Twitter is often consumed by irrational NBA basketball debates surrounding a comparison between two all-star caliber players. Leaving the debate and shared opinions to the people replying to one of these said tweets.
They're all horrible, whether the opinion of "who's the better player" is correct from my standpoint or not. It really separates the people who watch basketball, with the people who watch whatever is on TV (85% of Lakers fans).
So it's very easy for fanbases to claim that one of the best players on their favorite team was snubbed from the all-star game. It's difficult to refrain from being biased.
At one point in time I said Pascal Siakam was more valuable to the Raptors than Jayson Tatum was to the Celtics.
Was that correct? Absolutely not, it's easily one of the more embarrassing things I've said. I never imagined myself going full Jack Armstrong like that.
Bias is a part of being a human being, being aware of your bias is where NBA twitter miserably fails. You can literally say something like "Kwame Brown was ahead of his time" and you'll find some soulless Cheeto eaters that agree with your take.
I'm extremely tired of seeing tweets with a photo of 2 different players, with a less-than or more-than symbol in the middle, and a tagline like "None of y'all wanna hear about this but-".
Well, then don't say it. it's like hearing the song "Driver's license" on the radio every time you turn on your car right now, the exposure to it just makes you feel eternal pain.
So I had a mental breakdown, and went through the leagues 40 top scorers to try and find a reasonable all-star snub. This way we can determine if fanbases can be justifiably angry with their favorite player not being given the opportunity to play.
Obviously there were some all-stars that weren't in the league's top 40 scorers, so I compared 45 different players "advanced" stats to see if we could locate some snubs.
After I had all of the stats I needed in front of me, I went through and immediately determined "Auto-locks" and "Auto-drops".
Auto-locks = Players who have such elite stats that there's no debate needed, they have to be in the all-star game.
Auto-drops = Players who have an accumulation of stats that would make it extremely difficult to argue that they're more deserving than a current all-star.
(All of these stats were taken at the all-star break)
We also looked at 3 key categories to measure a player's true impact on the court:
PER - Player Efficiency Rating - The Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is a per-minute rating developed by ESPN.com columnist John Hollinger. In John's words, "The PER sums up all a player's positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative. accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player's performance. In our case, anything over 20.00 PER is good, anything over 25.00 is elite.
WS - Win Shares - is a player statistic which attempts to divvy up credit for team success to the individuals on the team. It really outlines who is performing well when the team is winning, or who means the most to the team's success.
RPM - Real Plus/Minus - tells you how much better a team played on offense and defense when a given player was on the floor, and how much that improvement was that individual player's doing.
For our main percentage categories (FG% and 3P%), anything over 50% FG I consider elite, anything over 40% 3P is also elite. Anything else that can round up comfortably to those amount would be considered good. Field goal percentage that is a top 50 ranking can also count as elite, or close enough to 50%.
I'm most excited about highlighting these specific stats because they represent some interesting facts about certain team's keys to success.
Let's start with our Auto-locks.
Auto-locks
Bradley Beal
In most cases I'd have a line of stats to sell this to you, but he's the league's leading scorer at 32.1 points per game. This isn't a debate. However:
PER - 24.33 (13th in NBA) - e
WS - 4.26 (24th in NBA) - e
RPM - 2.40 (46th in NBA) - g
FG% - 47.8 - g
(e = elite) (g=good)
Let's use Brad's stats here as an example. Any of these numbers that are in top 25 in the league are elite, anything in the top 50 is good. You want to have at least 2 of 3 categories in the "good" area to be considered for an all-star game, and ideally 1 category in "elite". The more elite statistical categories you have, the better your all-star status is represented. I will make sure to list any stats that are deemed worthy of mentioning. The fact Brad has a high PER and WS on a losing team represents his value better than anything else.
Damian Lillard
PER - 26.62 (4th in NBA) e
WS - 5.75 (8th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.57 (12th in NBA) e
PPG - 29.9 (2nd in NBA) e
APG - 7.9 (9th in NBA) e
3P% - 38.6 - g
Volcanic stats for the coldest man alive, 5 elite statistical categories has Dame Dolla flying with the MVP candidates. He's been a victim of Portland not being a top team in the past, which has had him snubbed or on the all-star bench in prior seasons. This year Portland has been winning despite the injuries to CJ McCollum and Zach Collins, mainly due to Damian constantly changing the time to big nuts o'clock.
