All-Star Starters Announced

I was 100% correct in my All-Star starter predictions....

Ok, nothing to be proud of.  But the starters were announced on TNT tonight.  Following the announcement,  endless debate ensued regarding who the reserves should be - just as expected . But the TNT crew, one of the most (if not THE most) entertaining TV crew in all of sports, had several points of contention among them.  Here were the main debates, with my take on them:

1.  Kevin Love - All-Star or not?

As mentioned earlier, I do not think Kevin Love should not be one of the reserves because of his team's success, or lack thereof.  Kenny Smith reiterated my thoughts on this - it's no disrespect to Kevin Love himself, but rather he is a victim of his team.  Charles Barkley and Chris Webber strongly disagreed, thinking that Kevin Love should make the team if Blake Griffin does (Griffin was unanimously picked among everyone in the TNT crew).  C-Webb said something that got me thinking:  "If Blake Griffin couldn't dunk, would you still think he should be an All-Star over Kevin Love?"  What he obviously meant by that notion is that while Griffin and Love have been equally impressive, people only give Griffin the nod because of his frequent highlight reel-making plays (and perhaps the bigger LA market).  

That's a good point by C-Webb.  Kevin Love has had a double-double in EVERY game since Nov. 19th.  Pretty absurd.  Off the top of my head, it's been slightly longer than since Blake Griffin has not recorded one.

Unfortunately for Love, what throws a wrench in his argument is the team success variable.  As Kenny said, Minnesota has won just two more games than Cleveland.  Griffin and the Clippers started very slow, and do not appear to be a playoff team.  Nonetheless, they are still +7 games ahead of Minnesota in the West and started 1-13.  After getting his first few NBA games under his belt, Griffin has been an absolute beast and has given the Clippers the one thing they have rarely had in the history of their franchise:  hope.  That cannot be measured in stats.  You can argue that the Clippers have more talent than Minnesota (which is true), but the All-Star game is also a fan's game.  The coaches are going to vote Griffin in over Love no matter what.  Even with the Yao injury, I don't think Love will get in because of all the other reserve candidates on winning teams that may not get initially voted in (Parker, Nash, etc.).  

2.  Bosh/Duncan - Lifetime Achievement or Deserving All-Stars?

The TNT crew had varying opinions on whether these two guys deserve to get in.  Barkley feels as though some players on great teams get awarded "lifetime achievement" votes, where players are voted in based on reputation instead of their performance through the first half of an NBA season.  This is probably true to an extent, but not in the case of these two guys.  Not if you value team success.

Miami would not be as good without Chris Bosh, and I think people have finally acknowledged that while he's been out with an ankle injury.  Though not a prolific low-post scorer, he is an absolute nightmare to guard for opposing 4s and 5s.  Too quick against bigs, and too tall and too good of a shooter against shorter bigs. His quickness also makes him a terrific pick-and-roll defender; he deserves much credit for Miami's suffocating D. I honestly think that if you turned back the clock and Bosh and Amare traded places this past offseason, the Knicks would be just as good (if not better) with Bosh and Miami would not be nearly as good with Amare.  This is mostly because I think Amare would not be putting nearly the same effort when the ball's not in his hands as often.  Even as the 2nd fiddle behind Steve Nash in Phoenix, he was a god awful defender.  Remember him getting absolutely lit up by Pau Gasol in last year's Western Conference semis?  I still wouldn't trust him to anchor any team's defense.

As for Tim Duncan, how can you leave him off the All-Star team?  Do the Spurs go 39-7 at this point in the season without him?  I didn't think so.  If you put him in the Timberwolves, he may not be getting multiple 20-20 games like Kevin Love is.  But he damn well would win them a lot more than 10 games to this point.  

3.  Changing the voting process

Ok, so maybe this wasn't even an argument.  But Yao being a shoe-in every single year is getting old.  Last year, it was Allen Iverson that was controversially voted in.  Tracy McGrady was very close to being voted in over Steve Nash, also.  Yi Jianlian was almost voted in a couple years ago when he was on the ballot.  I think every year, at least a handful of players either get selected or receive several more votes than other more deserving players.  

Are you kidding me?  How has this not been addressed yet?  I know the All-Star game is a fan's game, but things have changed since voting has become available electronically worldwide.  It's way too easy for certain countries with the highest population to vote for certain players who don't deserve to be voted in. Hell, if I were on the ballot, India would probably help me get more total votes than 90% of the players.  The sad part is, that's probably not much of an exaggeration.

Ray Allen suggested giving fans a partial vote, similar to the way it's done for the regular season MVP ballot.  I'm not sure what the best way to do it is, but David Stern and his board has to come up with something better than the way it is now.