Donovan Mitchell second among Eastern Conference guards in first round of All-Star voting

Donovan Mitchell is currently well positioned to be an All-Star in his first year with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the first round of voting, as announced by the NBA on Thursday, Mitchell is second among Eastern Conference guards in the fan vote with 1,637,374 votes. In first place is Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving with 2,071,715 votes.

Nets forward Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James are the leading vote getters for the Eastern and Western Conferences, respectively.

Elsewhere in voting, Darius Garland is tenth among Eastern Conference guards behind Irving, Mitchell, James Harden and Trae Young, among others. In the frontcourt, Jarrett Allen is also tenth in voting behind Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid, among others. Not in the top-10 is Cavs second-year big man Evan Mobley.

Mitchell is the headliner here and it’s very possible he ends up starting the All-Star game back in Utah in his old home arena. He’s deserving too, as he’s averaging a career-high in points on career-best shooting efficiency. Mitchell is playing at an All-NBA level and would be a deserving starter.

As for the other Cavs, time will tell. It does not seem likely that they’ll be voted in as starters, so they would need to be picked by the coaches to make the All-Star team. That did workout well last year for both Garland and Allen when the game was in Cleveland.

The next fan vote update is on Jan. 12.