Bradley Beal and Devin Booker must be wondering who they pissed off to be left out of the NBA All-Star Game
Full disclosure: I am a University of Kentucky graduate. Know these things as I discuss the NBA All Star Game; I view the world through Big Blue colored glasses, I root like hell for former Wildcats in the NBA, and I don’t mind when bad things happen to former Florida Gators.
So, you can only imagine the conflict I felt as I read the announcement of the NBA All Star Game reserves this week.
My first thought was- great merciful crap, there must be some mistake. There is absolutely no way Devin Booker gets left out of the NBA All Star Game, right? Not after averaging 27.1 points per game, ranking 8th in the league, right? Not with him leading the perennially God-awful Phoenix Suns within 3.5 games of a playoff spot, right?
Bruh!
Then, I checked out the Eastern reserves.
Oh ffffffudge!
Only, I didn’t say fudge…
So now I’m like, maybe a mistake has been made. I mean where is Bradley Beal? 28.7 points per game, dude! Sixth in the league, man! The comedy of errors that has been the Washington Wizards of the last several seasons is 4.5 games out of the playoffs, by Gawd!
Has there ever been a season where two players averaging over 27 points and in the top 8 in scoring have not made the All Star team?
Is there any question that the Suns and Wizards have overachieved greatly? And that Booker and Beal are the overwhelming reasons why, respectively?
Former University of Kentucky Wildcat, Devin Booker, has put up numbers that are unquestionably great:
27.1 PPG
4.1 RPG
6.4 APG
Not too many shooting guards in the league with numbers like that? Well, I guess there is ONE other guy doing it…
Bradley Beal
28.7 PPG
4.5 RPG
6.4 APG
Am I in the friggin’ Upside Down?!
Even the analytics nerds know that these guys should be in the NBA All-Star Game. Your dork stat of the day is the Player Impact Estimate, affectionately known as PIE. And, just like the kind you eat too much of at Thanksgiving, you want your piece of the PIE to be huge!
Beal has a PIE Rating of 13.6. Book is at 14.4. Those ratings are higher than guys like Pascal Siakam, Jayson Tatum, and Donovan Mitchell.
Not done nerding out? Both Booker and Beal had higher Player Efficiency Ratings than Brandon Ingram, Khris Middleton, or Kyle Lowry.
Yet, all of those comparison players MADE THE DAMN TEAM!!!
Welp, you can’t put everybody in the NBA All-Star Game (but I’m putting Booker and Beal in)
Snubbed All-Star lists are stupid if you aren’t willing to discuss who should be left off the team to add the player for whom you are advocating. So let me be as clear as I can be:
Chris Paul is NOT an All-Star this year ahead of Devin Booker. Kyle Lowry is NOT an All-Star this year ahead of Bradley Beal.
Look, there is no money out of my pocket when Devin Booker and Bradley Beal got robbed (although it probably is out of theirs, literally). But as a fan of the game for as long as I can remember, it seems like the league could have done better by those guys- put them in the NBA All Star Game!
Follow me on Twitter @chakacummings. Check out other NBA posts on Belly Up Sports.
