All-Star Five on Five

Five questions, five CtBers. It’s all-star weekend! Stick right here for coverage of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night’s events!

1. Who is the most deserving player to be left off the East All-Star squad?

[Editor’s Note, Ben and David’s entries were written before Korver was named as an injury replacement]

David: Kyle Korver should have made it. He’s shooting 52% from the 3-line, and the season is halfway over. He makes 3.1 long balls a game, which is tied for second place in the NBA with Klay Thompson, so he isn’t a fluke. Oh yea, he also trains by running under water holding a boulder, which is just cool. And finally, the Hawks created an offense that utilizes him to alter how people play against their team. His shooting ability eliminates the idea of a weak side help defender for opposing defenses. How many players affect what a defense does that much?

Ben: Kyle Korver. He has been as destructive on the offensive end as any player in the league. No one on the Hawks plays big minutes in Coach Budenholzer’s Spursian system. Korver’s counting stats take a hit for this reason. Regardless, Zach Lowe and other smart NBA guys have well documented the Korver effect on an opposing defense. To those who think his own defense precludes him from All-Star status, I will simply say that Korver plays above average defense on a defensive juggernaut. He uses his size well and hits the glass. He better be the replacement for Wade. If he is, there is officially no snubbed player in the East.

Robert: On one hand, the string of injuries that has beset this year’s crop of all-stars is unfortunate. It robs the fans of seeing the tippy-top players throw down lobs and drain long ISO js while doing little to prevent the other tippy-tops from doing the same. But, on the other, it sure takes the wind out of even the most Lillardian snub angst. This year, everyone gets in!!! Now that Kyle Korver has been named to the East team, there are no other sure-fire cases to be made. Derrick Rose? On name alone, yes. But Rose has shot the ball horribly this year, has a PER (16.3) hovering just above average… and do the Bulls really deserve three All-Stars? DeMar Derozan would have made it if he hadn’t missed 20 games. Kevin Love…? Maybe if the Cavs had been playing the whole season the way they’ve played the last three weeks. You’d have to go to the sixth team in the East, the Bucks and their point guard Brandon Knight, to find a serious case to be made.

More than anything, it’s an indictment on the state of the Eastern Conference (as if anyone needed reminding) that four players from one team can be included and there still not be many all-star caliber players on the outside looking in.

Nate: As Much as I’d like to name Kevin Love, it’s got to be Brandan Knight. He’s the glue for the 30-23 Milwaukee Bucks, who are the League’s biggest surprise this year, and probably the reason Mikhail Prokhorov is selling the Nets. Any time you pick Billy King over Jason Kidd in a battle of basketball IQ, you’re doomed. Brandon averages 18 points, 5.4 assists, and 56 TS%. He doesn’t quite redeem my idea from 2011 that the Cavs should have taken Derrick Williams and Knight, but he doesn’t make me look quite so stupid now.

Cory: Personally, I’m against expanding the rosters. It’s sort of like when the Academy Awards expanded the best picture nominees past five. There were plenty of years when there weren’t five deserving films. It’s supposed to be an exclusive club, that’s kind of the point. With the injuries to Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and potentially Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis and Carmelo Anthony there will be guys who don’t deserve the invite. Kyle Korver has already been tapped on the shoulder so I’ll go with Nikola Vucevic. He’s averaging 19.5 points and 11.2 boards per game while shooting 53.6 from the field.

2. Who is the most deserving player to be left off the West all-star squad?

Nate: Kawhi Leonard: The Dude’s the reigning finals MVP. He’s fifth in the League in real plus/minus. He has a 20 PER. Yeah, he’s only played 35 games, but if Kobe can be named a starter for crap he did five years ago, can’t we get the best guy from one of the greatest finals teams we’ve ever seen named to the All-Star game? If he played in NY or LA, or was Chinese, he’d be a starter.

Ben: I would love to say Dirk or Monta Ellis of the Mavs, but Draymond Green deserves as much credit for the Warriors success as anyone else on their squad. He is often cited as the heart and soul of that team. He is wrecking opposing offenses with his dynamic play. Bogut would be my pick had he not missed a chunk of games with a bulky knee, but Green his a fine pick. As is Z-Bo. The West is so much deeper.

Cory: The answer would have been Damien Lillard, or Boogie Cousins but both have already been named as scabs. I’ll go with Zach Randolph. I’d love to see a bully in the mid-snow classic.

