First Returns of All-Star Voting, Thomas in 4th for Guards in East

[jpotter33]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

[max215]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

More defensible than Rose and Wade IMO.

[fairweatherfan]

IT almost certainly A. Won't start and B. Will make it as a reserve again. Not a big deal.

Glad the league's taken steps to avoid ballot-stuffing candidates like Pachulia and Lin making it in. Does anyone know how the "fans get 1/2 the vote" works mathematically? They're not going to give the players and media hundreds of thousands of votes, so do they just take the percentages of each kind of vote and average them? Or something else.

I found this on twitter:

Thanks man, TP. Kinda crappy that it's just average rank and ignores margin but probably easier than trying to equalize vote totals. 

Makes it almost impossible for an unqualified guy to get in on fan vote alone - Zaza would be like 2+2 (fan) + 30 + 30 = 64/4 = 16 or something. If he even got to #30 in media/player votes.

[celticsclay]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

I kind of feel like you are just hating on the 76ers here. Embiid is averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. What center can even compare to that? Who should make it over him? Drummond is having a down year and has worse numbers (with the pistons being very average). Whiteside has similar numbers but his team is barely better than the 76ers.

[TheTruthFot18]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

I kind of feel like you are just hating on the 76ers here. Embiid is averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. What center can even compare to that? Who should make it over him? Drummond is having a down year and has worse numbers (with the pistons being very average). Whiteside has similar numbers but his team is barely better than the 76ers.

Hartford is averaging 15.5/6.5 and 2.0 blocks while also averaging 5 assists. And he is doing it as a second or even third option on the 6th best team in the league. The hate on Embiid is fine.

[TheTruthFot18]

PS Avery Bradley is behind Derrick Rose and Jeremy Lin. 

[Redz]

IT almost certainly A. Won't start and B. Will make it as a reserve again. Not a big deal.

Glad the league's taken steps to avoid ballot-stuffing candidates like Pachulia and Lin making it in. Does anyone know how the "fans get 1/2 the vote" works mathematically? They're not going to give the players and media hundreds of thousands of votes, so do they just take the percentages of each kind of vote and average them? Or something else.

I found this on twitter:

Thanks man, TP. Kinda crappy that it's just average rank and ignores margin but probably easier than trying to equalize vote totals. 

Makes it almost impossible for an unqualified guy to get in on fan vote alone - Zaza would be like 2+2 (fan) + 30 + 30 = 64/4 = 16 or something. If he even got to #30 in media/player votes.

It's like a mini electoral college.  Hope the "green" state gets its guys. 

[Somebody]

Well tbh iirc Lin had some decent stats, he is a pretty good player and should be around 10th or 11th in votes, but with Brooklyn fans combined with the diehard chinese fanbase I'm not surprised that he's ahead of Bradley although Bradley is a better player

[Ilikesports17]

Well tbh iirc Lin had some decent stats, he is a pretty good player and should be around 10th or 11th in votes, but with Brooklyn fans combined with the diehard chinese fanbase I'm not surprised that he's ahead of Bradley although Bradley is a better player

14 and 6 in 12 games on the worst team in the entire NBA?

that guy should be 10th in votes???

[LarBrd33]

Thomas finishing behind D Wade this season would be criminal. Unfortunately, we're going up against a well-known recent champion that casuals are very aware of (Kyrie), a hall of famer that casuals are very aware of (D-Wade) and a star player getting votes from the entire country of Canada (DeRozan). It makes sense why IT is 4th behind those guys. But let's make sure we vote often and show our support. Luckily fans only count towards 50% of the vote this year. 25% will be player vote. 25% will be media. Let's hope media and the players give IT the props he deserves this season.

[tazzmaniac]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

Actually Embiid is doing great on offense and defense while playing with teammates who are mediocre (or worse) while also dealing with the Sixers big man experimentation.  If you exclude the time spent sharing the court with Okafor, the Sixers have a slightly positive +/- when Embiid is on the court while their overall +/- is -7.2.   

Here's a chart showing Embiid at the top of the heap with blocks versus fg% defended at the rim (per 36).
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aBHMdZqUegcXc6RAFXLbkhDo9f0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7714867/embiid_defense.jpg

Here's a story on how Embiid is leading the league in fouls drawn (per 36).   
http://www.phillyvoice.com/joel-embiid-sixers-foul-drawing-machine-part-because-rip-through-move/

[greece66]

I am voting Zaza from now on.

makes two of us

ძალა ერთობაშია

[saltlover]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

Actually Embiid is doing great on offense and defense while playing with teammates who are mediocre (or worse) while also dealing with the Sixers big man experimentation.  If you exclude the time spent sharing the court with Okafor, the Sixers have a slightly positive +/- when Embiid is on the court while their overall +/- is -7.2.   

Here's a chart showing Embiid at the top of the heap with blocks versus fg% defended at the rim (per 36).
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aBHMdZqUegcXc6RAFXLbkhDo9f0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7714867/embiid_defense.jpg

Here's a story on how Embiid is leading the league in fouls drawn (per 36).   
http://www.phillyvoice.com/joel-embiid-sixers-foul-drawing-machine-part-because-rip-through-move/

Also, if Embiid starts this year and next, he's eligible for the designated rookie maximum of 30%, which steals some future Philly cap room.  Vote for the process!

[jpotter33]

Embiid better not get in either, no matter how many delusional 76ers fans vote for him. He's already missed 10 games and is on the second worst team in the league, let alone being a rookie.

At least he's been really good, is fun to watch, and an awesome personality.

I just can't justify a rookie who is playing good, but not great or exceptional, ball on the second worst team in the league being an All-Star. No way.

I kind of feel like you are just hating on the 76ers here. Embiid is averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. What center can even compare to that? Who should make it over him? Drummond is having a down year and has worse numbers (with the pistons being very average). Whiteside has similar numbers but his team is barely better than the 76ers.

There are plenty of bigs/forwards that could and should make it over him (remember, there's no specific center position anymore, so he competes with SFs) - Love, James, Horford, Giannis, Porzingis, Carmelo, George, Butler.

Demarcus Cousins was denied an All-Star Game on better Kings teams with better stats almost across the board. In 2013-2014, he put up 22.7, 11.7, 2.9 asts, 1.5 stls, and 1.3 blks on a 28 win team. The 76ers are currently slated to win 22 games all season, and Embiid has missed 10 games so far, let alone being on a minutes restriction for the entire season and let alone being a rookie.

So I think he clearly doesn't deserve to be an All-Star. That's just how it is in the NBA, especially when he's on the 2nd worst team in the league and has missed significant time.

He'll have plenty of All-Star Games throughout his career. I think it's fine that he doesn't deserve to be one this year. Even Lebron wasn't an All-Star in his rookie year, with pretty impressive rookie stats, and I believe they won like 35 games that year.

[Somebody]

Well tbh iirc Lin had some decent stats, he is a pretty good player and should be around 10th or 11th in votes, but with Brooklyn fans combined with the diehard chinese fanbase I'm not surprised that he's ahead of Bradley although Bradley is a better player

14 and 6 in 12 games on the worst team in the entire NBA?

that guy should be 10th in votes???

He was injured and if you extrapolate his stats to per 36 they're pretty good. Also he was the main reason why brooklyn was.500 in the first 8 games and gave us a scare