Towards the end of the 2006 postseason, I wrote a piece on how I felt the NBA needed to adjust their playoff format. Even though my proposal seemed to fall on deaf ears, I decided that heading into the all-star break, I should dust off my phantom administrative powers once again and provide David Stern and his cronies with some advice on how to improve the league?s annual festivities.

It?s obvious why the league allows their fans to vote on who will start in the all-star game. It guarantees that the most popular, and marketable, players will get the most face time during the February tradition. While this works for the talking heads and the people who cash checks from the NBA, it needs a great deal of improving. More often than not the players who deserve to start don?t get voted in by the fans. For example neither Steve Nash nor Dirk Nowitzki, good friends and front-runners for the league MVP, will be playing during the opening tip on February 18th.

Every year guys like Yao Ming and Shaquille O?Neal got voted in solely because of their names, not because of their first-half resumes. Yao hasn?t even played in thirty of the Rockets? forty-plus games this season, while Shaq has only played in a half-dozen. I understand the large amount of money that guys like Ming and O?Neal will bring into Las Vegas and the league come all-star weekend, but the game is supposed to be about recognition for superb play.

When players retire their career?s are often judged on how many titles they won, other playoff successes, and how many all-star seasons they enjoyed. With fan voting often times over-looking the more deserving players and padding the resumes of others (see O?Neal, Shaquille), how can careers properly be judged and compared?

Although Dwight Howard will undoubtedly be named an Eastern Conference reserve, he, not Shaq, should be taking the opening tip with Gilbert Arenas and the rest of the starters. I?ve kicked around a few different ideas that would, in my opinion, improve the all-star selection, here they are:

Require that starters play in a majority of their team?s games
Even the game?s greatest, and most well-conditioned, players are going to miss a few games here and there, but in order to be considered an ?all-star? you should have to put up impressive numbers over an extended period of time. Why not require that players participate in, say, seventy percent of their team?s games. It ensures that the players have sustained their greatness over an acceptable period of time. The only drawback I see would be if a player put up incredible numbers, but only played in sixty-eight percent of his team?s games.

The effect on this year?s game?
Dwight Howard would start in the place of Shaquille O?Neal, and Amare Stoudemire would take the spot of Yao Ming (both were second in fan voting).

The league could create a ?star? ballot
The NBA could make a more selective ballot at the beginning of the New Year. For example, the league could have created a pool of players for each Conference?s position in early-January, for the mid-February game. This would allow them to ensure the players would truly be of all-star potential and also cut the voting period down to about a month, rather then opening voting well-before the best have separated themselves from the rest.

We?ll use the Eastern Conference guard ballot as an example. Knick guards Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis both finished in the top ten in voting, but neither has played anything close to an all-star season. Teammate Jamal Crawford has enjoyed a better season than either guard. The league could set up a committee to construct a group of ten players who deserve to be on the Eastern Conference guard ballot, with two obviously earning the start.

This season the ballot might have looked something like this: Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, Michael Redd, Vince Carter, Joe Johnson, Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, and T.J. Ford. I?m not saying guys like T.J. Ford should start, but he?s better than some of the alternatives (like teammate Morris Peterson).

This would allow voters to select from a group of players that are close in stature, rather than seeing Dwyane Wade?s name next to Delonte West?s.

Why it wouldn?t work?
It would hurt guys who happen to play well during the month of January, because they might not have been included in the ?star? ballot.

Give the power to the ?professionals?
I?m not claiming that I should get a ballot, but the NBA could turn the power over to a hundred or so journalists throughout the country. That?s how every professional sports league determines who wins their end-of-the-season awards, so why not use the same method and make the all-star selections more creditable in the process? Allowing the coaching staff to select the reserves, while maybe add a limit on picking your own players, is fine. But I think allowing people who are paid to watch basketball to set the all-star starting line-ups would return creditability to the achievement.

Why it wouldn?t work?
Writers around the nation wouldn?t be able to complain about the selections for two weeks leading up to the game, because they made the picks!

Keep the established method of picking starters, but?
Have a similar committee meet to decide whether or not the selections are warranted. I hate to keep reverting back to Shaq and Yao, but the ?committee? could have met and determined that other players deserved to get the start over the oft-injured superstars. They ultimately would have given the starting nod to young guns like Howard and Stoudemire. They also probably would have inserted Steve Nash in for Tracy McGrady, not because Tracy hasn?t played well, but because of Nash?s greatness.

How it would make things messier?
It could upset some of the league?s biggest stars. I?d assume that Tracy McGrady would be pretty upset if the league decided to move him to a reserve role, when the fans voted him in. I?d also be an idiot not to expect Shaq to sound off should the league strip him of his starting position, even if he?s only played in a handful of games.

Alter the voting entirely
We all know the fans, myself included, love to vote for the all-star starters, but the league itself knows who we all want to see suiting up. Why not have the league determine the starting fives for both conferences, taking into account marketability, star-power, and first-half performance, and allow the fans to vote for the skill events.

Wouldn?t you be a little more excited if you were able to vote LeBron James into the Slam Dunk Contest, when you know that given the power the league, the coaches, and even your German Sheppard would pick him to start for the Eastern Conference? The league would do a good enough job of selecting players to keep the fans happy, and might pick more deserving players in the process?

The reason this will never happen?
Players like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant might never go for participating in the Slam Dunk contest, although it is rumored that they will participate in the Skills Challenge. Fans would have even more of a reason to tune into the All-Star Saturday festivities and the league would make even more money.

How Can You Make the All-Star Selection Better?:Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com