Robert: While Doc Rivers will lead you to believe newly minted 20/20 machine DeAndre Jordan is the West’s biggest snub, it’s actually Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley Jr.

Conley doesn’t post eye-popping stats, but he’s been running great point for the West’s second best team, he’s shooting over 40% from three (his best from long range in six years) and, really, you just have to get another Grizz on this team. With the West’s big man cup running-ith over — and, thus, putting the squeeze on Conley’s equally deserving teammate, Zach Randolph — it’s time that this former Ohio State Buckeye gets to play in a game where Grit and Grind are no longer an issue.

David: I want to say Dirk Nowitzki simply because he should get a legacy bid, but he has had a noticeable shooting slump this season. So, I nominate Mike Conley. Conley plays on the team with the second best record in the West, and, unlike Damian Lillard who was placed into the game, he ranks in the 91st percentile for effective field goal percentage and turnovers according to FFAPM for defense (courtesy of gotbuckets.com). In fact, Lillard doesn’t even rank in the 60th percentile for either of those factors and is a net loss defensively. I also love the fact that Conley is scoring almost exactly the same amount of points (17.4) this year as last year using about one less shot.

3. Which squad has the better roster?

Robert: Man, that West roster is scary. Scary, scary, scary. I love me some Korver and Jeff Teague, but looking down the bench and seeing them is not the same as Steve Kerr  looking down his bench and seeing Russell Westbrook, Klay Thompson and MVP front runner James Harden looking back.

David: The West is still the best. Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant are both standing behind LeBron making his neck uncomfortably moist with non-exercise induced wetness. Marc Gasol is a younger Pau Gasol who plays defense. James Harden is an even better scorer than Kyrie Irving. The West has the rising talent and even some of the straight up better talent.

Ben: The West is far deeper and have this season’s best player, Anthony Davis. Davis lives in that in between world that LeBron knew so well. Every statistical breakdown had LeBron as the league’s best player by his third season, but reputations take time to build. Playoff series and championships need to be won before popular opinion sways to the young guy. Davis has yet to “prove” anything, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is, at this moment, the most dominant player in the league. He isn’t the MVP. One can’t be considered THAT valuable on a team that has no shot at the title. Still he is currently the best. Yeah, I just totally bogarted that question.

Cory: The West and it’s not that close. They have CP3, Westbrook, Durant and Aldridge coming off the bench for Guinness sake. All four are probably top 10 players league wide.

Nate: Top to bottom, it’s the West. Best five it’s the east. Crunch time lineup of Wall, Irving, LeBron, Korver, and Gasol can motor the ball up the floor, defend, and shoot. They have the best shooter in the world and the best player in the world.

4. What all-star moment stands out to you most?

Ben: This is probably the obvious answer, but the Vinsanity dunk contest. There have been few things on this earth as elegant as Vince Carter dunking the ball in his prime. He might as well been performing at Bolshoi. Other than that, the weekend has featured many momentary memories. The T-Mac backboard dunk, any Shaq point guard moments, etc. Fun, but not particularly lasting. Dion versus Hardaway III probably was just as good as anything non-Vince related.

Cory: The 1992 All-Star game when Tim Hardaway selflessly stepped aside to allow Magic Johnson start in his place. In a WWE change the rules as you go plot twist, Johnson was named as a reserve even though he retired before the start of the 1991-92 season after contracting HIV. Johnson dazzled to the tune of 25 points and 9 assists and was named the MVP. The long three (see below )he  hit over Scottie Pippen at the end if the game was the moment I fell in love with basketball.

David: I will always remember when Nate Robinson jumped over Dwight Howard to win the dunk contest in 2009. He always makes me really sad that I can’t throw the ball down because he’s a half-foot shorter than me. Kyrie’s MVP of the All-Star game last year was life changing because people talked about Cleveland in a positive light, when the team was pretty horrendous otherwise. I wasn’t laughed at for talking about the Cavs in bars for at least two full weeks.

Nate: 1997, Cleveland. NBA’s 50 greatest players were introduced. Not only was this one unprecedented (Baseball and Football never did this), but the guys who were on the list were all-time legends. I remember getting goosebumps seeing Stockton, Bird, Jordan, McHale, Robinson, Hakeem, Bill Rusell, Wilt… It’s one of the greatest moments in sports history. Plus, they all got some really cool jackets.