Joel Embiid
PER - 31.50 (2nd in NBA) e
WS - 6.45 (5th in NBA) e
RPM - 6.87 (5th in NBA) e
PPG - 29.9 (3rd in NBA) e
RPG - 11.5 (4th in NBA) e
FG% - 52.5 (26th in NBA) e
3P% - 42.2 - e
I don't need to explain, this just spells "barbecue chicken"
Stephen Curry
PER - 25.10 (9th in NBA) e
WS - 9.25 (2nd in NBA) e
RPM - 7.70 (3rd in NBA) e
PPG - 29.3 (4th in NBA) e
APG - 6.3 (21st in NBA) e
3P% - 41.1 - e
FG% - 47.6 - g
Steph is always close to a 50/40/90 season, which is spectacular considering half of the shots are after about 16 combo dribble moves while holding one of his kids.
(50/40/90 = 50% FG, 40% 3P, 90% FT)
Giannis Antetokounmpo
PER - 29.44 (3rd in NBA) e
WS - 8.46 (3rd in NBA) e
RPM - 7.01 (4th in NBA) e
PPG - 29.0 (5th in NBA) e
RPG - 11.5 (4th in NBA) e
APG - 6.1 (26th in NBA) e
FG% - 56.1 (12th in NBA) e
Stats the size of those bowling ball shoulders.
Luka Doncic
PER - 25.91 (9th in NBA) e
WS - 3.91 (30th in NBA) g
RPM - 2.21 (50th in NBA) g
PPG - 28.2 (6th in NBA) e
RPG - 8.4 (18th in NBA) e
APG - 9.1 (4th in NBA) e
FG% - 47.6 - g
Luka's WS and RPM suffer because of Dallas' slow start to the season, you'll see this trend start to develop as we go along. The less your team wins, the more your stats become "empty". That being said, Luka almost averages a triple-double while scoring 28.2 ppg. I think we're good here.
Zach Lavine
PER - 22.41 (19th in NBA) e
WS - 2.84 (55th in NBA)
RPM - 1.44 (73rd in NBA)
PPG - 28.1 (7th in NBA) e
APG - 5.1 (36th in NBA) g
FG% - 52.3 (22nd in NBA) e
3P% - 43.5 (16th in NBA) e
Zach Lavine is having a 50/40/90 season while averaging 28.1 ppg, extremely efficient and rare enough to lock him.
Kyrie Irving
PER - 24.42 (11th in NBA) e
WS - 4.46 (19th in NBA) e
RPM - 3.83 (18th in NBA) e
PPG - 27.4 (8th in NBA) e
APG - 5.8 (26th in NBA) g
FG% - 51.4 (29th in NBA) e
3P% - 40.7 (31st in NBA) e
The media was too busy shitting on Kyrie for smudging the Celtics homecourt to realize that he's incredible. His stats are in the right place and so are his values, FOH.
Nikola Jokic
PER - 31.53 (1st in NBA) e
WS - 6.47 (4th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.58 (11th in NBA) e
PPG - 27.1 (9th in NBA) e
RPG - 11.1 (9th in NBA) e
APG - 8.6 (6th in NBA) e
FG% - 56.6 (13th in NBA) e
3P% - 41.1 - e
Just take a moment to see what this frozen bag of pierogis is doing to your favorite teams this year, good god. I still want to push the idea of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic being The Hamburglar and Grimace, iconic McDonald's mascots but a really off-brand duo at the end of the day.
Kawhi Leonard
PER - 27.03 (6th in NBA) e
WS - 4.65 (15th in NBA) e
RPM - 3.72 (20th in NBA) e
PPG - 26.6 (10th in NBA) e
APG - 4.8 (40th in NBA) g
FG% - 51.7 (24th in NBA) e
3P% - 40.4 - e
Always impressive when guys have elite level PER/WS/RPM playing beside another all-star (In this case : Paul George).
