3 All-Stars This Season?

[PhoSita]

I've gone through and figured out what I think the All-Star rosters should be.


I think the Celts should have 3 All-Stars.  Kemba, Tatum, and Brown are deserving.


But I would not have Ben Simmons as an All-Star.  Nor would I have Tobias Harris, Trae Young, or Malcolm Brogdon.

Trae Young's latest injury might take him out of it. I really hope so, if he makes it over Jaylen or Jayson I will be furious.

I don't mind Harris/Brogodon as they're contributing on winning teams. Hell even Simmons!

Young is my current pet peeve. He's so terrible at defense and doesn't even try that he gives back more than he scores/creates, but he is being talked up as an all-star because people think he CAN become Steph/IT4...He's not there year offensively even....

AND he's yelling at his GM/FO to get more help. He's not even a net positive player yet in his second year and he's demanding help  .

My thing with Simmons is that I think the best version of his team doesn't have him on the floor.  That's pretty bad for an All-Star case.

If you take away the rebounds, Simmons's stat line looks like a solid-not-great passing point guard who can't shoot.  So why should he be an All-Star?  Jaylen Brown has been better this year.  So have Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Lowry.


Brogdon has had a good year but he's fallen off a bit from his 20-10 start.  If there's an All-Star on Indiana I think it's Domantas Sabonis.



I agree with you about Trae --- his numbers are empty to me.  I feel the same about Brandon Ingram.

[Fafnir]

I agree with you about Trae --- his numbers are empty to me.  I feel the same about Brandon Ingram.

I'm not sure on Ingram, he's been on okay defensive teams his last two years with the Lakers. I think he's probably a negative on the defensive end but if he's only somewhat negative then his offensive explosion is more meaningful.

Of course it might be that he can defend at SF but not at PF which means his offensive explosion comes with the defensive decline....Not sure.

[Who]

I've gone through and figured out what I think the All-Star rosters should be.


I think the Celts should have 3 All-Stars.  Kemba, Tatum, and Brown are deserving.


But I would not have Ben Simmons as an All-Star.  Nor would I have Tobias Harris, Trae Young, or Malcolm Brogdon.

Trae Young's latest injury might take him out of it. I really hope so, if he makes it over Jaylen or Jayson I will be furious.

I don't mind Harris/Brogodon as they're contributing on winning teams. Hell even Simmons!

Young is my current pet peeve. He's so terrible at defense and doesn't even try that he gives back more than he scores/creates, but he is being talked up as an all-star because people think he CAN become Steph/IT4...He's not there year offensively even....

AND he's yelling at his GM/FO to get more help. He's not even a net positive player yet in his second year and he's demanding help  .

Trae Young gives up a lot on defense but I believe he creates even more on offense than he costs you on D. His combination of efficient scoring (28.5ppg on 58.6% TS%) and playmaking (8.3apg) adds a to his team. He is their offense. Everything revolves around him. Nobody can get decent shots when he isn't there to spoon feed them. All too limited offensively. Their whole offense falls apart when he isn't on the floor.

I believe Trae is at an All-Star level or borderline All-Star level due to the strength of his offense despite how bad his defense is. If it was just scoring vs bad defense ... but having that passing ability & playmaking in addition to scoring gives him an edge over scoring/bad D PGs in my book. Gives him good positive value despite his terrible D.

I don't see Trae or John Collins as the reason for the team's bad record. It is all the people around them (oh, except Hueter, I like him too). They are truly terrible. Not only are they not helping the team but they are actively making the team worse. That should comfortably be a 30 win type team if they had any type of serviceable supporting cast around Trae and Collins at all.

That said, I don't mind if people discount him as an All-Star candidate because his team's record is so bad. It is truly horrific. Hard to put a guy in an ASG when his team is 6 wins and 27 losses. I am happy enough to see someone like Brogdon from a winning team get the spot instead of Trae for this reason.

Basically, I am happy either way. Individual play is good enough for the nod. Terrible team record is bad enough to stop him getting the nod.

[Who]

I agree with you about Trae --- his numbers are empty to me.  I feel the same about Brandon Ingram.

I'm not sure on Ingram, he's been on okay defensive teams his last two years with the Lakers. I think he's probably a negative on the defensive end but if he's only somewhat negative then his offensive explosion is more meaningful.

Of course it might be that he can defend at SF but not at PF which means his offensive explosion comes with the defensive decline....Not sure.

