Why David West Should Not Be An All-Star

I've been meaning to get around to this post, but kind of have been putting it off.  However, with the All-Star Game only a week away, I'm going to finish my gripe about the picks.  As a quick update on the Eastern Conference though, with Jameer Nelson out extensively with a torn right labrum, so that opens another roster spot for the game.  The three top contenders are arguably Ray Allen, Mo Williams, or David Lee.  Personally, I'd go with Ray Allen over the other two, my reasons stay the same.  

Anyways, onwards to what this post is supposed to be about.  The Western Conference All-Stars are as follows:

Starters:

PG - Chris Paul

SG - Kobe Bryant

SF - Amar'e Stoudemire

PF - Tim Duncan

C - Yao Ming

Reserves:

Guards - Chauncey Billups, Brandon Roy, Tony Parker

Forwards - Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, David West

Centers - Shaquille O'Neal

Now remember, the fans voted the starters (though Stern probably did some tampering to get Chris Paul in over Tracy McGrady, not to say I'm unhappy with that), the coaches voted for the remaining players.  For the most part I can't disagree with these picks, the Lakers have been too good for the second best Laker in Gasol to not make it, from there, there's a big enough drop off to not include any other Lakers.  There hasn't been a player with a bigger impact on a team than Billups on the Nuggets, Brandon Roy has proven himself again and again to be the floor leader of a young Blazers squad, Shaq is having a career season of sorts, Dirk is playing out of his mind.  Which leaves us with the two wildcards, Tony Parker and David West.  Honestly, I don't think I can make a stronger case for any other guard in the Western Conference.  While Parker had that high ankle sprain he has also been playing exceptional basketball.  Manu, well Manu is coming off of ankle surgery and missed most of the season thusfar.  Granted it's a wildcard slot, so the position doesn't matter.  

Ultimately, my main gripe with David West isn't necessarily that he's bad, it's just that there are other players that are better.  No one really questions Tony Parker being in there, generally the two points of biggest contention are Shaq and West.  However, I don't think it's that big of a stretch for Shaq especially, first, because it's Shaq, second it's in Phoenix, third, Shaq's actually playing well.  While he's been rested on a number of back-to-backs, there really haven't been THAT many of them.  If you want a relative comparison, Shaq's missed 7 games because of the resting on back-to-backs, Tony Parker has missed 10 from his high ankle sprain and 1 from Greg Popovich being Greg Popovich, David West missed 5 games from a sore back, Carmelo Anthony has missed 15 from various injuries through the season.  So Shaq, while he's missed a couple of games, hasn't really missed that many.  I think missing too many games in the season is what disqualified Melo and Manu from All-Star consideration.  

Now, if I could only take two of Tony Parker, Shaquille O'Neal, and David West, I would still choose Parker and Shaq, simply because they make a bigger impact on their team.  First, the Suns offense is based entirely around Shaq now, as much as you may or may not like it, that's what it is.  The Suns are 2-5 when Shaq doesn't play, that plus the ASG being Phoenix gives Shaq the edge. So now we're once again down to Parker and West.  Parker has missed more games, and the Spurs have maintained an 8-3 record when he was out, so you could argue that he doesn't add a whole lot to the team, though I would say that's just more George Hill and Roger Mason stepping up.   Besides, the Hornets have been 4-1 when West was out.  I think in this case, the better record of the Spurs is what edges Parker ahead, but let's break down the numbers.

2008-2009	Tony Parker	David West
Points per game (PPG)	20.7	19.9
Rebounds per game (RPG)	2.8	7.4
Assists per game (APG)	6.6	1.9
Steals per game (SPG)	0.9	0.7
Blocks per game (BPG)	0.1	1.0
Turnovers per game (TO)	2.6	2.0
Field goal percentage (FG%)	50.0%	46.6%
Free throw percentage (FT%)	79.0%	89.7%
Games played	38	40

For comparing a PG to a PF the stats are pretty comparable.  However, my final knock against David West, is that he can't carry his team.  The main crux of this being exhibited on Monday's game against Portland, where the Hornets were outscored 38-15 in the 4th quarter after Chris Paul went down with a groin injury, causing the Hornets to fall to the Blazers 97-89.  This was after the Hornets entered the 4th quarter looking the game was comfortably in hand, leading 74-59.  David West, arguably the second best player on the team, just couldn't muster the floor leadership to carry the team through.  Don't get me wrong, I think West is putting up impressive numbers, but I just think that there are players more deserving of the spot than him, there's no reason New Orleans, 5th in Western Conference standings needs 2 All-Stars in the game when Denver (3rd) and Portland (4th) only have one, if you want to go the, "Well New Orleans is a good team" route.  I think the David West vote just fell because he was there last year.