Lebron James
PER - 24.21 (15th in NBA) e
WS - 9.95 (1st in NBA) e
RPM - 9.03 (1st in NBA) e
PPG - 25.6 (12th in NBA) e
APG - 7.8 (8th in NBA) e
RPG - 7.9 (22nd in NBA) e
FG% - 50.7 (26th in NBA) e
We're so used to Lebron James being amazing that we tend to ignore it in 2021. 1st in WS/RPM represents his presence on the court more than anything else. We've been spoiled by his consistent excellency, so I'm here to remind you that he's the most important player to his team in the entire league. Does that not spell MVP?
(This video is very corny but very fitting)
James Harden
PER - 24.62 (14th in NBA) e
WS - 6.04 (6th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.49 (43rd in NBA) g
PPG - 25.2 (14th in NBA) e
APG - 11.0 (1st in NBA) e
RPG - 7.9 (22nd in NBA) e
FG% - 47.8 - g
3P% - 38.3 - g
The 25 points/11 assists a game is impressive on it's own. MVP Conversation? Absolutely.
Nikola Vucevic
PER - 24.51 (12th in NBA) e
WS - 3.89 (31st in NBA) e
RPM - 1.88 (56th in NBA) g
PPG - 25.0 (17th in NBA) e
RPG - 11.6 (5th in NBA) e
FG% - 49.0 (47th in NBA) g
3P% - 41.6 - e
Vuc was single handedly keeping Orlando afloat until he was traded, life long back problem amounts of carrying. it's hard to keep a 25 points/11 rebounds average out of the all-star game.
Jaylen Brown
PER - 20.43 (30th in NBA) g
WS - 4.75 (13th in NBA) e
RPM - 3.56 (22nd in NBA) e
PPG - 24.3 (19th in NBA) e
FG% - 48.9 (45th in NBA) g
3P% - 38.4 - g
Yes, Jaylen Brown gets a lock over Jayson Tatum. His PER/WS/RPM are all higher, meaning Jaylen's success is a little more correlated to the team's success. The efficiency he plays with makes his stats have a significant impact, I didn't see a reasonable way to have him out of the all-star game.
Paul George
PER - 22.42 (26th in NBA) e
WS - 5.76 (7th in NBA) e
RPM - 6.36 (6th in NBA) e
PPG - 23.2 (25th in NBA) e
APG - 5.3 (33rd in NBA) g
FG% - 49.1 (45th in NBA) g
3P% - 44.0 (14th in NBA) e
Clown pandemic p as much as you want, he's sharpshooting this season with a high WS/RPM. Again, achieving these stats while playing alongside another all-star isn't always easy.
Julius Randle
PER - 20.65 (29th in NBA) g
WS - 4.29 (23rd in NBA) e
RPM - 2.29 (47th in NBA) g
PPG - 22.9 (26th in NBA) e
RPG - 11.0 (11th in NBA) e
APG - 5.7 (25th in NBA) e
FG% - 48.0 - g
3P% - 41.2 - e
Anytime you can land yourself in the top 25 (ish) in 3 essential statistical categories (PPG/APG/RPG), it's a good case. Take in the fact that the New York Knicks aren't complete garbage this season as well, Randle being the main reason for that. This is so far the peak of his steady evolution as a ball player, not rewarding him for that is a crime.
Auto-drops
This category surrounds players that have distinct statistical disadvantages compared to the bar we've set for all-star numbers this season. I'll only list the key reasons why someone is out of the conversation, everyone should know that all the players I mention in this list are exceptional. They just come up a tad short.
Collin Sexton
PER - 17.02 (75th in NBA)
WS - 1.52 (113th in NBA)
RPM - -0.48 (186th in NBA)
This is a good example to start with because it displays what people mean when they say "empty stats". Collin averages 23.2 PPG on 47.8% from the field and 38.4% from the 3. Upon first glace that looks pretty solid, but he really doesn't have another dominant statistical category. The key to being an all-star in 2021 is having dynamic qualities to your play style, Collin is a talented scorer, but it doesn't directly translate to Cleveland winning games. You can see that he has a negative RPM, which usually represents someone playing heavy minutes on a losing team. Your PER and WS suffer if you're hitting your average stats without winning games, we'll see this trend a lot with other players.
