New York Knicks J.R. Smith Thinks He Should Be An All-Star

New York Knicks high-flying swingman J.R. Smith has reeled off five straight 20-point performances, and his most recent big game came against the San Antonio Spurs two days ago. Smith put up 20 points on an efficient 9-17 night, and he also added five rebounds and three assists to help fill up the stat sheet and, more importantly, lead the Knicks to a blowout victory over the Spurs. He also had a sick alley-oop in which he started the acrobatic dunk with his face almost at a 180-degree angle from the basket.

Smith has averaged 16.6 points per game, over five rebounds per game, nearly three assists per game, and he has also chipped in 1.3 steals per game. According to the New York Post, the top bench-scorer believes that he is worthy of making the All-Star game despite not being a starting player.

From writer Marc Berman, “Unsolicited, Smith told The Post he believes he should be considered for an All-Star selection for the first time in his career.”

Smith has been much more efficient in the 2012-2013 season than he has in years past, and this has led to the best season of his career thus far. The 27-year-old seems to have the Sixth Man of the Year locked up, and he certainly has a strong case for an All-Star bid with the way he has played recently. His overall numbers are still a little bit below the All-Star cut-off, but Smith’s recent play should be more indicative of his All-Star legitimacy, so to speak.

Beyond that, J.R. Smith seems like the perfect addition to an All-Star squad. I mean, he is one of the most electrifying players in the game due to his incredible athleticism, dunking ability, and his penchant for hitting some tricky three-pointers (that’s a good trait for an All-Star game, but an awful one in actual games due to efficiency issues).

An interesting statistic that I found is that Smith is 14th in the league in turnover percentage (eight-lowest, I should say), as he has only turned the ball over 8.6% of the time this season. Teammate Steve Novak is the clear leader at 2.5% with nobody else coming within 3% of Novak.

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