Billups deserved it. He doesnt have many years left on the tires, and has played great this season (esp with Melo out). Maybe next year Brooks.
I'm all for winners getting selected, and would be happy for Brooks if he went, but it's hard to argue for Billups or Brooks over Monta Ellis. Sure, the Warriors don't win, but should they with that squad? I mean, we saw it last night - it's Monta and a bunch of who? Coached by Don Nelson to top it off. Granted, maybe Monta's stats are therefore inflated a bit, but could he put up what Billups is doing for Denver? Of course - doesn't mean I think Denver would have the same record or anywhere near the same chance of going deep in the playoffs (Monta is in many ways similar to a younger Allen Iverson after all), but they'd still have a solid, top of the Western Conference record with Monta as a key component, imo. He's the league's 6th leading scorer (and only one in the top 10 not an all-star), he's 3rd in steals, he's 17th in assists a 5.4 per game, and he grabs 4.2 rebounds a game. Yes, all stats inflated do to style, system, lack of other talented players, and yes, on a consistently losing team, but I think he should have been selected.
So, basically, you invalidated all the concrete arguments you made to support Ellis being in the All-Star game. OK. And no, Ellis could not do what Billups does in Denver.
No, I just pointed out that I understand the statistics might be inflated. They also might not. We can't know either way and they are what they are. In terms of leadership, no. But then, I think Shane is as good or better "leader" than Billups, and nobody is lamenting his lack of selection on the all star team. Leadership plays a huge role, but then so does, in my mind, simply being one of the best players in the league. I think Monta is one of the top 25 players in the league, and one of the top 12 in the West. That's just me. There are plenty of examples of players with great stats on crappy teams going on to better teams and still never winning, or going to better teams and winning a lot, or going to better teams and having their statistics go down, or going to better teams and having their statistics go up, etc, etc. I think Monta's play this year is deserving of an all star spot. I don't care that much, though.
He's not a shooting guard but aren't guards just lumped together as one category? So it's still possible I think. I think at least one Rockets player deserves to get in. We have pretty identical records to the Grizzlies, the Jazz, the Blazers, the Suns and the Thunder and each of those teams has at least 1 all star in. And Brooks has definitely been carrying this team along with Landry. Makes sense to me...
We always hear about how there is some equity when it comes to how well teams are doing and how many All-Stars they have. For example, the Lakers, who are 1st in the West, have 2. The Celtics, who are 3rd in the East, have 3. The Hawks, who are 4th in the East, have 2. This isn't exclusive to the top of the league, however. The Grizzlies, who have been playing absolutely incredible basketball, have 1 All-Star (Randolph). The Bobcats are also having a great season, and thus Wallace was selected to the All-Star team. Despite our last couple of weeks, we've been playing very well, even before considering we're without our 2 stars. I think we should at least have some equity on the All-Star team, which would have been Brooks this year. He's really been playing well; it's hard to think that only 1 year ago he was coming off the bench and Alston was our starting PG! All that aside, I'm not too upset about Brooks getting "snubbed". There are many players who get snubbed every year, so it's not anything new. I would really love to see him in the 3 Point Contest though!
The most significant difference between the two is efficiency. Ellis's individual offensive rating is only 99, when the league average is 107. That means uses up a lot of possessions, but doesn't produce points efficiently with them. His FG% looks high, but he's a below-average efficiency scorer (.52 TS%) because he shoots poorly on 3s and doesn't capitalize at the free throw line like he should (low free throw attempts for a player with his athleticism, and poor conversion rate). Ellis also is a high turnover guy. Billups, in comparison, has a 121 individual offensive rating, which is outstanding. There's no way Ellis would match that if he was replacing Billups in Denver. I don't think he has the skillset for that.
I noticed every +.500 team has at least 1 all star except the Rox, every +.500 team except the Rox. Understandable but comeonnn. If a guard needs to be replaced it would be inexcusable not to replace him with Brooks.
Good for Billups, he deserved it. But are you guys still remember there is another player who had responsed on the All-Star voting system? Sorry, ray allen you got bad luck for no one was going to decline in East.
