NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants to expand the amount of players who make the All-Star Game. In a wide-ranging conversation with ESPN Radio Sunday night, Silver said that adding more players to each conference's All-Star team is "something that will get very strong consideration." He plans on discussing the subject soon with NBA Player Association executive director Michele Roberts.
"It has a direct impact on many of the player's bonuses," Silver said to ESPN. "There's preset bonuses in their contracts for making the All-Star team."
Silver said that being forced to choose an All-Star Game replacement for the injured Kobe Bryant -- an honor which eventually went to DeMarcus Cousins -- crystallized for him just how many players in the league are deserving of playing in the game.
"I didn't like having to make that choice," he told ESPN. "I wish I had another slot for Damian [Lillard] because I think he's deserving of being an All-Star as well."
Here's what Silver said his reasoning was for choosing Cousins.
"I rely heavily on our basketball folks in terms of where the coaches' [voting] came out. Of course there's a fan vote for the starters and the coaches choose the reserves. DeMarcus was very high up on the coaches' vote, so that had a strong influence on me. Ultimately I deferred to them. DeMarcus, based on his numbers, absolutely deserves to be an All-Star. Damian ... his numbers are great, too. When I look at his team's record, I want to take that into account as well. Damian is someone who has literally been a model citizen in terms of what he's done in the community, he's done in Portland [and] activities he's engaged in with the league. It was essentially a tie in my mind, so I ultimately deferred to the coaches."
Silver said his only potential concern with adding more players to the All-Star Game rosters is that a number of them will spend most of the game sitting on the bench.
"I think counter-balancing that is the issue of playing time. [NBA executive vice president] Rod Thorn and I were having this discussion yesterday. We said we should move to [Kentucky coach John] Calipari's platoon system for All-Star to make sure that everyone gets [enough] playing time."
"In all seriousness, that's one of the concerns with a larger team. We want to make sure guys get minutes as well if they're All-Stars. I'm in favor of expanding it. I'm not sure if it's by one or two [roster spots], but it is something Michele Roberts and I will discuss."
Silver also said that over the next year he'd like to take a look at the league's playoff and lottery formats.
"This is going to be the year where we have to make those decisions," he said.