Paul George 22 points, 5 boards and
league leading 2.2 steals per game and Ben Simmons 16 points, 7 boards, 7 assists and 2 steals per game should have earned them a 1st ballot all-star selection. The head coaches vote for the guys that come off the bench in the all-star game and they clearly put too much emphasis on players who play on teams high up in the NBA standings over players who are performing better.
Should the coaches really be giving Draymond Green a ton of credit for averaging 7 assist a game by passing to 3 of the best shooters/scorers in NBA history? Playing with sharp shooter Klay Thompson and a pair of MVPs (Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant) will keep his assist numbers inflated. His 8 boards and 1 block a game is decent but 11 points per game is well below all-star status. It’s funny how people overrate Green and feel obligated to put 4 Warriors on the all-star team because they have the NBA’s best record. While in 1996, a historic 72 – 10 Bulls team, arguably the best team in NBA history only had two all-stars (Jordan & Pippen), while hall of famer Dennis Rodman was slapped with some snubbery and left at the crib.
Al Horford is another guy who should be sitting at home watching the all-star festivities in Los Angeles rather than participating in them. His 5 assist per game as a power forward is good, 8 boards a game is decent but 13 points per game is not enough for 1st ballot all-star status. Horford is currently 40th in the Eastern Conference in points per game. If you’re going to be an all-star while averaging a mediocre amount of points then you’ve got to be exceptional at another aspect of the game.
And that brings me to another player who should have been selected over Horford, if the coaches were hell-bent on continuing their foolery by slighting Ben Simmons simply because he’s a rookie. Andre Drummond is having an excellent season leading the league in rebounds by averaging 15 a game while also averaging 15 points. Simmons and Drummond have undoubtedly been outperforming Horford but the coaches will rationalize their decision because the 76ers and Pistons are fighting for a playoff spot while the Celtics had the best record in the East at the time of the voting.
But the coaches need to wake up and realize that there have been some teams that had excellent regular season records or even won the championship with only one all-star. The 1993-94 Rockets won the championship with Hakeem Olajuwon as their only all-star and the 2010-11 Bulls had the NBA’s best record but Derrick Rose was their only all-star.
It would be great if the coaches could stop feeling like they’ve got to select ‘Fake All-Stars’ just because they play on a team at or close to the top of the NBA standings. It’s true that Paul George loss more games than Draymond Green and Ben Simmons loss more games than Al Horford. However, George and Simmons’ performances has been much better the Green and Horfords’ and they deserved that 1st ballot all-star spot.