Jerami Grant
PER - 17.90 (61st in NBA)
WS - 3.20 (44th in NBA) g
RPM - 1.30 (81st in NBA)
FG% - 43.9
3P% - 35.4
Jerami Grant is a shoe-in for Most Improved Player (MIP) of the entire league this season. However, Detroit has been awful this season, and Jerami isn't dynamic enough yet to maintain a high level of efficiency on a struggling team. He's having a great season and it's always beautiful to watch players grow into something special after years of filling a role. He just isn't at the supernatural level yet, 23.6 PPG is the only stat with super positive dimensions (23rd in NBA).
Trae Young
PER - 23.08 (20th in NBA) e
WS - 3.25 (42nd in NBA) g
RPM - 1.05 (99th in NBA)
FG% - 43.3
3P% - 37.9 - g
PPG - 26.4 (11th in NBA) e
APG - 9.2 (3rd in NBA) e
Alright Trae Young fans, let me try to level with your torches and pitchforks. Atlanta wasn't playing well before the all-star break and Trae also happened to be struggling. When you match up his advanced stats with other East guards, he comes out the emptiest due to Atlanta's struggles. His FG% is significantly lower, his RPM represents the lack of winning. His PER happens to be high due to his APG and PPG being top tier. Unfortunately if your efficiency rating is high and you're not winning games, it's super difficult to measure your real positive impact. Trae's stats we're also much worse earlier in the season, and the slow start killed his all-star lock.
Malcom Brogdon
PER - 17.61 (56th in NBA)
WS - 2.63 (63rd in NBA)
RPM - 0.47 (124th in NBA)
PPG - 21.5 (27th in NBA) g
APG - 6.2 (22nd in NBA) e
Indiana has been floating around .500 the entire season, which usually make it difficult to argue for multiple all-stars (Domantas Sabonis made the all-star team as a replacement). Malcom is shooting 45.3% from the field and 39.2% from 3, both are good percentages but not at our predetermined elite level.
Russel Westbrook
PER - 17.00 (71st in NBA)
WS - 1.61 (106th in NBA)
RPM - -0.31 (173rd in NBA)
Ok so 21ppg/9rpg/9apg is always going to look appealing but you can clearly see where these splits are landing him. Beal made the team already with Washington being a bottom dweller. Asking for another all-star is as unreasonable as Ted Cruz's trip to Cancun, or having the state of Texas open up for a full capacity crowd at a Rangers baseball game during a pandemic. His haircut would also qualify as unreasonable, get your shit in order Ted this is weak.
Gordon Hayward
PER - 18.54 (48th in NBA) g
WS - 3.23 (43rd in NBA) g
RPM - 1.51 (71st in NBA)
PPG - 21.0 (28th in NBA) g
FG% - 48.2 - g
3P% - 40.5 - e
Gordon Hayward is quietly having an awesome season. He just lacks some of the dynamic qualities of his all-star counterparts, despite his great shooting numbers this season. This honestly could be a result of playing beside Lamelo Ball and Terry Rozier, who have commanded a lot of the time with the ball to decent success. Scary Terry also has a higher WS and RPM, making it difficult to derive who Charlotte really gets the most value from. I may as well tell you that Terry is also an auto-drop for very similar reasons, underrated season but not at our elite caliber. Terry is still scary but I'd argue that Kyrie/Beal/Harden/Lavine are maybe scarier?
Malik Beasley
He assaulted a women and ended up being suspended for 12 games due to the charges, his stats do not matter. If you think he's an all-star then we can settle it over a game of Ro Sham Bo.
I go first.
Victor Oladipo
He was shooting under 40% from the field and that's pretty not good ya? Great fit to have him on the Heat now though.
Houston managed to get one whole Kelly Olynyk (Avery Bradley as well, fine have it your way) in exchange for James Harden after all this of that trade buffoonery, which is perfectly fine because Kelly is my front-runner for MVP next season anyways.
It's like somebody just pressed "force trade" in MyGM mode in 2K.
REMAINING POOL OF PLAYERS
East
Domantas Sabonis*
Jayson Tatum*
Ben Simmons*
Fred Van Vleet
Tobias Harris
Bam Adebayo
6 players, 3 spots left.
