The rosters for the upcoming NBA All-Star game have been set. The fans get the privilege of voting on and selecting the starters for the big game and while the starters are certainly big name players they aren’t necessarily the most deserving based on ones stats.
What better way to measure a player’s deservingness of an All-Star nomination than to revert to his fantasy numbers. We will delve into each conference’s All-Star teams and take a look at what the fans got right and identify where a more deserving candidate could have been selected.
The fans have weighed in and the selected starters for the Eastern Conference are; Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. The starters for the Western Conference as voted on by the fans are; Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love.
As good as Wade and Irving are in the East, are they statistically deserving of an all-star start or are there more deserving candidates out there? The West roster looks pretty good on paper except of course for the nomination of Bryant. We all know that Bryant has played a whopping six games so far this season and that he was voted in based on name recognition alone. So a replacement for Bryant is obviously required here, but who should it be? The league announced that Anthony Davis would be representing the host city, but is he the most deserving? Let’s find out.
Based on numerical and statistical analysis neither Miami Heat’s Wade nor the Cleveland Cavaliers Irving are deserving All-Star recipients. In fact both should be nudged out in favour of the Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry and the Washington Wizards John Wall.
Lowry is having a better season statistically that D. Wade as he is averaging only 2.0 ppg less than Wade 16.6 ppg versus Wade’s 18.7 ppg; however Lowry is contributing with 7.4 apg, which is 2.5 apg more than Wade and their rebounding numbers are pretty much equal. All told, Wade scores two point more per game, while Lowry’s assists add up to five more points per game.
Lowry should have beat out Wade for the start here and if it wasn’t for the small market Raptors and the fact that they are the lone Canadian team, Lowry would have gotten more fan exposure and ultimately would have garnered more fan votes.
Next up we have the case of John Wall in Washington. Wall was overlooked by the fans in lieu of the uber-popular Kyrie Irving. Now both of these guys are having stellar seasons and they are very comparable in terms of fantasy production.
Wall is averaging a mere 0.5 ppg less than Irving; however, Wall is bettering Irving in terms of assists per game by 2.2 and is contributing 1.2 more rpg than Irving. To strengthen the case, Wall is also averaging 0.8 more steals per game than Irving. All told the statistical differences are in Wall’s favour and he should have ultimately beat out Irving for the honour.
Let’s not let the Western Conference off the hook as there is an oversight in their selections as well. There is no way that Bryant deserved the spot and no one can possibly argue to the contrary. Despite having numerous choices available to themselves the fans voted in an injured superstar who had no real prospect of playing in the game.
Now a replacement for Bryant has already been named and that player was Anthony Davis. Not to take away from Davis as he is having a very good season and his home city of New Orleans is hosting the All-Star event. Davis is deserving of an All-Star nomination, just not a starting spot.
The honour should have gone to the second-year standout from the Portland Trailblazers, Damian Lillard. Lillard is putting together a pretty nice season as he is averaging 20.8 ppg, 5.7 apg and 3.7 rpg. Lillard is ranked 12th overall in terms of fantasy value and is the 4rth highest guard in the entire association.
Davis on the other hand is the 24th ranked fantasy player and is the 11th ranked forward/center in the league. As solid a season as Davis is having, Lillard should have been the choice to represent the Western Conference.