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Let's be clear, Utah Jazz fans. I think Gordon Hayward is having an amazing season as his second go as the 1st option on his own team. I do not think that he's magically going to get a million votes in a few hours (not even a zerg rush) and be voted in as an All-Star starter. I think his nice season would get some consideration from coaches, but it's not like the Jazz gave iPads out to every coach or anything -- stuff that Portland does (and did for Brandon Roy, and back then it was iPods). (Seems like other teams recognize the benefit of having a star more than our franchise does...)
While Gordon is doing well I have to say that the low wins for this squad -- and the massive depth of the West -- make his inclusion almost entirely out of the question.
These are the top vote getters (so far), voting ends tonight, and NBA.com had this crazy article about who is winning right now. It looks like G-Time is comparable, but not distinguished enough. If you just look at the wings, and Gordon, you see that he's kinda right there -- but he's not amongst the tops.
So Gordon is playing All-Star-ish. He's not there yet. And while there's a chance that he gets in. But right now I think the All-Stars for the West break down as:
- Bigmen: Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge
- Point Guards: Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard
- Wings: Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, James Harden
- Util: Klay Thompson, and either Tim Duncan (and he shouldn't get named, because if 15 and 10 gets you an All-Star spot in the west then Michael Cage was robbed all those years), or DeMarcus Cousins, or Russell Westbrook. There's no perfect guy, either they haven't played a lot of games, or won a lot of games. Or aren't having an All-Star season (Duncan). I'd go with Westbrook, despite the Thunder being 9th in the West right now. Dallas is 5th in the west (higher than the 7th Spurs), so maybe Dirk Nowitzki deserves it? Or maybe they'll go with Dwight Howard to give Houston two stars? I don't know. It's not my job to figure it out though.
I think Gordon is playing well, but after looking at how well the other players are doing this season, I don't think I can argue for Gordon's inclusion unless I'm wearing my Jazz homer hat. He has improved quite a bit from last year (and I have the Synergy Stats to support that idea, and that post is dropping tomorrow). But what do you think?