and/or Herro make this season’s All-Star Game as a reserve?

Head coaches will select the seven reserves from each conference, which will be announced on Feb. 2 on TNT. The seven reserve spots usually include three frontcourt players, two guards and two additional players regardless of position.

Adebayo may have the strongest case among Heat players for a spot in this year’s All-Star Game based on the combination of his play and availability this season.

Adebayo is averaging career-highs in points (21.6 per game) on 54 percent shooting from the field, rebounds (10.2 per game) and minutes (35 per game) while providing his usual elite defense in his sixth NBA season. He has reached the 30-point mark in 17 games during his NBA career, and eight of those games have come this season.

Adebayo entered Thursday as one of only four players in the league averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 50 percent or better from the field this season along with Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis from the Los Angeles Lakers and Jokic.

Adebayo, who has played in 44 of the Heat’s first 49 games this season, has made it clear that he believes he should be selected as an All-Star.

“I’m in a position where it’s based off the coaches in the East,” Adebayo said last week to the Miami Herald. “Now that, I’m going to be [upset] about if they tell me somebody else has played better than me this year considering I’m leading the NBA in paint points and I’m one of the reasons why we’re winning.”

While Adebayo hasn’t missed many games, Butler’s lack of availability is probably the biggest factor working against his All-Star case. Butler has missed 15 of the Heat’s 49 games because of various injuries.

But Butler has again been excellent this season, averaging 21.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, five assists and 2.1 steals per game. He’s also shooting a career-best 51.6 percent from the field

The advanced metrics love Butler, who entered Thursday with the NBA’s 10th-best estimated plus-minus and ranked second in win shares per 48 minutes behind only Jokic.

As for Herro, he’s averaging 20.5 points while shooting 44 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from three-point range, and career-highs in rebounds (5.8) and assists (4.4) per game in his first season in a full-time starting role. He has missed 12 of the first 49 games.

Herro entered Thursday as one of 11 NBA guards averaging at least 20 points, five rebounds and four assists per game this season along with Doncic, Curry, Memphis’ Ja Morant, Irving, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball, Memphis’ Desmond Bane, Philadelphia’s James Harden and Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray.

But Herro’s All-Star chances are considered the slimmest among the Heat’s top three candidates for the showcase game.

With the Heat entering Thursday in sixth place in the East with a record of 27-22, it’s questionable whether Miami will have multiple players selected as All-Star reserves this season.

Adebayo, 25, has been voted into the NBA All-Star Game once during his career in 2020. Butler, 33 has been named an All-Star six times (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022) and twice as a member of the Heat. Herro, 23, has never been selected as an All-Star.

The two rosters for the All-Star Game will be drafted by Antetokounmpo and James as the the All-Star starter from each conference who received the most fan votes in his respective conference. They will choose from the pool of players voted in as starters and reserves regardless of conference affiliation.

For the first time, the All-Star draft will take place right before the All-Star Game just about 30 minutes before tipoff.

Butler was the only player to represent the Heat in last season’s All-Star Game, getting in as an East reserve. The last time a Heat player started in the All-Star Game was Dwyane Wade in 2016.