West
Zion Williamson*
Devin Booker*
Donovan Mitchell*
Mike Conley*
Chris Paul*
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Brandon Ingram
Jamal Murray
Demar Derozan
* - These are the guys who were voted as all-stars.
Ok let's get the East over an done with super quick because there's only one real debate.
Did The East Have Any Snubs?
I really only see one argument coming out of the East. That argument is that Tobias Harris could've been voted in over his own teammate Ben Simmons.
Fred Van Vleet unfortunately gets the boot right away because there are no guard spots left to fill in the East, it's all Forwards. Fred had a decent resume as you can see:
PPG - 20.1 (38th in NBA) g
APG - 6.6 (6th in NBA) e
WS - 5.43 (5th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.00 (16th in NBA) e
However, Fred also shot 40% from the field going into the all-star break, which really hurts his overall efficiency, and likely would have kept him from replacing anyone in the insane Eastern Conference guards lineup. It was super eye opening to see his WS and RPM so high though. This just means that the Raptors really benefit the most when he's reaching his averages, or getting scorching hot. All my homies love Fred so I can see why Raptors fans were disappointed, but don't be going around saying "snub" please.
Jayson Tatum gets the nod for Fred dropping out of the race.
PER - 20.19 (33rd in NBA) g
WS - 3.62 (33rd in NBA) g
RPM - 2.42 (45th in NBA) g
PPG - 25.1 (16th in NBA) e
RPG - 7.0 - g
APG - 4.5
FG% - 44.5
3P% - 37.5
I left Tatum's all-star status up in the air solely due to the fact that Jalen Brown seems to have more efficiency and overall impact within his stats. Boston hasn't exactly been amazing enough to have 2 all-star nods locked up, but 25 points/7 rebounds/4.5 assists is a really solid spread. His shooting percentages aren't elite, but they're more than acceptable for your leading scorer to have. Considering his seeding in PER/WS/RPM is still in "good" territory alongside Jalen Brown's amazing season, he has to be in the game.
The next conclusion I made was to eliminate Bam Adebayo from contention.
PER - 22.10 (23rd in NBA) e
WS - 2.81 (57th in NBA)
RPM - 1.44 (74th in NBA)
PPG - 19.2 (41st in NBA) g
RPG - 9.5 (13th in NBA) e
APG - 5.4 - g
FG% - 56.3 (14th in NBA) e
Miami has had a back and forth season, and maybe if Bam had a higher WS/RPM he'd easily be labeled a snub. Even if he averaged a little bit more points per game I'd be willing to go to war for him. But he lacks the winning impact Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons have, and Domantas Sabonis has him beat in the 3 major stat categories (PPG/RPG/APG).
As you can see here:
PER - 20.21 (34th in NBA) g
WS - 2.44 (71st in NBA)
RPM - 0.15 (139th in NBA)
PPG - 20.8 (31st in NBA) g
RPG - 11.2 (8th in NBA) e
APG - 6.2 (19th in NBA) e
FG% - 52.7 (25th in NBA) e
I would argue Sabonis' stats make him super hard to ignore, both him and Bam resemble swiss army knife play-style's where they do a bit of everything. Bam definitely anchors a defense a bit better which is likely why Sabonis has lower WS/RPM, but unless you're Rudy Gobert you can't lobby that for an all-star nod. Bam is dropped, Sabo is locked.
So we're officially left with 6'9 JCole and Knuckleball Simmons for one remaining all-star spot.
Tobias Harris
PER - 20.14 (32nd in NBA) g
WS - 3.70 (32nd in NBA) g
RPM - 2.24 (48th in NBA) g
PPG - 20.2 (39th in NBA) g
RPG - 7.5 - e
FG% - 51.7 (33rd in NBA) e
3P% - 40.2 - e
Ben Simmons
PER - 20.07 (36th in NBA) g
WS - 3.9 (31st in NBA) g
RPM - 3.8 (19th in NBA) e
PPG - 15.0
RPG - 7.8 (23rd in NBA) e
APG - 7.8 (10th in NBA) e
FG% - 58.1 (4th in NBA) e
The main issue I have with Ben Simmons receiving the all-star instead of Tobias is the inconsistent play to start the season. Tobias Harris is on 50/40/90 watch while averaging 20.2 PPG and 7.5 RPG on the top team in the East. Ben had to get hot just to get his PPG up to 15 before the break. Although you can see that his stats do have a significant and measurable impact even with his initial struggles. They're both so close together in PER/WS, which makes it even harder to tell who means more to Philadelphia on a statistical level.
