Saturday, February 02, 2008

All Star Snubs

The All Star reserves were announced yesterday and there were some very notable players left off the list. First of all, let’s look at those players named as reserves who probably didn’t deserve it:

West – Brandon Roy, David West (I think his surname helped, and the hornets record)
East – Richard Hamilton, Joe Johnson

Major Snubs
Baron Davis – 22.3 pts, 8.1 asst, 4.8 reb, 2.4 stl, 42% FG…the clear leader of his team, putting up very fat numbers, deserves a guard spot over Roy (but of course, Roy is now a favorite media darling…).
Chris Kaman – 17 pts, 14 reb, 3 blk, 48% FG…Night in and night out, their only low post presence, dominating on the glass – 2nd in the league rebounding - and flyswatting – 3rd in blocks. I don’t care what the Clippers’ record is, he deserves to be there.
Al Jefferson – 21 pts, 12 reb, 1.4 blk, 1 stl, 49.6% FG…Again, I don’t care what the T-Wolves’ record is, Al Jeff has been a dominating inside force, and is now one of the 5 or 6 best low post players in the league.
Gerald Wallace – 21.4 pts, 6.2 reb, 3.7 asst, 2.2 stl, 1 blk, 45.7% FG…the heart & soul of the Bobcats, putting up great all-around numbers again, he has to make it over Rip Hamilton.
Josh Howard – 20.8 pts, 7.5 reb, 48% FG…The athletic wing complements Dirk very well for the Mavs, averaging only 1.5 pts less than Dirk.
Deron Williams – 19 pts, 9.5 asst, 51.5% FG…A top 5 PG in the league, shoots a great percentage and runs the show supremely for the Jazz, again, should be in there over West and/or Roy.

Minor Snubs
Josh Smith – 18.0 pts, 8.1 reb, 3.6 asst, 3.2 blk, 2.0 stl…yes, he’s inconsistent, but just look at those all-around numbers. I watched him live Wed night vs. the Clippers and he’s one of the best outlet/length-of-the-floor passers in the league, and is a great, very underrated passer overall, in addition to his obvious overall athleticism, and supreme shot-blocking skills (great timing on blocks).
Hedo Turkoglu – 19.4 pts, 6.1 reb, 4.3 asst, 1.1 stl…Is having a career year and outplaying the heralded free-agent Rashard lewis in Orlando. Very good all-around player, very good handle for his size.
Rudy Gay – 19.8 pts, 6.1 reb, 1.5 stl, 1.8 3’s, 47% FG…has emerged as a top flight scorer in the league with a very smooth stroke, his long arms, athleticism, and skills give him unlimited upside. Will be an all-star for many years in the near future.
Manu Ginobili – 19.5 pts, 4.8 reb, 4.2 asst, 1.7 stl, 2.1 3’s…Gives an aging spurs backcourt much-needed energy along with Tony Parker. Is very willing to carry the load offensively and playmaking-wise when the team needs it.
Jose Calderon –13.7 pts, 9.4 asst, 1.2 stl, 53.5% FG, only 1.76 t/o (stats for Dec & Jan, when he started getting big minutes consistently)…the most efficient PG in the league, runs an offense beautifully, and is barely known in the United States – that will change soon.

To fix the problem of way too many good players being left off the team, I propose the rosters be expanded to 15 players, the same as the full league rosters (3 guys are always inactive for games). Way less snubs, and most of the deserving players would be represented. Here’s how this year’s reserves would look: WEST - Add B. Davis, Al-Jeff, Kaman, Deron Williams – take West off the team. EAST – Add G-Wall, Josh Smith, Jose Calderon.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, I was at the Atlanta - LA Clip game Wed, and have a few observations from the night:

- Atl is suffering greatly from its draft mishaps of 2005 (M. Williams over C Paul), 2006 (Sheldon Williams #5 overall, can’t even get in the game), and it looks like 2007 as well (Horford is great at #3, but Acie Law at #11 looks awful at PG, reminds me of Randolph Childress, the old Wake Forest PG from the mid 90’s). I like Marvin, but he’s totally superfluous on that team with the Josh’s (Smith & Childress) and Horford and Joe Johnson. The team just has very poor chemistry, and very poor PG play – Anthony Johnson, Ty Lue, & Law got all the PG minutes.

- Atlanta isn’t much of a draw (of course, neither are the Clips). The lines at concession stands were very short to non-existent, & the overall contrast with a Laker game is so striking that you’re surprised you’re even in the same city.

- Met Steve Smith, the old Hawk/Blazer/Spur who now does color commentary for the Hawks. Was a very nice, polite guy; I reminded him of the NCAA tourney in 1990 when he led his Mich St team to a 2nd round win over my UCSB Gauchos (yes, we actually made the tournament twice in my 4 years there).