Lauri Markkanen among West’s top 20 after first returns on fan All-Star voting

Lauri Markkanen has a chance to make the 2026 NBA All-Star team.

The Utah Jazz forward was in the Western Conference’s top 20 in the first returns from All-Star fan voting. He came in at 16th in the West with just over 112,000 votes.

While the top vote getters have already racked up more than 1 million fan votes, that doesn’t mean Markkanen is out of the running to make a team.

This year, as in years past, there will be 24 total All-Stars (12 from each conference) selected. But, there are two key differences to this year’s All-Star team format. This year, All-Stars will be selected without regard to position, so no more worrying about having a certain number of backcourt or frontcourt players.

Also, this year there will be three All-Star teams made up of a minimum of eight players. There will be two U.S. teams and one World team made up of international players.

Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo lead their conferences in the first fan returns in NBA All-Star Voting 2026.

Fans (50% of the vote) join NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) in selecting five players in each conference honored as starters.

Next fan update: 1/6. pic.twitter.com/pHykl9yhTE

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 29, 2025

The five All-Star starters from each conference are determind by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and media votes (25%). Seven reserves for each conference are selected by NBA head coaches.

As the voting returns stand, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo will be easy top choices for the World team. So it looks like Markkanen will be competing for a reserve spot with Portland’s Deni Avdija, Houston’s Alperen Sengun, New York’s Karl Anthony-Towns, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, Denver’s Jamal Murray and Chicago’s Josh Giddey.

Through 27 games played this season, Markkanen is averaging 27.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 47.6% overall, 36.7% from 3-point range and 90.3% from the free-throw line. He made his first All-Star appearance in 2023, when he was an All-Star starter in the game that was hosted in Utah.