Instructions for how to select All-Star reserves were e-mailed to all 30 teams Friday, with the head coaches in each conference asked to vote for seven players -- but none of their own -- by Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Each coach's list of seven submissions for the Feb. 15 show in Phoenix must include two forwards, two guards, one center and two wild cards, with those picks to be ranked from 1 to 7 to give each vote a point value for tiebreaking purposes. To increase the likelihood that the seven guys having the best seasons are indeed selected, coaches are also invited to ignore the listings on the official All-Star ballot if they feel a player can play multiple positions.

Results of the coaches' secret balloting will be revealed Thursday. Using all of the above guidelines, here's how our benches would look:

EAST RESERVES

Giving the other forward spot to Granger was tougher, given our longstanding reliance on the team-success doctrine. Yet this is an East with only six teams over .500, so even us team-success sticklers have to lighten up. That's especially true when Granger (26.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 3.4 apg) has been the most efficient small forward in the league not named LeBron James ... and when the Pacers, despite their unsightly 16-27 record, are still in playoff contention. (Did we mention those wins over the Celtics and Lakers while Mike Dunleavy was out injured?)

Johnson is merely the best Summer of 2010 free agent who no one ever talks about. His all-around brilliance (21.7 ppg, 6.0 apg, 4.5 rpg) has also helped the not-so-deep Hawks withstand injuries to Josh Smith and Al Horford, comfortably maintaining Atlanta's membership in that exclusive East six-pack of teams with winning records.

On this scorecard, meanwhile, Nelson places ahead of Devin Harris, Mo Williams, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose and any other on-the-rise East guard you want to name … for two reasons: 1. His statistical efficiency (.506 shooting from the field, .881 shooting from the line and .443 shooting on 3-pointers) has been Steve Nash-like. 2. Of the many reasons Orlando appears to have made the jump into the Boston/Cleveland stratosphere, little Jameer's increasing dependability -- when doubts about Orlando's backcourt were so loud in October -- might be the biggest.

Bosh is listed on the All-Star ballot as a forward, but the rules -- as I'm sure you've memorized by now after hearing this lecture for a few years running -- allow the coaches to vote for players at the position "most advantageous for the All-Star team" and "not necessarily the one he plays most often during the season."

The league's memo to the coaches contains these exact words for cases like East center, where the only worthy backups to starter Dwight Howard are Charlotte's Emeka Okafor and New York's David Lee: "The position at which he is listed on the All-Star ballot should have no bearing on your vote."

So ...

Bosh goes here with his solid portfolio (23.1 ppg and 9.8 rpg) and without dwelling too much on the Raps' struggles with injuries and everything else. To counter any protests we simply wish to repeat pretty much everything we said to rationalize why Indy's substandard record shouldn't hurt Granger.

Wild cards: Devin Harris (New Jersey) and Mo Williams (Cleveland)

I'm guessing I'll be in the minority on this one, but I really wanted to make room for a second Cav to go with two players each from Boston and Orlando -- symmetry and all that. So Williams is the pick with Harris in spite of his modest statistical production (16.3 ppg and 4.0 apg) by All-Star standards, given the huge intangibles boost he has given LeBron James' Cavaliers. Williams' impact really stands out when you scan the NBA map and take stock of how many big offseason moves have panned out so far. Since Mo is pretty much it.

Limiting myself to two Celtics and two Magicians means no reserve spot for Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu. The other hard choice here, then, came down to Harris and teammate Vince Carter for the wild-card spot opposite Williams, which I narrowly gave to Harris to acknowledge the sizable step he's taken after giving us no hint in his first 25 games as a Net last season that he was headed for the league leaders in scoring.

If the Nets hadn't slipped so far below .500 with a five-game skid through Friday's play, I'd have probably chosen Harris and Carter, since Vinsanity has been special, too, ratcheting up his trade value at a time when many presumed that his hefty contract would be near impossible to move at 32. I'll go out on a limb and concede that there's a far greater chance, in real life, that we'll see Carter than Williams on the East squad.

The Line's 1-7 East Order:
1. Johnson, 2. Pierce, 3. Bosh, 4. Granger, 5. Nelson, 6. Harris, 7. Williams

WEST RESERVES

Nowitzki suckered in his critics with a so-so November after turning 30 over the summer. Now? He's producing at a rate reminiscent of his MVP season in 2006-07 season. Let's face it: If the coaches were selecting the starters, Dirk would be a unanimous selection at forward alongside Tim Duncan.

But it's handy to have him available here to help us make it a European sweep with Gasol at the backup forward slots. You will find All-Stars with gaudier numbers than Pau's 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and 55.7 percent shooting -- and injuries to Carlos Boozer and Carmelo Anthony have created frontcourt openings that might not have been there otherwise -- but Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson would be the first to concur that the Spaniard's arrival, as much as anything, is what has pitched the Lakers so far ahead of everyone else in the West. He has to be in Phoenix.

