The choices are toughest at forward, where you have to nit-pick about free-throw shooting to find justification for settling on Nowitzki and Garnett over Tim Duncan and Chris Webber. The Kings deserve a starter, but the Mavericks do, too, possessing the league's best record. So it's Nowitzki edging past Webber and Garnett holding off Duncan, since KG gets even less help on a nightly basis than TD.

At center, there will be no loud quarrel here when Yao is elected, since he has been productive and durable in the face of unyielding scrutiny and without a break from basketball since, like, 1999. Plus, he actually got a taunting technical last week, to our delight. But Shaq is still Shaq, and Shaq has played two-thirds of the Lakers' games. Enough, in other words, to average 27-and-11 with little lift and extra heft because of that recovering big toe.

The reserves? The coaches don't have to turn in their picks for a couple of more weeks, and we'll hold off, too. That way we'll be working from the same list they are, after the starters are announced Jan. 23, while allowing for injuries and strong closing arguments over the next two weeks.

And now the race for X-and-O privileges
Who will be coaching all of the above?

Dallas' Don Nelson is ineligible because he coached the West last February, so Sacramento's Rick Adelman is a lock to get the job this February. The coach whose team has the best record in the conference gets the gig, but the rules say a coach can't serve two years in a row.

That rules out the Nets' Byron Scott in the East, narrowing the competition to Indiana's Isiah Thomas against Detroit's Rick Carlisle. The same Thomas, remember, who was the Pacers' choice, over Larry Bird assistant Carlisle, to replace Bird entering the 2000-01 season.

Not that Carlisle is even looking for revenge, after winning Coach of the Year honors as a Detroit rookie, but a home-and-home with the Pacers on Jan. 18 and Jan. 20 will give the Pistons a chance to pass them for the Central Division lead.

Of course, if the Pacers hold on and Isiah winds up coaching his old "buddy" MJ, then we'll have our juicy story.

Stojakovic kicks his shooting slump
It was largely to keep pace with the Kings -- forget the Lakers -- that the Mavericks went overseas and kept lobbying until they persuaded France's Antoine Rigaudeau to finally give the NBA a try at 31.

	Kings opponents should take heed: Peja Stojakovic is heating up.

The Kings were the league's deepest team last season and have only gotten deeper, adding Keon Clark, Jim Jackson and Damon Jones. The Mavericks know, by comparison, that their bench isn't on par. Not with Eduardo Najera and Popeye Jones sub-par physically and Sacramento so deep now that Hedo Turkoglu -- a starter in the conference finals for the injured Peja Stojakovic -- has barely played lately.

Speaking of Stojakovic, it looks as though he's finally recovering from the ankle/heel woes that have plagued him for nearly eight months. Peja scored 21 first-half points in Thursday's rout at New Jersey and followed that up with games of 27 and 30 (against Minnesota and Memphis) on 22-for-36 shooting.

"You know he's not a 41-percent shooter from the floor and he's not 31 percent from 3," Kings coach Rick Adelman said after the unexpectedly easy win in Jersey. "If people want to play him that way, so be it, because Peja's going to start making shots. I just hope this game kick-starts him into making a real good run."

Gentry: Brand's still the best in face-to-face swatting
A flip-flop at the top of the NBA's shot-blocking leaders shouldn't be all that surprising. Elton Brand is 6-8. Shawn Bradley is 7-6. With that sizable height advantage, Bradley has finally passed Brand, 2.91 blocks per game to Brand's 2.88.

As a consolation, though, Brand still awoke Sunday ahead of Tim Duncan (2.86), Ben Wallace (2.82) and Theo Ratliff (2.74).

"That's because Elton's probably the best on-the-ball shot-blocker in the league," said Clippers coach Alvin Gentry. "Those other guys like Bradley and Ratliff, they're weak-side shot-blockers. They block more shots by guys who drive past someone else than the guy they're guarding."

Pacers not worried about O'Neal's knee
The questions Donnie Walsh can expect this week are Gary Payton-related. The Sonics are imploding and GP is at the heart of the discontent (surprise!), and Walsh's Pacers discussed the possibility of trading for The Glove with Seattle over the summer.

Payton does not want to move East, and really doesn't want to leave the only town he has ever known, but he's a free agent come July and isn't about to get what he wants -- in terms of money or title odds -- from the Sonics. Seattle would certainly consider any proposal that didn't hamper its future cap flexibility, which potentially makes Payton the most talented player available between now and the Feb. 20 trade deadline.

Back to the Pacers, and rewinding to last week's question, Walsh was asked if the Pacers were being unnecessarily risky by allowing Jermaine O'Neal to return from a nasty-looking knee twist after just four games off. Especially with a roster deep enough to generate Payton trade speculation and likewise sustain an injury or two.

"We found that the knee did not have any structural damage to it," Walsh said. "It seems to be getting better. He has stayed out of practice, but when you see him in the games, I don't see it hindering him."

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