NBA All-Star Game 2015: Who should be in this year’s game?
By Will Osgood
Western Conference Bench
More good news for All-Star bench hopefuls broke late Thursday, when the Portland Trail Blazers announced that forward LaMarcus Aldridge will miss six to eight weeks due to a torn ligament in his thumb.
That opens a spot, one which Aldridge earned, despite leading the league in field goal attempts per game with exactly 20. He was the sixth leading scorer who expanded his game this year to include the three-point shot, which while taking about one a game he hit at a 50 percent rate.
C Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies
The younger brother of Pau, Marc was a mere certainty to join his brother in Brooklyn for All-Star weekend. Surprisingly (at least to an extent) he too will be starting.
My view is simply that based on the numbers, Boogie Cousins is more deserving. That is taking nothing away from Marc, who is a fabulous player. He is the main reason that Memphis is currently holding off the Rockets for the top spot in the Southwest division.
He does a lot well, and is one of just three players in the top-20 in scoring who are shooting 50 percent or better from the field (amazingly Steph Curry is one of the three).
PG Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
If you’re not on Twitter you may not know about the “Point Gawd”(sometimes spelled god). Nobody better embodies that label, at least in my mind, than Lillard. The reality is that Lillard does not rank in the top-five of any of the major, or most important, statistical categories for point guards, or otherwise.
But he is the Point Gawd. He is the man. He just seems to make things happen. Sometimes stats must be thrown out. Imagine the Blazers without Lillard. In three short years in Portland he’s made that impossible.
That’s an All-Star.
SG Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors
How could Thompson be left out of the All-Star Game? He has stepped his game up to another level under first-year head coach Steve Kerr. He’s shooting a ridiculous 44.4 percent from three-point land while taking 6.8 of them per contest.
That’s a big reason he’s averaging nearly 22 points per game. He also collects 3.6 rebounds per game and dishes out north of three assists. And his +/- is second best to only fellow “Splash Brother” Curry.
PG Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
The nice thing about having Westbrook among this group is that he helps make up for the lack of quality depth at the big man positions. Though only 6’3″, Westbrook plays like he is 6’8″ most times. He also shoots like the traditional 6’8″ player, bricking and airballing his way to just 24 percent shooting on three-point attempts.
Yet in the 28 games he’s played in 2014-15 he’s still scored over 25 points per game. A key in that production is his affinity for taking the ball to the basket and picking up fouls on opposing players. Only former teammate James Harden and Boogie Cousins receive more charitable welfare than Russ.
Westbrook is seen as a player who (ahem) hogs the ball. It’s kind of true. Though he’s not currently eligible for the scoring title, he shoots more often than any of the players who are (per game). Somehow he still finds the time to drop 7.4 dimes per game and average over six boards.
PG Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
CP3 is not having his best season, but the fact that Kobe and Aldridge are out and Durant cannot in my mind be named a reserve–considering he’s played in less than half of his team’s game as of today–helps his cause in being named a 2015 reserve.
Paul is 30th in scoring, has not missed a start and is third in the league in assists with 9.6 per contest. Unlike previous seasons, he is not committing thievery every other possession but he is still a key cog in what the Clippers do.
They will ultimately go as far as he takes them.
C DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles Clippers
Blame the Aldridge injury for this selection. But also take a look at the leaderboards. Jordan leads the league in the following categories (as of Thursday, January 22): rebounds–13.4, and field goal percentage–72.1 (which puts him in line to possibly break the single season mark of 72.7 held by Wilt Chamberlain in the 1972-73 season).
At the same time he is second in the league in blocks with 2.4 per contest. He also unofficially leads the league in rim-rattling dunks. It’s exciting to see that Jordan has put it all together. It would be nice to see him earn an All-Star bid as a result.
SF Gordon Hayward, Utah Jazz
This final slot was especially tough. A few factors played in: 1) the Dallas Mavericks deserved a representative but the numbers permeating out of the facility were too socialistic. 2) San Antonio frankly did not deserve an All-Star bid (hey my man Kawhi, you’ll get it next year if you stay healthy).
So we had to look for the next best player, someone who filled the stat sheet and wasn’t a point guard. Gordon Hayward, all 79 or 80 inches of him stood out. He has the versatility to play on the wing or in the post, to some degree.
He’s the 22nd leading scorer at 19.0 points per game, while shooting 38 percent from deep and 82 percent from the charity stripe–which he gets to almost six times per game. He also collects 4.7 rebounds and dishes out 4.2 assists per contest.
His 18.2 PER was also far better than Monta Ellis, the other player considered for this slot. With all the criteria used, Hayward was the obvious choice over Ellis.