You've surely seen what's happened to the Nuggets since Billups arrived in early November -- Denver is 27-13 despite playing without Anthony for 12 games -- and what's happened to the Pistons since Billups left. As with Gasol, Chauncey has changed the way we think about his new team without stats that slay you.

Then there's Roy, who has the flashy numbers (averaging 22.3 points, 5.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds) and the Billups-like prominence with his team. He was a somewhat surprising reserve selection by the coaches in 2008, but there will be no suspense this time, even in a conference teeming with good guards.

Unlike the East, we've got options here without, say, needing to slide Gasol into this slot. Minnesota's Al Jefferson has a valid claim to a spot on the West bench, as the catalyst for a 14-27 team that's 8-2 in 2009 under new coach Kevin McHale. Golden State's Andris Biedrins has less of a claim with the Warriors mired at 13-31, but the Latvian lefty is at least worth a mention as the one double-double constant in a season filled with injuries and turmoil for the Dubs.

However ...

Like so many of our colleagues, we've been swept up in Shaq Fever. Picking O'Neal as Yao Ming's backup will inevitably be slammed as a lifetime-achievement selection or a sentimental choice because the Suns are hosting All-Star Weekend, but O'Neal's revival at 36 -- even allowing for all the problems Phoenix is suddenly having again -- has been one of the stories of the season.

I think we can all agree that the story only gets better if the West's coaches heed the growing calls to vote Shaq (eight 20-point games since Christmas after just eight last season) into the same All-Star locker room with Kobe and Phil.

Who would be surprised if Steve Nash gets a reserve spot? Coaches everywhere love him and figure to be mindful of the Phoenix factor. Fact is, though, that the Suns awoke Saturday sitting ninth in the West. They haven't played well enough to merit three All-Stars; even two is a stretch after what we've seen from them this week. So with Amare Stoudemire starting and Shaq filling our void at center, our beloved Nash is omitted here, victimized by the slight statistical hit he's taken in trying to keep the Suns glued together through their bumpy transition from Mike D'Antoni to Terry Porter.

But the wide gap between the top nine teams and the bottom six makes our team-success mandate more relevant when selecting the West's reserves, which is why we couldn't quite squeeze Jefferson in here. Injuries did increase Big Al's chances, but Parker and Anthony are the choices in spite of the time they've missed, just ahead of Utah's Deron Williams, Dallas' Jason Terry and New Orleans' David West … as well as unexpected late-arriving contenders like Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and Utah's Paul Millsap.

The Line's 1-7 West Order: 1. Nowitzki, 2. Gasol, 3. Billups, 4. Roy, 5. O'Neal, 6. Parker, 7. Anthony

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

Dimes past: Jan. 7 | 8 | 9 | 10-11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17-18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

Michael Heisley's pursuit of Avery Johnson in Memphis made a lot of sense. The Grizzlies are a ridiculously young team that could use a firm hand. And they don't get much firmer than Johnson, who would also come with the credibility of a highly successful four-year run in Dallas … no matter how messy it was with the Mavs at the end.

Yet you can likewise understand why Johnson passed. The Grizz have some undeniably interesting kiddies on their roster: O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol are the main three. But Johnson is guaranteed to receive $4 million for each of the next two seasons after this one from Mavs owner Mark Cuban.

The Lil' General, in other words, can probably afford to avoid taking a job with a team in a questionable market that puts him up against San Antonio, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas … just in his division.

Far tougher to comprehend is why Heisley, after being rebuffed by Johnson, felt such a rush to summon Lionel Hollins from Milwaukee for a third stint coaching with this franchise. I get that there's an obvious level of comfort for Heisley after Hollins served as Memphis' coaching bridge between Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello for four games in the 2004-05 season, but the Grizz had two former NBA head coaches on the bench as assistants to Marc Iavaroni -- Johnny Davis and Kevin O'Neill -- to get through the rest of the season. If the Grizzlies commissioned a more thorough coach search and didn't like what they found, Hollins was still going to be available.

Gay's growing dissatisfaction and an increasingly negative atmosphere around the team, according to sources close to the situation, were among the primary factors that led to Iavaroni's dismissal. Yet it was less than two years ago, you'll recall, when Iavaroni was hired away from Phoenix by Heisley and outgoing team president Jerry West as one of the league's hottest assistant coaches. Now Iavaroni's supporters wonder how he was ever supposed to succeed with a group so young that Gay, in his third season, ranks as a veteran … and after Memphis' much-maligned decision to deal Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1, 2008.

Hollins, 55, will take over as Heisley's hand-picked fallback to Johnson, but he's going to be greeted with undeniable skepticism no matter how much ownership support he has. Hollins posted an 18-46 record in his previous two turns as the Grizzlies' interim coach.

This week's 10-day signings -- Anthony Tolliver to New Orleans, and Courtney Sims to Phoenix -- mean that there are 15 unclaimed roster spots in the league.

The Suns, Nuggets and Raptors are carrying 13-man rosters with two spots open, but Phoenix is over the $71.15 million luxury-tax threshold while Denver and Toronto only recently dropped below the tax line.

