Deng makes all-star game

[jimsumner]

http://espn.go.com/nba/allstar2012/story/_/id/7559974/veterans-dirk-nowitzki-paul-pierce-chosen-nba-all-star-reserves

[Jim3k]

The Chicago Tribune story on Deng's selection (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/ct-spt-0210-bulls-chicago--20120210,0,3614638.story).

Man, that photo is amazing. I keep remembering Deng as a slender freshman. I guess that's gone, now.

[ice-9]

To get a little bit more mileage out of my lots-of-effort but unpopular :o analysis of Dukies in the All-Star game: http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?27440-Dukies-in-the-All-Star-Game

- Glad to see the coaches recognize Deng's importance to a championship contender

- Sad that even Irving's coach doesn't think he's ready for it yet. Deron is the sentimental pick despite Jennings playing as well as if not better than Deron

If Jeremy Lin continues to play he has the last three games, I wonder if he would make the All-Star game next year? He'd surely get the full support of all the Asian-Americans and have the stats to back it up.

[CDu]

To get a little bit more mileage out of my lots-of-effort but unpopular :o analysis of Dukies in the All-Star game: http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?27440-Dukies-in-the-All-Star-Game

- Glad to see the coaches recognize Deng's importance to a championship contender

- Sad that even Irving's coach doesn't think he's ready for it yet. Deron is the sentimental pick despite Jennings playing as well as if not better than Deron

If Jeremy Lin continues to play he has the last three games, I wonder if he would make the All-Star game next year? He'd surely get the full support of all the Asian-Americans and have the stats to back it up.

Realistically, Irving didn't merit the honor this year. He's not among top-3 Eastern Conference PG in points and barely cracks the top-10 in assists. Rose, Williams, Jennings, and probably Rondo all deserve to go ahead of Irving right now.

With the rookie/sophomore game available, you have to be a clear-cut superstar to make the All-Star Game as a rookie. Irving has been absolutely terrific, but he just didn't deserve to play in the big game yet.

[Jderf]

Realistically, Irving didn't merit the honor this year. He's not among top-3 Eastern Conference PG in points and barely cracks the top-10 in assists. Rose, Williams, Jennings, and probably Rondo all deserve to go ahead of Irving right now.

With the rookie/sophomore game available, you have to be a clear-cut superstar to make the All-Star Game as a rookie. Irving has been absolutely terrific, but he just didn't deserve to play in the big game yet.

Key word: "yet."

[CDu]

Key word: "yet."

Yeah, I have high expectations that he'll be All-Star worthy in the future. Maybe even in the near future. Just not this year.

[Faison1]

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised Boozer didn't get more love. I don't follow the NBA that much, but it seems like he's having a pretty darned good season.

Maybe his stats are down a bit, but he puts up points when they need him to.

[toooskies]

Realistically, Irving didn't merit the honor this year. He's not among top-3 Eastern Conference PG in points and barely cracks the top-10 in assists. Rose, Williams, Jennings, and probably Rondo all deserve to go ahead of Irving right now.

With the rookie/sophomore game available, you have to be a clear-cut superstar to make the All-Star Game as a rookie. Irving has been absolutely terrific, but he just didn't deserve to play in the big game yet.

Kyrie is third in points per 48 minutes, behind Rose and Lou Williams, and he shoots higher percentages than both of them. In assists per 48, Kyrie ranks 7th in the East... But he often shares the backcourt with another PG (Sessions or Gibson). He's fourth in PER, behind the more prolific scorers and Jeremy Lin.

Question things like his defense or his turnover rate instead... Or the fact that he doesn't play superstar minutes, because the hardest schedule he had to play before this year was in high school. But his measureables have been all-star quality, even with a slow start because of the lack of preseason (arguably, he should get extra credit for being a rookie and playing like he has!)

[ice-9]

Realistically, Irving didn't merit the honor this year. He's not among top-3 Eastern Conference PG in points and barely cracks the top-10 in assists. Rose, Williams, Jennings, and probably Rondo all deserve to go ahead of Irving right now.

With the rookie/sophomore game available, you have to be a clear-cut superstar to make the All-Star Game as a rookie. Irving has been absolutely terrific, but he just didn't deserve to play in the big game yet.

I think it's closer than you're making it out to be. I'll copy-paste the stas from my previous post, which were accurate at the time of posting but should still be directionally correct:

Kyrie Irving: 22.3 PER, 18 points, 50% FG, 5.0 assists, 3.1 TOs, 9-13 team record
Brandon Jennings: 20.4 PER, 20 points, 43% FG, 5.4 assists, 2.2 TOs, 10-13 team record
Rajon Rondo: 19.4 PER, 14 points, 51%, 9.2 assists, 3.9 TOs, 12-10 team record
Deron Williams: 19:3 PER, 20 points, 40% FG, 8.8 assists, 4.5 turnovers, 8-17 team record

Kyrie is head and shoulders above his brethren guards in terms of efficiency. He shoots at a very high percentage and gets foul shots. His raw assist numbers don't look good compared to his competition, but I've always felt the assist stat is overrated (sometimes it's not about the pass to the open man, but the pass that leads to the pass to the open man). When you look at Kyrie take control in the 4th quarter, he is simply masterful. He is probably more important to the Cavs than the other guards to their teams.

Rondo is the best player on the Celtics, but because of his injury has been out a large portion of the season.

Deron is having the worst season of his career, and his team is under-performing relative to expectations and talent level (though sure they do have injury issues).

Jennings was probably Kyrie's biggest competition in terms of performance to date this season, and I'd probably put him over Irving, but Deron is the sentimental pick.

Of course, next season, if Lin continues to play the way he's been playing, expect the competition to get even tougher. Count me as one of the Linsane.