I dont think the Warriors deserve 4 all stars, probably would have taken lillard over Klay. Or Jokic over Green. Interesting that Love has not made an all star team in quite a few years now.
Love made the reserves. Jokic definitely should have made the team. He is having a great year.
My mistake on Love. I must have glossed over his name. To be honest I probably would have taken Embiid over him, but I know I will probably get blasted for saying that here.
Love is averaging 20.5 p, 11 r, 1.9 a and shooting 37.6% from three in around 32 mpg over 39 games as his teams third option. Embiid is averaging 19.8 p, 7.8 r, 2.1 a, 2.5 b and shooting 34.8 from three in around 25 minutes over 30 games as his teams first option. Love is having the better statistical season. Now sure per minute Embiid is better, but all star games are always about totals, and Embiid just doesn't play enough to make it over a guy like Love. Embiid is obviously talented, but his minutes and games restriction kept him out of the all star game.
Moranis your Cleveland bias is reeking pretty bad on this one. Not sure how you can compare Love to Embiid and not mention their respective differences on defense with a straight face (seriously). One is playing basically all-defensive team defense (as a rookie no less) and one is a thoroughly mediocre defender. Also not sure how you act like Kevin Love shooting wide open 3's playing off Kyrie or Lebron is more challenging than Embiid dominating offensively playing alongside TJ Mcconnel, Robert Covington, Illasova, and Gerald Henderson).
The all star game has always been about numbers. When you have a guy that barely plays half the game and sits out a fourth of the season vs. a regular basically full time starter who has better numbers, it is pretty obvious who will make the all star game.
I'm with Moranis on this one, both with Embiid not playing enough to justify a selection and with offensive numbers being the primary indicators here for the All-Star Game. How else do you explain IT being the top Eastern reserve when many consider him the worst defender in the NBA?
I also think Shaq has a point about Embiid being able to play with more energy with him only playing a little over half of the game's minutes and having so many rest games. His efficiency would drop even further if he was actually playing full time.
First who considers him the worst defender in the NBA? Someone like Korver that doesn't have the foot speed to guard a chair is way worse than IT's limitations because of his height.
I would say he is below average but worst is ridiculous and unnecessarily insulting to IT for no reason.
I think most people take Shaq's comments as sour grapes that someone is coming in and being the most dominant big man rookie since Shaq. I believe he has done this with other centers outside of Cousins who he has a real legit financial interest in doing well.
I feel the NBA is not always consistent with what their minutes/games played requirements are. However, Moranis was trying to argue Love has been better than Embiid in the time they have played and that is just not true. I also still find it comical that Moranis tried to compare their numbers but did not mention their defense at all, which is a huge difference. It is similar to saying Marco Bellenelli and Marcus Smart have equal value cause they both average 10 points.
Related to defense not mattering in selection for the all star game you guys are just flat out wrong on that.
How do you explain Ben Wallace being a 4 time all star with his 5ppg scoring average?
How do you explain Dikembe Mutombo making it 8 times in seasons he never averaged more than 12 pts a game?
Dennis Rodman was a 2x all star in seasons he averaged 9 and 10 points.
Embiid is playing really elite defense along with impressive offense. If he had played the same amount of games as Love there is no way that Love makes it over him