The nine teams with one roster spot open are the Bobcats, Bulls, Pistons, Rockets, Lakers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks and Sixers.

Point guard Dee Brown, who has played with Washington and Phoenix this season and briefly occupied the Suns' roster spot that went to Sims, left the country this week to sign with Israeli hoops institution Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

Things looked bleak for the West early, but it had sliced the East's seemingly comfortable edge in head-to-head games to 134-116 entering Saturday's play. Which supports the theory that the East's revival -- as it attempts to post a winning record against the West for the first time this decade -- is really a three-team enterprise (Boston, Cleveland, Orlando) in a conference otherwise flush with mediocrity.

Yet the whole league, frankly, is looking a bit top-heavy these days. Only six teams (table, right) possess records over .500 in games against teams with winning records through Friday.

Q: Pretty much every player we've asked this says they love playing in Mike D'Antoni's system. How did you think you'd fit in when you heard he was going to be your coach?

A: For every person that said that it'd be a good fit [for me], I think there were some people that said, "Well, they want a Dirk Nowitzki-style guy that can just sit out there and shoot." So I looked at what Amare Stoudemire has done in the past and -- obviously I'm not the player that Amare is -- but I knew if I could get in shape and really get the pick-and-roll going ... I knew I could be effective. It's been a blessing for me for Chris [Duhon] to come here. Chris and I have developed a good relationship as far as the pick-and-roll and that's the center of his whole offense.

Q: Were you really out of shape?

A: In years past I would have been in great shape for how we were playing, but I think I started in the preseason probably about 10 pounds heavier than I should have been. Once I got in better shape, I got a lot of my explosiveness up to a level that I haven't had since I was in college and high school. I've dropped about 15 pounds since the season started already. Now I just keep working on that 15-footer and trying to expand my game.

Q: What's the state of your 15-footer at this point? How much can you improve it at this stage of your career?

A: I think it's gone from being nonexistent to now where you play and guys will close out and they'll actually try to take away the jump shot, which is good. Believe it or not, I've gotten to the point where I think mechanically it's where I want to be. Now it's about continuing to have confidence in my shot. I'll have games where I hit four or five jumpers and feel great. And then I'll have games where I'll miss one badly ... great shooters in this league don't worry about that. Ray Allen will air ball two in a row and swish his next three.

Q: Can this team really tune out all the talk about the summer of 2010? I imagine it's not as easy as it sounds.

A: Part of playing in New York is knowing you're going to have to deal with that stuff. When you sign with a New York team, whether it's basketball or baseball or whatever, you kind of understand that there's going to be constant media focus on everything. With what I've personally been through in the last three years, between Larry Brown, Isiah [Thomas], all the players, all the [Stephon] Marbury stuff, I've pretty much seen 20 years of drama in three years. But I personally think I'm stronger for having gone through all that.

Something I've learned is that there's athletes that go to New York and kind of thrive off the pressure and there's guys that go there and are a little uncomfortable. I never averaged 10 rebounds in college. I never averaged 15 points in college. So it's something that I think I've taken as kind of a challenge, knowing that every game you go out there you can't play badly, because you can go from being the man to the mule in New York City in about a week's time.

Q: What about all the trade speculation? You have to be one of the league leaders when it comes to being mentioned in potential deals. How do you handle that?

A: I talk to [team president] Donnie Walsh and some of those people. I've tried to keep it as simple as possible and take everything as a compliment. It's not as though [the Knicks are] trying to get rid of me. It's other teams that are coming in and offering stuff. I love New York. I love playing here, but I understand it's a business. I'd love to play the rest of my career in New York City, but I try to control the things I can control and keep playing ball to the best of my abilities.

The one frustrating part is that it's constantly talked about and constantly an issue and friends and family always saying, "I saw this, I saw that." The first thing I learned when I got to New York is not to read the paper and not to read the Internet. That's like rule No. 1. So I just hear about [trade speculation] when friends will call and say, "We heard you're going to Denver or we heard you're going to Portland." I don't concentrate on that too much because, if I focused on that, I think I've been traded about 65 times in four years.

Boston's Kevin Garnett, dishing one of his go-to lines about the Celtics, which we pass along now because the defending champs just played some positively drool-worthy D in Thursday night's 90-80 triumph in the Magic Kingdom.

For all the concern about its depth, as well as its lack of dependable size outside of Garnett and Kendrick Perkins, Boston sure seems to use its high energy, active hands and overall defensive focus to blanket the Magic's array of 3-point bombers and neutralize Dwight Howard better than anyone. With three guys managing some success in single-team coverage against the self-styled Superman -- Perkins, Glen Davis and KG -- those Orlando shooters are hugged tight when they're on the move or stationary, which often frustrates the Magic to the point that the ball stops moving.

Don't forget that, in this case, Orlando had four full days of rest after completing a stunning road sweep of the Western Conference division leaders (Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets) that finally had the hoops public drooling ... while Boston played host to Phoenix on Monday before a road game Wednesday in Miami. You figured that the Magic would at least manage 90 points, which hasn't happened in either of the teams' meetings this season.