According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears at Ball Don’t Lie:
Besides Rondo and Rose, the East roster includes Boston’s Paul Pierce, Toronto’s Chris Bosh, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Al Horford.
The West reserves are the New Orleans’ Chris Paul, the Lakers’ Pau Gasol, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Memphis’ Zach Randolph and Portland’s Brandon Roy.
Among the notable candidates left off the team are the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Kaman, New York’s David Lee and Denver’s Chauncey Billups.
Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki and Brandon Roy were all no brainers as All-Star reserves. That left two available spots: A Center spot, and an open spot not bound by positional restraints. Pau Gasol isn’t really a Center, but because he’s played about 300 minutes at that spot this year and is extremely tall, we’ll avoid arguing over the technicalities of him getting the reserve Center position.
Essentially, Pau Gasol and Zach Randolph were chosen over Chris Kaman.
Let’s take the emotion out of this for a second, and look at the numbers.
| Player | G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pau Gasol | 29 | 29 | 1051 | 6.5 | 12.1 | .538 | .827 | 3.5 | 7.4 | 10.9 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 17.4 | |||||||||
| Chris Kaman | 41 | 41 | 1494 | 8.3 | 16.6 | .501 | .754 | 2.5 | 6.5 | 9.0 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 20.0 | |||||||||
| Zach Randolph | 44 | 44 | 1642 | 8.1 | 16.0 | .503 | .802 | 4.4 | 6.7 | 11.2 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 20.2 |
The first stat that pops out is that Pau Gasol has only played in 29 of 46 games. Does his body of work make up for all those missed games? Well…yes. Pau is 7th in the entire league in NBA Efficiency rating, 14th overall in PER rating, and 3rd overall in Win Shares. When he’s been on the floor, he’s been one of the best players in the NBA.
Look, Kaman’s been great this year, especially early on. But has he been that much better than Pau Gasol’s little brother Marc?
Marc Gasol has been shooting 60.4% to Kaman’s 50.5% from the field, and has better shot blocking, rebounding, assist, steal and turnover numbers. The Grizzlies big man also has a higher PER rating, EFF rating and more Win-Shares than Kaman. In virtually every meaningful stat outside of PPG, Marc Gasol has Chris Kaman bested.
At the end of the day, the coaches would rather tab a guy on a dominant team like the Lakers before a guy on a sub-.500 team like the Clippers. It’s not the most foolproof logic, but I get it.
You’ll hear a lot of gripes about Kaman being left off, but the numbers just don’t support his case. He’s had a great season thus far, but he faces the same problems the rest of the Clippers have: He plays in the Western Conference.
16 Responses
Lakers were always going to get two in with that record. Randolph got in because the Grizzles are 6 games over .500. If clippers were .500 it might be worth arguing.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Pau’s numbers are sick. Look at those percentages, the assists, the turnovers. Those are downright animalistic. 3 less points on 4 less shot attempts?
Thats a highly efficient player right there. He deserves the nod way more than Chris.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Isn’t there something to be said of a guy like Kaman who is the Clips #1 option and faces numerous doubles? I doubt ZBo or Pau face as many doubles with the perimeter talent (Kobe and Mayo/Gay respectively) on their respective teams.
All I know is that Kaman is the #1 option and Pau and ZBo are not. I think that has to be a part of the analysis at least.
I’m not griping too much, winning teams get all-star nods. No big deal. But I think Kaman is indeed deserving.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Kaman is not an all-star caliber player. Yes, he’s better than past years. However, all you need to do is look at the numbers – and watch him for 40 games – to realize that he has played above average, but at an all-star clip.
In fact, from what I’ve witnessed, he’s still a headcase.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Kaman is not an all-star caliber player. Yes, he’s better than past years. However, all you need to do is look at the numbers – and watch him for 40 games – to realize that he has played above average, but NOT at an all-star clip.
In fact, from what I’ve witnessed, he’s still a headcase
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
KAMAN isn’t an All-Star calbre player because of following reasons:
He doesn’t have a third-eye. i.e. He needs to learn how to scan the floor and pass the ball to an open man. As soon as he receives the ball he frees himself from his senses. Only thing he knows what to do with it is just shoot the ball. He has no concrete vision or talent to help his teammates to get better. He can do a lot for this team. But he doesn’t know how.
Why can’t he think of creative ways to lure defenders at him while gazing for an open man? He has the ability to garner 6 assist per game. But he has no desire to do so.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Your reasoning would suggest that Deron Williams was on the West All-Star team despite being injured at the beginning of the season (sound like Pau?). He was not. Tony Parker and Chauncey both made it over him. Why is it not O.K. for Deron to make the game (everybody’s reasoning was that he was injured at the beginning of the season) despite strong numbers? And why is it O.K. for Gasol to make the team?
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
THE CLIPPERS LOST TO NEW JERSEY. Nobody on that team should be able to speak the words ALL-STAR. That game was humiliating to watch.
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Patrick Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Word.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
just like maggette never was and never will be… numbers dont make you an all-star.
Here is the big distinction between all-stars and wanna-be’s:
All Star Players are not just a difference makers, but a game changers.
We all have seen Kaman have some great efforts, but he rarely puts the team on his back and goes out and WINS them games… that man is usually Baron Davis.
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dean Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Usually Baron Davis? HA.
After a season and a half I’m just now starting to see that killer instinct emerge in Baron. He has been far from a strap it on my back, carry the team guy for the Clippers so far.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
when rondo is an all star there is a very low bar and he is the 5th option on the celtics (with sheed). Until we get respectable around the league there will be no all star games for kaman.
zbo isn’t any better than last year he just has better supporting players and gasol has kobe. With blake and another piece maybe next year kaman gets in.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Seriously there has to be games played minimum. Period.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
well even his coach didnt go to bat for Kanan earlier so what do you expect…
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
The roster is supposed to include 1 center. Gasol has been playing forward all season. Just like Amare. Kaman has been the best center in the western conference this season and should be on the all star team!
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
It makes me sick, maybe they should go from 5 positions to 2 like guards and forwards only then i could understand leaving out the best center in the west.
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Posted on January 29th, 2010 at 1:56 am
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