Two players I think should've made it without a doubt over West are Al Jefferson from the Minnesota Timberwolves or Kevin Durant from the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Firstly, while OKC and the T'Wolves have both been struggling teams, their gameplay has definitely improved, and a large part of that is due to the stellar play of these two young stars.  If we break it down further, here's what we get:

2008-2009	Kevin Durant	Al Jefferson
Points per game (PPG)	25.0	22.9
Rebounds per game (RPG)	6.6	10.7
Assists per game (APG)	2.7	1.5
Steals per game (SPG)	1.2	0.7
Blocks per game (BPG)	0.8	1.7
Turnovers per game (TO)	3.2	1.8
3 pointers made (3PTM)	1.3	0.0
Field goal percentage (FG%)	47.6%	49.7%
Free throw percentage (FT%)	86.0%	74.6%
Games played	47	47

I don't think you can look at these stats and say that they're performing worse than David West.  Some people might say "but the Hornets are much better than the T'Wolves and Thunder" which is true, which makes the case for Gasol being there, but then why not Melo?  "He's missed too many games.", ok well, what about Nene?  What about LaMarcus Aldridge?  You see where I'm going here.  I don't really care that this is the Western Conference, the more "competitive" conference, because saying that these two shouldn't be in here is the same as saying Devin Harris and Danny Granger shouldn't be All-Stars because New Jersey and Indiana both suck.  Granted, it's questionable whether or not you can argue a case for both of them in over West and one of Shaq or Parker, but definitely at least one of them should be in over David West.

BTW, for those wondering, here are the stats for everyone else in the ASG for the West, just so you know how hard this decision is:

The Starters:

2008-2009	Chris Paul	Kobe Bryant	Amar’e Stoudemire	Tim Duncan	Yao Ming
PPG	21.5	27.4	21.2	20.6	19.8
RPG	5.4	5.5	8.1	10.4	9.5
APG	10.9	5.1	2.1	3.7	1.7
SPG	2.8	1.3	1.0	0.5	0.4
BPG	0.2	0.4	1.1	1.8	1.6
TO	3.1	2.7	2.9	2.2	3.2
FG%	49.9%	48.0%	53.7%	52.0%	54.6%
FT%	86.4%	86.8%	83.2%	68.9%	86.6%
GP	45	47	46	47	46

The Reserves:

2008-2009	Chauncey Billups	Brandon Roy	Dirk Nowitzki	Pau Gasol	Shaquille O’Neal
PPG	18.3	22.2	25.9	17.9	17.9
RPG	2.6	4.6	8.3	9.1	9.0
APG	6.4	5.1	2.4	3.4	1.7
SPG	1.4	1.2	0.7	0.4	0.4
BPG	0.3	0.4	0.7	0.9	1.6
TO	2.2	1.9	2.0	1.9	2.2
FG%	41.2%	46.8%	47.9%	55.6%	58.9%
FT%	81.5%	81.9%	91.5%	79.2%	62.3%
GP	46	43	46	46	39

You already have all the stats for the wildcards.  Another name I'd throw out there might be Jason Terry, who is averaging 20.3 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.4 spg, and 2.2 threes shooting 46.9% from the field, 87.2% from the line, and 36.7% from downtown (sorry I didn't include 3pt shooting stats in the above tables).  However, if you're going to pick a second player from a team, I suppose you'd pick it from the better team.  I would guess coaches felt that they gave the Mavs (currently 7th in the Western Conference) their due by selecting Dirk.  Besides, I'd still take Durant or Jefferson over Terry, and one of those three over West.

Oden: Thanks for pointing out.  My pick is Durant, mainly because there are no SFs on the West roster.