Again, don't talk to me about the defensive end. If that was ever part of the all-star selection process, then it would've been impossible for Steve Nash to even get voted in once. You could always tell he was trying hard, but he's running around like a little carton of 2% milk out there, who he gonna stop?
So I'm willing to say that Tobias Harris could have easily been voted in over Ben Simmons, I believe he's been a more consistent offensive option the entire year. Especially since Utah got the "#1 seed = 3 all-stars" treatment in the West, Philly could have easily received that reward in the East as well. Ben is clearly important to his team's success, I'm not disputing that. To me this is sort of like if Golden State only received 3 all-stars in 2017, and they put Draymond Green in the game instead of Klay Thompson (Steph and KD are the other all-stars if you really need to hear that).
Would that have been a bad thing? Yes, and I admit this situation with Ben and Tobi is not nearly as upsetting as that would be. It's only minorly comparable, but keeping in mind that players like Lonzo Ball, Fred Van Vleet, and other non-all-stars have extremely high WS/RPM, Ben's case hurts a little bit.
If you saw what I saw from Ben at the beginning of this season, you're likely on my side of the fence. He made up ground quickly, but I would have no problems with Tobias Harris being voted in over him. Considering Philadelphia is a top tier team, Tobias' consistency combined with Joel Embiid's MVP season makes the 76'ers offense Nuclear. Ben supplements that with his playmaking, but also sometimes seems lost without the ball if he's not in the dunkers position.
Tobias Harris can be labeled a snub.
Did The West Have Any Snubs?
So just to frame this up a bit, our all-stars on trial in the West are:
Rudy Gobert
Zion Williamson
Devin Booker
Donovan Mitchell
Mike Conley
Chris Paul
Our possible snubs are:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Brandon Ingram
De'Aron Fox
Jamal Murray
Demar Derozan
I'd like to get 2 easy choices out of the way immediately, being that Rudy Gobert and Donovon Mitchell should both be in. Some of their stats do not show that, some of them do.
Donovan Mitchell
PER - 18.83 (50th in NBA) g
WS - 4.43 (21st in NBA) e
RPM - 2.97 (35th in NBA) g
PPG - 24.8 (18th in NBA) e
APG - 5.4 (32nd in NBA) g
FG% - 41.9
3P% - 38.1 - g
Rudy Gobert
PER - 23.15 (16th in NBA) e
WS - 5.32 (10th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.28 (15th in NBA) e
PPG - 14.4 (72nd in NBA)
RPG - 13.5 (2nd in NBA) e
FG% - 64.3 (3rd in NBA) e
They're the 2 best players on the best team in the league, that's usually good enough for me. I was tripping over Spida Mitchell's field goal percentage for second, but he's the Utah Jazz's best player. You can't have him out of the game.
Rudy Gobert is another guy who may not pass your eye test immediately. However, as you review his PER/WS/RPM numbers, there's concrete evidence that he carries a ton of value. Whether that's mainly on the defensive end or not, winning games is arguably the most important part of basketball.
Did I mean to say arguably? Technically there's an argument for everything, that doesn't mean that you're right. Some folks out there think that Micheal Jordan played exclusively against milk men in the 90's. Imagine if Anthony Mason regularly delivered milk and bruises to your house.
So who's comically being thrown out of the all-star house by Uncle Phil?
