All-Star team rosters revealed; Lebron picks Kyrie

[fairweatherfan]

Steph's team:

Not wild about DeRozan and Giannis together in the starting lineup. I haven't liked DeRozan in the ASG in the past. He is very selfish and not efficient enough to justify it. Takes shots away from better players. Harms ball movement. Settles for bad shots. Dodgy jump-shooter. And Giannis is a non-shooter. So I don't like the two of them together. I think Steph would've been better off with a shooter at SF next to Giannis rather than DeRozan's slashing game.

His bench has a lot of guys who are not great All-Star type players. Horford, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler. Slower players who do great in a halfcourt game which the ASG is not. It is more of an open court game. I don't think these guys do their best work there. So I don't his selections on the bench.

I don't like the Lowry selection either. Steph has Klay and Lillard off the bench with himself and Harden in the starting lineup. Lots of shooting and ball-handling. Lowry is unnecessary. They should glue his butt to the bench.

I think Lillard will do great in the ASG. I like Klay and Towns too. Lillard I think is a sleeper for MVP. I can see him having a huge game off the bench.

Giannis will be dynamite. Another top MVP candidate. He will be a breakaway train in the open court. Dunking left and right. Grabbing rebounds / loose balls. Handling the ball in transition. A nightmare for LeBron's team.

Steph and Harden are awesome. Embiid will be interesting. He is turnover prone and can settle for bad shots. On the other hand, he is incredibly talented and athletic. He is still inconsistent. He could go either way.

1) What other choice does he have? The wings are Lebron, Durant, DeRozan, Giannis. Lebron is on the other team and most likely first picked Durant.

2) If somehow this ASG ends up being more serious than the previous ones, I could see those 3 being a huge part of it, due to their defense.


Lebron's team has more starpower and size, but Steph's team has lots of shooting (Curry, Klay, harden, Al, Towns), playmaking and defense. I don't think its easy to say who is going to win.

I didn't realize they had to stick to the starters / reserves divide when picking teams.

That is a bummer. That is largely responsible for these mismatched units.

They could have done a much better job if they had of allowed the players to choose from whole ASG group (22 players) instead of limiting choices to 8 guys chosen by fans. Bad decision by NBA.

I see where you're coming from but the league wanted the starters to start - otherwise what's the point of naming starters?

It's not all fan-driven now either - players and media now get substantial contributions.

[mmmmm]

What's the chance horford was picked last?

I mean there are a lot of great players, but I think NBA players (especially smart ones) and coaches appreciate what Al can do.  It's mostly just fans and some media players who do not.

agreed. Fans who focus on box scores for sure

Especially a guard or ball handler choosing who to play with.  Just from even my level of play, can't speak to how valuable a good screener is (or a ball handler when you are a screener), who knows what to do and shares the ball, and is a threat to score at different areas.  You want to play with a guy like that.

I mean, it is the All Star game and other guys out there are pretty great at that too.  None are perhaps as versatile and he is the best passing big man in the league IMO.

Al's most impactful talents this season have been on the other end of the court, though, and probably not something that will get displayed in the AS game.

Al is second in the NBA in defended shots per game at 16.3 DFGA/gm (behind only Cousins' 16.8 /gm).  And he's tied for 3rd in defensive FG% differential at -6.1%  (minimum, 8 DFGA per game, minimum 20 games) behind only Embiid (-7.8%) and our own Jaylen Brown (-7.0%).

In other words, Al is defending shots both extremely well and at very high volume.  (Jaylen is doing an amazing job of shot contention as well, but on a lower volume of 9.6 DFGA/gm).

Al is easily the number one reason the Celtics have the top defense in the league this season and it will be a crime if he doesn't get recognized at the end of the year with All-Defensive and DPOY consideration..

EDIT:  Fixed the messed-up quote boundaries.

[mgent]

Okay so I'm guessing it went:

1. Durant
2. Harden
3. Davis
4. Freek
5. Cousins
6. Embiid
7. Kyrie
8. Derozan

--------------

1. Klay
2. Westbrook
3. Dray
4. Love
5. Towns
6. Zinger
7. Lillard
8. Beal
9. Butler
10. Wall
11. Lowry
12. Oladipo
13. Horford
14. LMA

[Redz]

It'll be interesting to see if this will have any bearing whatsoever on the style of play and or competitive spirit.

[Redz]

So does Lebron end up with Chris Paul or Lou Williams after Cousins' injury?

He's probably wondering why bad things always happen to good people.

[mgent]

It'll be interesting to see if this will have any bearing whatsoever on the style of play and or competitive spirit.

I can't imagine it would, right?

If I was a player I'd actually have more pride and interest in representing/playing for my conference than I would playing for a team owner like LeBron.  Representing your location is what sports are all about.  And players already play for a team owner, one who gives them multi-million dollar checks.  What have these arbitrary leaders done/gonna do for them?  Just can't see a lot of motivation for them to risk injury/their future for the sake of Team LeBron/Steph.

Why not pay the winner like Nascar does?  I'm sure they already make more than enough off the ASG, and it seems like a worthwhile investment, especially considering there's a huge market of people not interested in the ASG.

[Erik]

What's the chance horford was picked last?  Lebron locked in size early with cousins and Davis and curry spent time in reserves drafting his teammates and probably towns. Then lebron probably got K love for loyalty early in reserves

Probably fairly high because he's not a big mouth with a ton of stats. But I think he has a perfect skillset for an allstar game with his great passing ability and hustle. Least valuable players are players like Harden who  will just jack up contested 3s and ignore the fact that there are 4 other amazing players on their team. I would last pick Harden on starters and probably Oladipo on the reserves.

There is absolutely no way you can justify DeRozan being better than Harden.

Least valuable players are players like Harden who  will just jack up contested 3s and ignore the fact that there are 4 other amazing players on their team. I would last pick Harden on starters and probably Oladipo on the reserves.

The man 3rd in the NBA in assists doesn't pass?  Huh.

https://stats.nba.com/leaders/?StatCategory=AST

2017 Allstar game 100% of shots were 3s.
2016 Allstar game 85.7% of shots were 3s.
2015 Allstar game 75% of shots were 3s.
2014 Allstar game 85.7% of shots were 3s.
2013 Allstar game 61.5% of shots were 3s.

In an allstar game there will be no pick and roll where he gets doubled and gets a free pass. He will be jacking 3s and passing to only wide open players. It's not a good recipe to win a game when you can generally get a wide open dunk if you make a couple passes.

Harden is a career 48.9% 3PT shooter in the All-Star game with a .737 eFG%. That’s certainly conducive to winning.

I should have been drafting 

[Surferdad]

It'll be interesting to see if this will have any bearing whatsoever on the style of play and or competitive spirit.

I can't imagine it would, right?

If I was a player I'd actually have more pride and interest in representing/playing for my conference than I would playing for a team owner like LeBron.  Representing your location is what sports are all about.  And players already play for a team owner, one who gives them multi-million dollar checks.  What have these arbitrary leaders done/gonna do for them?  Just can't see a lot of motivation for them to risk injury/their future for the sake of Team LeBron/Steph.

Why not pay the winner like Nascar does?  I'm sure they already make more than enough off the ASG, and it seems like a worthwhile investment, especially considering there's a huge market of people not interested in the ASG.

It was for the sake of the chosen charities, not LeBron/Steph.  I would hope the players care more about that than their conference.  Oh yes, and they do get paid, and a lot more if they win.