Robert: I’ll be honest; the All-Star Game is not my favorite event. Under threat of death, I’d say Kyrie Irving MVP game last season, but that’s too recent to be considered part of any serious pantheon of stand-outness. There are some Allen Iverson moments mixed in there… I like when Kobe waved off Karl Malone (in fact, much like professional wrestling, the NBA should find a way to use the ASG stage to plant new rivalries and storylines to carry us through the rest of the season).

However, this year’s Three Point Shootout hasn’t even happened yet and it already stands out as the marquee contest of the weekend. Is there any way the NBA can arrange to do this, like, four times throughout the season? More of that, please.

5. What would you change about all-star weekend?

Cory: Ditch the fan vote. I see it like deciding to watch a film based solely on its Rotten Tomatoes score. Half of those people probably have terrible taste in everything are out of their element.

Ben: I think that only those invited to the game as All-Stars should participate in the special events. Sure, some of the top dunkers and shooters would be left out and the public might get an inferior performance. Watching the actual Stars compete would make up for it. And of course, we can never be subjected to that ridiculous East versus West scoring system again. Every man for himself in Saturday events. I would also like to see a two dribble limit one-on-one event. It might be more fun on the surface to see a guy have unlimited dribbles, but the two bounce limit is more indicative of overall skill, and also prevents five minute backdowns from big post guys.

Nate: I wouldn’t change a thing. From the Celebrity Game that no one watches to my favorite thing to complain about in the entire universe, the Shooting stars competition (the most inane event ever, and if we could harness the power of its awkward chemistry, it could fuel the world). The whole weekend is note perfect. It’s such a glorious celebration of skill, athleticism, marketing, fun, ridiculousness, and excess. Actually, there’s one thing I’d change. Nate Smith would be a fly on the wall for the Friday and Saturday night parties.

Robert: The NBA can have its all-star weekend wherever they want, but the game should always be played in Madison Square Garden. That would just be a case of the universe doing its right universe thing…

David: All-Star weekend needs a mental aspect to it. Every year one team seems to get picked on and have bogus stories written about the relationships between their players, coaches, and staff. What if each season the two teams whose locker room issues are discussed the most in each conference have to take lie detector tests? This includes every one involved with the team, even staffers. In these tests, organization members are asked questions about their views towards players, certain media members, and even coaches. Then five of the people involved on each side have to play a game where they name who said what. The chosen statements would be read out loud, and then each guesser would write his or her answer electronically Jeopardy style.

The lie detector comes into play for which statements are used. Only true statements from the testing are included in the questioning. And, you get huge amounts of money for true statements. Let’s say you can earn $500,000 per lie detector certified quote. This incentivizes the guys on small contracts and people with low-level jobs in the organization to talk. And, the true jerks would talk too. Each person guessing whom the statements belong to only gets his or her total correct score, thus protecting the identity of the truth talkers. Whatever five-man team has the higher total correct wins. The drama that could ensue would be amazing. Imagine if a team had their locker room completely dismantled because of All-Star weekend. Imagine if opposing teams tried to plant truth talkers on other teams. The reason to win is because the team that does gets an extra mid-level exception for the following season, or some other salary cap type of reward.

Bonus answer by John Krolik: : MAKE THE DUNK CONTEST PRIZE A MILLION GD DOLLARS. Two million if you need to. And put in a one-on-one tournament, and make the prize money similarly impossible to ignore. And bring back H-O-R-S-E, except instead of “traditional H-O-R-S-E”, 5 guys start with $200,000, and have them bet on stuff for 45 minutes. Cut the skills contest and shooting stars. They are stupid and dumb.

And at the very least, if you’re not about grabbing big stars for the dunk contest, here’s a simple solution: Let the players know at the beginning of the season there will be informal hush-hush tryouts for the dunk contest. Send a league rep to each team about a month out from contest time and see what the best guys have. So instead of having the biggest names or best in-game dunkers, the field is made up of guys who have actually shown to somebody that they can put on a show in a dunk-contest format.

And my pet All-Star Saturday idea, “Longest Shot,” would either be great or terrible, but take 4 players, give them a personal ball-boy, and when 90 seconds or so is up, whoever has made the longest shot wins. Even better, do it in heats — 45 seconds a pop, whoever has made the shortest shot loses. This way it’s not just guys flinging shots from half-court and hoping, we’re seeing 30-footers.