Jamal Murray
PER - 17.80 (62nd in NBA)
WS - 4.65 (14th in NBA) e
RPM - 2.98 (32nd in NBA) g
PPG - 20.9 (30th in NBA) g
FG% - 47.3 - g
3P% - 39.0 - g
Brandon Ingram
PER - 20.70 (31st in NBA) g
WS - 3.38 (38th in NBA) g
RPM - 1.29 (83rd in NBA)
PPG - 23.7 (21st in NBA) e
FG% - 47.8 - g
3P% - 38.0 - g
These are tough eliminations, but they're necessary when you compare stats and impact with our other candidates. Brandon Ingram was competing against his own teammate (Zion Williamson) for an all-star nod, New Orleans mediocre record doesn't help a case for multiple all-stars from the team. 100% it comes down to a couple of elite categories Zion has over Brandon. Rebounding, Scoring, PER, and FG% are categories that Zion performs better in, yet Brandon has more Win Shares. This tells us that when Brandon Ingram starts cooking, New Orleans wins on a more regular basis. However, when you take consistency into consideration, Zion has good statistical games whether they lose or win. This is represented by his high PER, and obviously his 62% shooting from the field supplements that efficiency too.
I know this isn't an important point, but who would you rather see in an all-star game? Clearly the guy who has a better chance to do something crazy. That man would be the Dodge Grand Caravan with bounce, Lord Zion.
(This is not an insult, if you think it is, you've never driven a Dodge Grand Caravan. Mom's are never late for soccer practice because they can go 0-60 km/h in a fucking millisecond.)
Jamal is a bit of an easier case to solve. Both Jamal and Devin Booker play beside some very ball dominant all-stars, making it more difficult to see their true potential impact on a stat sheet. Devin has just performed a bit better in that role, with higher numbers in points, FG%, and PER. Jamal has the same diagnosis that Brandon Ingram has, being a higher Win Share number. We go back to our definition of consistency here, and since Phoenix has possibly been the best team in the league at certain moments, Devin has to get the nod.
The other half of the Phoenix Suns winning recipe is Chris Paul.
PER - 19.87 (37th in NBA) g
WS - 4.23 (25th in NBA) e
RPM - 3.10 (31st in NBA) g
PPG - 15.8 (60th in NBA)
APG - 8.8 (5th in NBA) e
FG% - 47.9 (50th in NBA) e
3P% - 39.0 - g
Let me put this in perspective, if you have the highest PER/WS/RPM on your winning team while playing meaningful minutes, you are a huge reason your team wins games.
Any "washed" comments directed at Chris Paul will have you detained by the casual police. You do not have the right to attorney, you unreasonable phony. Respect to the OG playmaker in year 16.
So who gets ousted now? I'd like to take this opportunity to betray my entire Country.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
PER - 22.32 (25th in NBA) e
WS - 2.31 (78th in NBA)
RPM - 0.24 (135th in NBA)
PPG - 23.7 (20th in NBA) e
APG - 6.2 (23rd in NBA) e
FG% - 50.9 (35th in NBA) e
3P% - 41.5 - e
Upon first glance, most of you would say SNUB as loud as you possibly can. However, we have all seen OKC not winning games have we not?
Shai unfortunately suffers from that "empty stat" syndrome that a couple of other candidates have. It's hard to put you over someone like Chris Paul, who's play is directly translating to a league leading team.
This especially sucks because Shai is close to the 50/40/90 zone we talked about earlier. All while averaging 23.7 points per game. He's having an incredible individual season, which calls into question how the NBA should be determining all-stars. Historically, they've always done what they did in this 2021 season, choose elite players that directly contribute to wins.
This is why you saw Roy Hibbert in an all-star game in 2012, Indiana was the 1st seed in the East. I mean, the world was supposed to end in 2012 so maybe we weren't supposed to see that game.
There's much more evidence of this taking place, like 4 Atlanta Hawks starters getting the all-star nod in 2015 (Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, Al Horford). The league values winners.
I'd never say that Chris Paul is comparable to Roy Hibbert, all I'm saying is that Chris Paul's case is so much stronger than you might have perceived. This absolutely means there's a similar fate for De'Aron Fox.
PER - 19.43 (43rd in NBA) g
WS - 4.50 (18th in NBA) e
RPM - 2.54 (43rd in NBA) g
PPG - 23.5 (24th in NBA) e
APG - 7.6 (12th in NBA) e
FG% - 46.9 - g
3P% - 33.8
If Sacramento wanted to win games, they would have to play De'Aron Fox 48 minutes a night. That's my opinion, but I'm willing to bet that Kings fans would agree with me. He's really the only thing that keeps that organization from being a complete nightmare. Sacramento and OKC were in similar enough positions heading into the all-star break, therefore we must drop De'Aron out from the race.