Ingram I am more skeptical of than Trae.

Playing him as a PF alongside three small-ish guards (Jrue, Reddick as wings) makes NOP super-small on the perimeter and horrendous on defense. It also gives them a surplus of ball-handling, passing and shooting to amp up each other's offensive numbers and I believe Ingram is benefiting both from that and also from playing PF (where Ingram is lousy defensively and subpar as a rebounder).

If Ingram was playing SF (where he is competent defensively and serviceable as a rebounder), I am not convinced his offensive numbers would be as good.

If Ingram stayed at PF but alongside a competent perimeter defense he would likely have less capable offensive threats alongside him, and again I think his numbers would drop.

I believe there is a lot of emptiness in his stat-lines.

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Trae Young = if he was on a decent team, his scoring would likely be lower. More of a 22-24ppg threat. But his passing and playmaking would be still be terrific. His scoring efficiency would still be strong. Having that combination of scoring, efficiency and playmaking is a valuable package.

So scoring totals inflated some but I believe he'd still be a very good scorer with efficiency and quality playmaking in different circumstances.

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I regard Ingram as a young guy still experimenting and finding his game. Playing him at PF in an all-out offensive lineup has allowed him easier opportunities and he is taking advantage of them. It is a good learning experience for him but I do not consider it indicative of how he would do on a quality team where he would have to share the ball more and be in more balanced lineups that are not solely built to inflate people's stat-lines.

[Who]

I don't think Ben Simmons deserves to be an All-Star but I'd be happy to see him there because he is a fun player who is great in the open court running fastbreaks which is all the ASG is now.

Embiid is the only player who deserves to be there from Philly. The other four guys are all pretty close to each other. I'd have Horford and Josh Richardson as 2nd and 3rd best in some order (J.Rich more consistent, Horford more dynamic). Then Harris 4th and Ben Simmons 5th in some order (scoring vs defense).

[Donoghus]

I just really want to see Jaylen make it.  He's really stepped up his game this season.

[Mike Pemulis]

2 would be perfectly cromulent, but I believe it should be 3. Are there gambling odds on this?

[PhoSita]

My thing with Ingram is that if I'm going to reward a player putting up numbers on a bad team, I'd reward Booker (whose team has at least been somewhat competitive at times) or Towns (more impressive #s overall) before I'd give a spot to Ingram.

I think I'd probably go for Chris Paul over Ingram or Booker, though, because he's been the key player on a team that is in the playoff picture.

[Fierce1]

I just really want to see Jaylen make it.  He's really stepped up his game this season.

I agree.

Jaylen is deserving of an All-Star selection this season.

[Rondo9]

I mean we all know that Trae is not a good defender but come on he's hardly the reason why the Hawks so awful. With Cam and Deandre not being good to start the season and John Collins suspension, there's not much shot creation. Even with that Trae continues to be good and yeah he DEFINITELY needs more help.

[Fafnir]

I mean we all know that Trae is not a good defender but come on he's hardly the reason why the Hawks so awful. With Cam and Deandre not being good to start the season and John Collins suspension, there's not much shot creation. Even with that Trae continues to be good and yeah he DEFINITELY needs more help.

My view is when your best player doesn't even try on defense, its pretty hard to get the rest of the roster to buy in. Even more so on a young team.

I definitely see the talent and potential, I just don't think its real yet. But then again I felt very much the same about Devin Booker, just how I look at it.

[Fafnir]

My thing with Ingram is that if I'm going to reward a player putting up numbers on a bad team, I'd reward Booker (whose team has at least been somewhat competitive at times) or Towns (more impressive #s overall) before I'd give a spot to Ingram.

I think I'd probably go for Chris Paul over Ingram or Booker, though, because he's been the key player on a team that is in the playoff picture.

I don't think Booker or Ingram should be in. Towns had the best case of the lot but he's edging on missing too much time right now.

Chris Paul is a really good name to bring up, he's been superb in OKC.

[keevsnick]

Be sure to vote today. Its a 2 for 1 day, meaning every vote cast actually counts for two votes. That means if you vote both on NBA.com and google you can actually cast the equivalent of 4 votes.

[esel1000]

Don’t look now but Tacko is 6th in the Eastern Conference Frontcourt early return voting.

[bdm860]

Don’t look now but Tacko is 6th in the Eastern Conference Frontcourt early return voting.

Just about to post this:

https://twitter.com/BlakeMurphyODC/status/1212811275991965697