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The NBA All-Stars were just announced. I'm happy for them. They are all really good players, and you can't really complain about who was picked by the fans or the coaches. There are two common trends between all 24 players selected. The first is that they were ALL 1st round picks, and 10 of 16 were lottery picks. The average pick spot was 1st round, pick 8.6. What's the other common trend for these 24 players who for the most part all played on different teams, with different head coaches, and different franchises doctrines (develop talent / win every game / etc)? It's that all these guys got minutes. Only one of these guys did not play 30+ mpg by their 3rd year in the league, and he's the 7'2 defensive monster with no offensive game.
Check it out:
| All-Star | Draft | Career | Total MPG per Season | ||||||||
| Conf | Player | Team | Round | Pick | All-Stars | Seasons | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
| East | LeBron James | MIA | 1 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 39.5 | 42.4 | 42.5 | 40.9 | 40.4 |
| West | Tim Duncan | SAS | 1 | 1 | 14 | 16 | 39.1 | 39.3 | 38.9 | 38.7 | 40.6 |
| West | Blake Griffin | LAC | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 38.0 | 36.2 | 32.3 | -- | -- |
| East | Carmelo Anthony | NYK | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 36.5 | 34.8 | 36.8 | 38.2 | 36.4 |
| West | Chris Paul | LAC | 1 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 36.0 | 36.8 | 37.6 | 38.5 | 38.0 |
| East | Dwyane Wade | MIA | 1 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 34.9 | 38.6 | 38.6 | 37.9 | 38.3 |
| West | Kevin Durant | OKC | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 34.6 | 39.0 | 39.5 | 38.9 | 38.6 |
| East | Chris Bosh | MIA | 1 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 33.5 | 37.2 | 39.3 | 38.5 | 36.2 |
| West | Dwight Howard | LAL | 1 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 32.6 | 36.8 | 36.9 | 37.7 | 35.7 |
| West | Russell Westbrook | OKC | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 32.5 | 34.3 | 34.7 | 35.3 | 36.5 |
| East | Kyrie Irving | CLE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 30.5 | 35.7 | -- | -- | -- |
| West | Tony Parker | SAS | 1 | 28 | 5 | 12 | 29.4 | 33.8 | 34.4 | 34.2 | 33.9 |
| East | Kevin Garnett | BOS | 1 | 18 | 15 | 18 | 28.7 | 38.9 | 39.3 | 37.9 | 40.0 |
| East | Luol Deng | CHI | 1 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 27.3 | 33.4 | 37.5 | 33.8 | 34.0 |
| East | Jrue Holiday | PHI | 1 | 17 | 1 | 4 | 24.2 | 35.4 | 33.8 | 38.1 | -- |
| East | Rajon Rondo | BOS | 1 | 21 | 4 | 7 | 23.5 | 29.9 | 33.0 | 36.6 | 37.2 |
| West | James Harden | HOU | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 22.9 | 26.7 | 31.4 | 38.6 | -- |
| West | LaMarcus Aldridge | POR | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 22.1 | 34.9 | 37.1 | 37.5 | 39.6 |
| East | Paul George | IND | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 20.7 | 29.7 | 36.7 | -- | -- |
| East | Joakim Noah | CHI | 1 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 20.7 | 24.2 | 30.1 | 32.8 | 30.4 |
| East | Tyson Chandler | NYK | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 19.6 | 24.4 | 22.3 | 27.4 | 26.8 |
| West | David Lee | GSW | 1 | 30 | 2 | 8 | 16.9 | 29.8 | 29.1 | 34.9 | 37.3 |
| West | Kobe Bryant | LAL | 1 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 15.5 | 26.0 | 37.9 | 38.2 | 40.9 |
| West | Zach Randolph | MEM | 1 | 19 | 2 | 12 | 5.8 | 16.9 | 37.9 | 34.8 | 34.4 |
| Averages | 1.0 | 8.6 | 5.1 | 8.7 | 27.7 | 33.1 | 35.5 | 36.6 | 36.6 | ||
| Derrick Favors | UTA | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 19.7 | 21.2 | 21.6 | -- | -- | |
| Gordon Hayward | UTA | 1 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 16.9 | 30.5 | 26.6 | -- | -- | |
| Enes Kanter | UTA | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 13.2 | 14.7 | -- | -- | -- | |
| Alec Burks | UTA | 1 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 15.9 | 12.7 | -- | -- | -- | |
Oh yeah, just for fun I included our younger guys -- who were all lotto picks too (fulfills one of the two conditions that the previous 24 players share in common). Of course, they are all NOT on the trajectory to be stars in this league. So that's kind of like making the worst out of a good situation Jazz front office / coaches. Call me a bad fan for wanting to see people actually thrive with the teams they are drafted by . . . but don't call me a bad fan for wanting our franchise to develop potential into stars. All the other teams listed here did. (Unless they were Miami)
Congrats again to the All-Stars, it makes you more famous, helps you get better contracts, improves your stature with fans, and gets you more respect from the refs. The teams that go far in the playoffs have stars. The teams that don't do not. It's strategically impotent and incompetent to go out of your way to NOT get stars, via trades, free agency, or the draft. Not all options are open to all market sizes though. So, when you get four lotto picks in a 2 year stretch . . . it's important to make them sit as much as possible. That's what good teams do. See it worked for Kobe (who was a teen)...