With his recent play, I started thinking about LA and his chances at making the All-Star team. What forwards in the West make it before him? Is Love considered a center?
Love is considered a 4. There's no way Aldridge makes it over him. I love the way LMA has been playing, but really, its only been 3 games and he's played a bunch of scrubby teams. I want more before I crown him a changed player.
I'd expect Gasol and Duncan to get the nods at center, due to a weak center crop. However, there's no "power forward" slot...just two forward spots. Nowitzki and Durant are probably locks for those. Anthony's probably a lock for a forward spot too. Love should be. If Aldridge plays very well until the All-Star break, he could compete with Griffin for a fifth forward spot. That's off the top of my head...I may be missing someone obvious. I considered Randolph, but he and Aldridge are already fairly even in production and Aldridge is a better defender. This is all premised on Aldridge continuing to play very well, in which case he'd leave Randolph behind.
As soon as Brandon gets back in the fold, LA's numbers will go back down to 18/8. As for the question, Gasol, Griffin, Durant, Love, Anthony, Nowitzki, Randolph, Scola, Timmy, Gay That's 10 forwards that all have as good or better shot to go than LA
Who cares? There's no way in hell Aldridge makes it ahead of Nowitzki, Gasol, Duncan and Griffin. But that doesn't mean that he's not playing out of his mind and our current franchise player.
Which is good for a 19.9 PER, as opposed to Aldridge's 18.9. I consider Aldridge a better defender than Randolph, which more than makes up for the small difference in production. Aldridge's numbers have his poor early start baked in...if he has more stretches like his early season, he won't make the All-Star game as I don't expect Randolph to. My post was premised on Aldridge continuing to play at a high level, which would increase his numbers beyond Randolph's.
So let's see: LaMarcus has to beat out "Mr. 30:30" and Mr. ESPN Highlight Reel to make it. Yeah, good luck with that. The only way Aldridge makes it is if about 5 people go down with injuries. (Besides Yao and Greg, of course.) I wonder if Bynum will be voted in at center.
Griffin is a lock. The Powers That Be have annointed him. So is Durant, Gasol and Nowitski. Love may get a nod because he did USA Basketball and there's little reason to be a T'Wolves fan. If we were tearing up the league, we may get some love, but having a mediocre record and tucked in a corner of the league no one cares about isn't a recipe for an All Star invite for Aldridge. In fact, I think the NBA would like to forget about us; they don't like to focus on the Next Great Thing That Never Was. Portland is a downer story. Edit: I should note that Griffin is earning his slot. He's a beast.
Griffin definitely needs to be in. There's about two months until the all-star game so Aldridge will have plenty of time to prove himself. That said, I don't expect him to keep playing out of his mind regularly and hope he's able to average 20/10 over that time. 20/10 over that time span with a FG% 50% or above would make him the real deal.
LA floats around the perimeter with Brandon, so it does affect his rebounding to a certain degree. Getting Camby and Joel back will affect it more of course
It would be interesting to see Love get in for a shitty team, when Al Jeff never even came close. I'm sure the league would love to have a NON-Euro white guy in the game!!
Yeah, because he's too passive. That's more on Aldridge imo. Same thing goes when Camby is in the game.
Do not be surprised if some of the better teams sneak in a second All-Star with comparable numbers or less. Chandler in Dallas and Milsap/Jefferson in Utah come to mind.