Ok, let's finally get to the considerable snub.
Demar Derozan
PER - 22.24 (22nd in NBA) e
WS - 4.30 (23rd in NBA) e
RPM - 4.10 (16th in NBA) e
PPG - 20.3 (34th in NBA) g
APG - 7.3 (13th in NBA) e
FG% - 49.0 (46th in NBA) e
Mike Conley
PER - 19.55 (42nd in NBA) g
WS - 4.52 (16th in NBA) e
RPM - 4.87 (8th in NBA) e
PPG - 16.4 (50th in NBA) g
APG - 5.6 (28th in NBA) g
FG% - 45.4
3P% - 42.6 - e
This is much more of a difficult choice than I thought it might be, Mike Conley has some serious evidence of positive impact in his minutes. The WS/RPM numbers are both much higher than I would have imagined, he's almost on par with Rudy Gobert in those departments. Mike is a key reason Utah is winning games, with much less touches and offensive pull than he has had in the past. He's clearly found himself in this Utah offensive system after struggling last year.
However, I can't help but thinking there were some better years to have him in the all-star game. Memphis was a tough and talented team for several seasons with his presence, along with the best version of Marc Gasol of course. I love Mike, and he deserves to have the all-star label after the years of consistent excellency.
But How.
Just How?
How do we all keep ignoring Demar Derozan?
ESPN despises this man because no media member has ever watched a Spurs game in their life.
San Antonio was hanging around the 4th/5th/6th seed in the West heading into the all-star break. Meaning that team is more than eligible to be gifted an all-star nod. Then we take a look at how much Demar means to San Antonio winning, my back hurts just looking at how much he's carrying.
People are hyper critical of Demar because of his mid-range or "less efficient" style of play. Which is why ESPN found it attractive to send him to the basement of their Top 100 Players Rankings.
In an attempt to prove himself, Demar decided to facilitate the Spurs entire offense. Middle fingers up.
I have mentioned earlier that PER/WS/RPM ratings that are all deemed "excellent" makes you pretty undeniable. His playmaking ability has evolved him into way more of a threat when attacking, it's allowed him to not rely on a 3 point shot he's not totally comfortable with. This creates the high efficiency numbers despite his off brand shot selection in accordance to the modern NBA game.
He's not technically a "point guard", but he's ahead of Conley in assists. He has him beat in every major statistical category.
We'll circle back to the point about winning games, and how much that matters. It matters when you're comparing numbers with a player who's team is out of the a playoff picture by a reasonable margin. When both teams are in a solid enough playoff picture, the line starts to blur.
Mike is a massive contributor to Utah's success, but since he and Demar are both in the "guard" slot for all-star voting, you ask yourself if Mike could do what Demar is doing for the Spurs currently. It's likely a lot closer than you think, but Demar has done everything you could ask an all-star player to do. He's leading his team into the playoffs with elite levels of efficiency and production, and is easily identifiable as San Antonio's best player.
When you take all of our evidence into consideration, Demar is just having a better year than Mike Conley.
Plain and Simple.
Mike still deserves your love and undivided attention, but let's get my boy Deebo out of the dog house please. Paid in Full.
You may have a couple of questions. So I'm answering them in advance!
Where is Kevin Durant?
Berating uneducated and senile old men on twitter.
Oh, also he has been injured far too long for me to include his stats with some relevance. If you're wondering if they're good or not, then maybe you need some help.
Some stats are missing?
I only included stats that would support the cases I was making. Some categories for certain players were so low they weren't worth mentioning.
Some players missed a lot of games?
Kyrie is the only one who should be in question, but he's putting guys on a rotisserie chicken skewer like it's family dinner night at Swiss Chalet. Anyone who's liable to break someone off like Kyrie is shall never be questioned.
Who's the MVP this season?
All of our favorite candidates have been injured post all-star break. So I'm leaning towards Nico Melli.
Commenti