Deron Williams or Brandon Roy? Hedo Turkoglu or Andre Iguodala? Shaquille O’Neal or Al Jefferson? Hmmm…

Having completed my personal All-Star selections after the starters were revealed on Thursday night, I needed some outside expertise to make sure I hadn’t followed the wrong path.

So I called Money.

That’s Matt “Money” Smith (you know him well, you know his smell), the co-host of the now nationally broadcasted “Petros and Money Show” (PMS) that hits the airwaves locally on AM 570 KLAC between 4-7:00 p.m. Now, I first became a fan of Money’s NBA take while listening to him on “The Lakers Zone,” (where he handles pregame, halftime and postgame duties around the call of Spero Dedes and Mychal Thompson), and thus trusted he’d check and balance my roster.

As it turned out, we disagreed on just three of the reserves, settling in agreement on the other 11 players that will join the 10 voted-in starters in Phoenix. Here’s the original list, which includes individual statistics, team records and place in the conference standings plus selected “Honorable Mention” players who had excellent first halfs but didn’t quite make our squad. Below the list, you can check out where Money would have gone another way, and why.

WESTERN CONFERENCE
	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Steals	Blocks	Shooting Percentage (Team rank)
Guards
G: Kobe Bryant*	27.0 pts	5.1 ast	5.6 reb	1.3 stl	0.4 blk	47.6% FGs | 86% FTs, (34-8, 1st)
G: Chris Paul*	20.9 pts	11.1 ast	5.4 reb	2.7 stl	0.2 blk	49.5% FGs | 86.7% FTs (26-14, 3rd)
G: Chauncey Billups	18.5 pts	6.9 ast	2.5 reb	1.4 stl	0.2 blk	41.4% FGs | 39% threes (28-15, 4th)
G: Deron Williams	16.4 pts	9.9 ast	2.6 reb	1.0 stl	0.3 blk	43.1% FGs | 32.4% threes (25-18, 7th)
G: Tony Parker	20.4 pts	6.7 ast	2.8 reb	0.9 stl.	0.1 blk	49.8% FGs | 80.7% FTs (28-13, 2nd)
Honorable Mention: (Brandon Roy, Manu Ginobili, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Steve Nash, Jamal Crawford)
Forwards
F: Tim Duncan*	20.4 pts	3.5 ast	10.2 reb	0.5 stl	1.8 blk	51.4% FGs | 69.1% FTs (28-13, 2nd)
F: Amar'e Stoudemire	21.3 pts	2.2 ast	8.1 reb	1.1 stl	1.1 blk	54.7% FGs | 82.8% FTs (23-17, 8th)
F: Carmelo Anthony	21.1 pts	3.6 ast	7.3 reb	0.9 stl	0.3 blk	43.7% FGs | 42.0% threes (28-15, 3rd)
F: Dirk Nowitzki	25.9 pts	2.5 ast	8.6 reb	0.7 stl	0.8 blk	47.5% FGs | 38.0% threes (24-18, 9th)
F: Pau Gasol	17.7 pts	3.5 ast	9.3 reb	0.4 stl	0.9 blk	55.6% FGs | 79% FTs (34-8, 1st)
Honorable Mention: (David West, LaMarcus Aldridge, Ron Artest*, Paul Millsap*, Kevin Durant)
Centers
C: Yao Ming	19.9 pts	1.8 ast	9.5 reb	0.4 stl	1.71 blk	54.3% FGs | 86.2% FTs (27-16, 5th)
C: Al Jefferson	22.2 pts	1.6 ast	10.6 reb	0.7 stl	1.6 blk	49.0% FGs | 74.7% FTs (13-27, 10th)
Honorable Mention: (Shaq*, Andris Biedrins, Mehmet Okur, Marcus Camby*)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Steals	Blocks	Field Goal Percentage (Team rank)
Guards
G: Dwyane Wade*	28.9 pts	7.4 ast	4.9 reb	2.3 stl	1.6 blk	47.3% FGs | 75.4% FTs (22-19, 6th)
G: Allen Iverson	18.0 pts	5.4 ast	3.3 reb	1.56 stl	0.1 blk	42.2% FGs | 27.7% threes (24-17, 5th)
G: Joe Johnson	22.0 pts	6.0 ast	4.5 reb	1.02 stl	0.4 blk	43.3% FGs | 35.1% threes (25-16, 4th)
G: Jameer Nelson	17.1 pts	5.4 ast	3.4 reb	1.2 stl	0.1 blk	51.1% FGs | 45.4 threes (33-9, 3rd)
G: Devin Harris*	22.3 pts	6.4 ast	3.1 reb	1.5 stl	0.2 blk	45.3% FGs | 83% FTs (19-23, 8th)
Honorable Mention: (Mike Bibby, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo*)
Forwards
F: LeBron James*	27.6 pts	6.6 ast.	7.2 reb	2.1 stl	1.3 blk	49.7% FGs | 77.7% FTs (31-8, 2nd)
F: Kevin Garnett*	16.1 pts	2.6 ast	9.1 reb	1.19 stl	1.3 blk	52% FGs | 85% FTs (36-9, 1st)
F: Paul Pierce	19.3 pts	3.8 ast	5.7 reb	1.14 stl	0.3 blk	44.2% FGs | 40.4% threes (36-9, 1st)
F: Hedo Turkoglu	17.2 pts	4.8 ast	5.3 reb	1.03 stl	0.3 blk	40.3 % FGs | 36.5% threes (33-9, 3rd)
F: Danny Granger	26.2 pts	3.4 ast	5.1 reb	1.03 stl	1.36 blk	39.7% threes | (15-27, 14th)
Honorable Mention: (Josh Smith*, Andre Iguodala, Tayshaun Prince*, David Lee, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler)
Centers
C: Dwight Howard*	20.2 pts	1.4 ast	14.1 reb	1.0 stl	3.2 blk	56.3% FGs | 58% FTs., (33-9, 3rd)
C: Chris Bosh	23.4 pts	2.6 ast	10.0 reb	0.7 stl	0.8 blk	49.9% FGs (16-28, 13th)
Honorable Mention: N/A
*Defensive Star

Money opted for Shaquille O’Neal in place of Jefferson, Brandon Roy in place of Deron Williams and Andre Iguodala/Josh Smith (pick ‘em) in place of Turkoglu. Money couldn’t justify having three Magic players with only two for the Celtics, loves how important Roy is to Portland’s success and thinks Shaq is a guarantee since the game’s in Phoenix. And to be honest, each point is completely fair; it’s easy not to have a problem with those swap outs.

Yet and still, I countered that the numbers show why Turkoglu’s simply had a better first half for a better team than Iggy and Smith, argue that Williams is even more important to Utah than Roy to the Blazers and think Jefferson’s place is justified since Minnesota’s finally started to play good basketball (and he’s one of three players in the league averaging at least 20 and 10).

In just a few days, we’ll learn what the 30 NBA coaches think, as each head man has seven All-Star votes within his conference, including two guards, two forwards, a center and two players regardless of position. Afterwards, we’ll get Money back on the horn to discuss. Until then, you can let us know whom you would choose by e-mailing into the Lakers.com Mailbag.