Feb 25, 2021
Snubs Schmubs (2/25/21)
So I made my All-Star reserves ballot for only the West team last weekend without realizing the full rosters would be announced just a couple of days after. My b. For what it’s worth, here was the rough East ballot I was pondering:
Iso, Iso!
Today let’s talk about the players who didn’t make the official team, the snubs. And yes this will be another one of Trist’s petty soapbox complaints, but I can’t let this go unaddressed for yet another year. People, you can only call a player a snub IF you’re willing to take another player off of the team. I don’t know why this is such a hard concept to grasp. There are only 12 slots per team, so you have to accept no more than that to be named true All-Stars. Admittedly it’s not exactly a science so a coin-toss debate here and there is acceptable, but I am bothered when I see TV segments or articles titled something like “Top 10 Snubs” without giving a corresponding 10 players to take off the current team. And if you think taking 10 players off the current team is ridiculous, that’s precisely my point.
I’ll only say this once: having a statistically amazing season alone doesn’t make you an All-Star. “He should be an All-Star because he’s a great player” is not a respectable argument, but I see its message implied all too often. I actually love seeing stats like this:
Or this:
I love it because it tells me 1) that the league is flush with talent if these players don’t make the cut, 2) that stats don’t tell the whole story, and 3) that being named to a team is still an honor (looking at you NFL Pro Bowl).
All of that being said, of course I still have beef with the official selections, and I have a couple snubs to point out that I find legitimate.
West — Mike Conley Jr.
Snubbed in favor of: Donovan Mitchell and then Devin Booker
I defended his case so heavily in my last post so you could imagine how disappointing his snub was for me. Here are the stats again:
“According to advanced tracking stats, lineups with him on the court per 100 possessions make the offense 4.4 points better while the defense allows a ridiculous 9.3 points LESS. FiveThirtyEight has him as the 3rd most valuable player in the entire league according to their RAPTOR rating, and his defensive contributions rank 6th (the next closest starting point guards are Patrick Beverly at 23rd then Jamal Murray at 62nd).”
Having only been 4 days since I wrote that, he’s now jumped to making the offense 5.5 points better, being the 2nd most valuable player according to RAPTOR, and the defensive gap between him and the next closest point guard has widened by 3 slots. I have no idea how the coaches could either ignore this or not be aware of this (in which case they’re not doing their jobs). Ben Simmons was (rightfully) selected on the East team with a similar case. Clearly they have an eye for advanced metrics and preference for team record or else someone like Trae Young would have taken his slot. For Conley Jr. to finally be objectively elite and still not make the cut is heartbreaking.
East — Jimmy Butler
Snubbed in favor of: Nikola Vučević
Jimmy Butler has missed about ⅓ of the Heat’s games this season, but I think it would be unfair to penalize a player for Covid protocol. Jimmy has played 20 games while Kevin Durant was named an All-Star starter with little debate having only played 19. The question then becomes whether his season has been All-Star worthy all things being equal, and my answer is undoubtedly yes.
The Heat were 3–9 without him and 9–5 since he rejoined the lineup which clawed them back into the playoff picture. He’s averaging about 20 | 8 | 8 on not so great shooting, but anyone who watches the games knows that those lines are illustrative of how he runs this team. This descriptor gets thrown around a lot, but he’s truly the best example of a player that morphs his game depending on what his team needs from him to get the W that night. To top it all off, the advanced stats are on his side. Basketball-Reference currently has him as the 3rd best player in the East according to Box Score Plus/Minus, and his RAPTOR rating is 2nd in the East to only Joel Embiid.
The easy part was deciding whether or not Jimmy is having a top 12 season in the East. The hard part was deciding whom he was snubbed for. I actually debated whether one of the Celtics’ stars should be replaced, but eventually decided that despite their recent drop in the standings, they’re both in the East’s top 12 seasons statistically and otherwise. So it came down to replacing either Nikola Vučević or Zach LaVine. Both are their respective teams’ offensive engines, and both are average defenders at best. Both put up nightly video game numbers so another push there. Nik’s RAPTOR rating is 93rd while Zach’s is a nice but still unspectacular 69th. Ultimately, I decided the tiebreaker should go to Zach for carrying his team to the East’s 6th seed while Nik has struggled getting the Magic past 10th.
There’s another argument to be made that even though Zach is preferable to Nik, he should still be sat in favor of Kris Middleton or Jrue Holiday and their contributions to a winning Bucks team. I personally would like to reward them especially given how top-heavy the East is, but I think it’s marginal enough that any debate would come down to pure preference. In that light, Zach’s selection gives us a story to smile about so I’ll give his case the benefit of the doubt:
Pick & Pop
9–9 finally climbed to .500 baybee
Pick: Philadelphia 76ers
Recent trends have the Mavs on the upswing with the Sixers struggling to maintain the East lead, but this game just comes down to a bad matchup. Luka is almost single handedly keeping this team afloat, but he has to go up against perhaps the best defender in the league this season in Ben Simmons. Joel Embiid vs Kristaps Porziņģis is more mismatch than match-up, especially when the Unicorn isn’t allowed to hide in a zone defense. The Mavs won their game last season, but that was without Embiid (let alone this year’s MVP edition) suiting up. If at the end of this game Luka hits back to back 3s once again, they’ll merely be to beat the spread.
Pop: Milwaukee Bucks
Picking the Bucks to pop in back to back weeks is bold to say the least, but I can make a pretty good case for it. First, the Pelicans won their other matchup last month despite all 3 Bucks stars playing well. Second, one of those stars, Jrue Holiday, isn’t at 100% coming off of the Covid protocol list (unsure if he tested positive or not) and guard play is what decided their first matchup. What could play in the Bucks’ favor are Jrue and Kris Middleton showing out for their percieved All-Star snubs, but Brandon Ingram could have a similar motivation along with Zion continuing to prove why he was a worthy selection.
Throwback Jams
In its day, AND1 always put on a better show than any NBA All-Star game. Here’s my personal favorite streetballer AO:
UPDATE: I’m going to take the next week or so to work out the details of the podcast I’m finally motivated to start, so expect anywhere between 0 to 1 posts in that timeframe. I started this column because I enjoy writing as a hobby so I don’t plan on stopping, but I might do something like cutting it to once a week until I figure out a regular blueprint. Any tips from pod vets or otherwise would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for sticking with me y’all!
