DeMar DeRozan’s quadriceps injury isn’t the only thing giving the Chicago Bulls forward a slight uphill battle in making his sixth All-Star team.

An odd wrinkle to DeRozan’s annual All-Star campaign is the classification of position he’s forced into. He was sixth among Eastern Conference guards in the latest fan voting results with 835,117.

While the 6-foot-6 DeRozan might not fit into the frontcourt grouping with big men such as Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid, it’s also inarguable that he doesn’t play as a guard.

This difficulty to find a grouping for DeRozan reflects the increasingly positionless nature of modern basketball. But it also makes for difficult comparisons of All-Star candidates as he attempts to leapfrog point guards such as the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, who is 288,228 votes ahead of DeRozan in fifth place.

The Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving (3,024,833 votes) and Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell (2,725,558) have a sizable lead for the top two East guard spots for this year’s game, which will be played Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City.

DeRozan — who missed his second straight game Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the United Center — is averaging 26.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists. That’s a small drop from his debut season with the Bulls, when he averaged 27.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists and finished first in fan, player and media voting among East guards.

Other intangibles were at play in last year’s voting — including DeRozan’s back-to-back buzzer-beating game-winners to start January and the fact the Bulls were sitting atop the conference standings.

Fan voting accounts for 50% of the selection process for All-Star starters, with a media panel (25%) and current players (25%) getting the remaining votes. Given DeRozan’s standing among his fellow players, that part of the selection process should fall in his favor. Head coaches select the All-Star reserves.

Former Bulls guard Derrick Rose, now with the New York Knicks, is ninth in fan voting among East guards. The Bulls’ Zach LaVine, who was picked as a reserve for the last two All-Star Games, is not in the top 10.

1. Kyrie Irving, Nets: 3,024,833

2. Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers: 2,725,558

3. James Harden, 76ers: 1,571,039

4. Jaylen Brown, Celtics: 1,512,332

5. Trae Young, Hawks: 1,123,345

6. DeMar DeRozan, Bulls: 835,117

7. LaMelo Ball, Hornets: 445,696

8. Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers: 428,113

9. Derrick Rose, Knicks: 298,100

10. Darius Garland, Cavaliers: 226,517

Fan voting closes on Jan. 21.

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