Nobody asked me, but here's how I'd fill out my All-Star reserve ballot for the Eastern Conference. The starting lineup, which is determined by fan vote, was announced Thursday. Here it is:
- Jason Kidd (New Jersey)
- Dwyane Wade (Miami)
- LeBron James (Cleveland)
- Kevin Garnett (Boston)
- Dwight Howard (Orlando)
Eastern coaches vote on who the reserves for the Eastern team are. Recall that each coach must select two guards, two forwards, and one center on their ballot. Additionally, they may vote in two "wild card" players of any position. Coaches may not vote for their own players. With those rules in mind, here is my ballot:
Guards:
Chauncey Billups (Detroit) - Magic fans know just how good Mr. Big Shot is, given how frequently he's torched us in recent years. He's having a fantastic season, even at age 31, posting career-bests in points per game and field goal percentage. He's also shooting 40% from three-point range and 90% from the foul line, and captains the second-best team in the East. He's a no-brainer for this position.
Jose Calderon (Toronto) - Not much of a scoring threat, but he runs an offense more efficiently than anyone else in the East. The 8.6 assists per game average is impressive enough, but the fact that he only commits 1.6 turnovers per game is even more striking, considering how often he handles the ball. He's also shooting 51% from the field, 43% from downtown, and 92% from the foul line. Would any GM really take Jason Kidd over Jose Calderon?
Forwards:
Caron Butler (Washington) - He had a breakout year last year, and he's outdoing himself this year. The Wizards are making a strong push in the Southeast Division, even without Gilbert Arenas, and Butler is the biggest reason why. He's as versatile a small forward there is in the game.
Paul Pierce (Boston) - Richard Hamilton is a more efficient scorer (51% from the field) than Pierce (44%), but Pierce is a better rebounder (5.3 per 36 minutes to 3.3) and distributor (4.7 per 36 minutes to 4.4). The margin separating these two players isn't much, though.
Center:
Chris Bosh (Toronto) - Although he was listed as a forward on the fan ballot, it's entirely within the coaches' rights to slide Bosh to center. He's having a great year as it is, even though he's turned in a few poor rebounding performances, so he deserves to play in this game. However, putting him here also eliminates the problem of finding another "true" center in the East to put here. Andrew Bogut, Brendan Haywood, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are all having above-average seasons, but none of them have been eye-popping. There really shouldn't be any argument over this selection
Wild cards:
Antawn Jamison (Washington) - Did you know that Jamison is averaging 21.3 points and 10.4 rebounds? Me neither. He's having his finest all-around season and doing so for a team still contending for a division title. And please, spare me the argument that the Wizards aren't "good enough" to merit having two All-Stars. It wouldn't be fair to Jamison if another player posting similar numbers for a lesser team were rewarded with this selection just because Jamison's team isn't "elite."
Josh Smith (Atlanta) - We all know that nobody -- nobody! -- plays any defense in NBA All-Star games. I don't care. Smith has earned an All-Star bid with his strong all-around game. He makes up for his relatively poor field goal shooting (44%) with eye-popping averages of 1.9 steals and 3.3 blocks. It's his defense that gives him the edge over Gerald Wallace, his fellow Southeast Division freak of nature highlight generator.
It was difficult to exclude Richard Hamilton, Hedo Turkoglu, and Gerald Wallace from this list. However, with so many other deserving forwards, a few other ones had to get left-out. Note that, if it were totally up to me, Calderon and Billups would be the starting backcourt, Hamilton and Jason Kidd would be the backup guards, and Dwyane Wade would be out of the game entirely. In other words, Hamilton would take Wade's spot on the roster, but not his starting role. Sorry, Pookie; you're not in my Fave 5... or Fave 12, for that matter.
Feel free to file your complaints in the comments or in a diary of your own.
by Ben Q Rock
on Jan 29, 2008 12:52 PM EST
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