Last week we learned the captains and the starters for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game. LeBron James will be leading one squad, while Steph Curry will be leading the other. And now, we know the full pool of players which they'll be drafting from.
The ASG reserves were announced Tuesday night, with Kevin Love, Kristaps Porzingis, John Wall headlining the reserves from the East, and Russell Westbrook, Jimmy Butler and Damian Lillard standing out in the West. For a full list of the pool of players, click here.
Of course, now that we know all of the All-Stars, the next order of business, is discussing who got snubbed. Here are three players from each conference who had legitimate claims to make the game.
Eastern Conference
The Pistons' big man was clearly upset about not making the ASG, sending out a few tweets that showed his frustration.
Guess I gotta start doing back flips after every point I score to get attention around here!
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) January 24, 2018
Lmao on to the next
And he has good reason to be upset. After not playing well last season, Drummond has looked like a new player this season. He's averaging 14.3 points and leading the league with 15 rebounds a night. He's also turned into a facilitator as a key cog of the Pistons' offense, handing out a career-high 3.9 assists per game. Furthermore, he's fixed his free-throw shooting, and is now making 62.9 percent of his foul shots, also a career high.
The Miami Heat point guard has never made an All-Star Game, and unfortunately for him, that drought won't end this season. He's putting together another solid season, averaging 17.3 points, 4.9 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game, and has the Heat rising in the Eastern Conference standings. Unfortunately for Dragic, he just didn't do quite enough in the minds of the coaches to take one of the backcourt spots. It's certainly possible that he fell victim to a lack of name recognition and reputation, as John Wall made the team despite having one of his worst seasons.
Joel Embiid was named an All-Star starter, but his buddy Ben Simmons was not able to find his way onto the team as a reserve. One of the favorites for Rookie of the Year, Simmons has looked phenomenal -- especially for a player in his first season. He's putting up 16.3 points (despite not having a jumper), 7.9 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. He's also been a rather strong defender, using his length and size to his advantage.
Western Conference
Like Drummond, Lou Williams also voiced his displeasure about the reserve announcement on Twitter. His statement, however, was a bit more simple:
Lol
— Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) January 23, 2018
Williams has been a constant source of offense for the Clippers this season. He dropped a 50-ball on the Warriors, and is putting up a career-high 23.3 points per game. His season-long scoring spree wasn't enough for Williams to break through in the loaded Western Conference. He's one of only two players in the top-15 in scoring who didn't make the game (the other was Devin Booker).
Now in the Western Conference, George was not able to make the ASG for the third straight season. As expected now that he's playing with Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, he's not putting up quite the numbers he has in the past, but he's still having a very solid season. He's getting over 20 points a night, is 12th in the league in 3-point percentage (42.9), and has been a big part of the Thunder's stout defense. It is a bit humorous that Victor Oladipo made the ASG, while PG-13 did not, but if George was in the East, he'd be playing in this game.
CP3 is now in Houston, and he's still playing phenomenal basketball. As he has for pretty much the entire decade, he's putting up about 19 points and nine rebounds a night, while providing leadership and strong perimeter defense. He's also picked up his 3-point shooting frequency now that he's in Houston, but the extra shots are barely affecting his efficiency, as he's still hitting over 39 percent of his 3-point attempts. If it wasn't for the 17 games he missed, Paul would likely be on the team.
