Harden will likely be a starter and is a lock to make the team, but I think Gordon is a pretty big long shot to be an All-Star. If you look at the West right now, guards are insanely deep. Obviously Harden, Westbrook and Curry are locks. But then you've got Paul, Lillard and Thompson, who are all better players and more likely to get in. So that's six guards right there. Based on the way the rosters are set up, the most back court players you can likely have on a roster, barring major injuries, is six. Of those six players, who is Gordon going to get in ahead of?
No. Because some of DJ, Marc Gasol, LMA, Conley ,Hayward and Gobert will be left out. So unless there are many injuries they will get in. When there are injuries you don't have to replace guard with guard. Gordon doesn't have a chance.
Lillard is having a sub par year, he is not even the best guard in his own team. Being said that, there is zero hope EG can get in before the other 5 guys ahead of him.
I don't think McCollum is better than Lillard (statistically he's a tier below), but he's another guy who I would probably put ahead of Gordon if I were ranking guards in the West right now.
Exactly. Even if a guard goes down, there's just too much talent overall in the West for Gordon to get in. I would love to see him make the roster, but I think it would take multiple injuries for Gordon to have a shot.
McCollum clearly is shooting the ball better and more efficient than Lillard this year, even the stats will show the differences. Also attendance counts, Lillard missed 5 games due to injury and McCollum was carrying the team by himself only.
Lillard: 26.3/6.1/4.8 on 44.8%/34.2%/89.1% shooting percentages with a 58.6% TS%, 23.3 PER and a .166 WS/48 McCollum: 23.8/3.8/3.6 on 48.4%/42.5%/90.3% shooting percentages with a 59.3% TS%, 21.2 PER and a .133 WS/48 McCollum's shooting percentages look great on paper, but he's only slightly more efficient than Lillard as a scorer because Lillard gets to the line twice as much. And Lillard produces far more overall on the court in terms of scoring, playmaking and rebounding than McCollum. I like CJ a lot, but he's not on Lillard's level yet. McCollum is basically the poor man's Klay Thompson, while Lillard is the poor man's Curry.
It's quite possible. And if neither of those guys make it, there's zero chance that Gordon gets in. But if I were a betting man, my guess is that Lillard makes the team as the fifth guard over Thompson. And if they end up carrying six guards, I think Lillard definitely gets in.
I think the logic choice will be 5 guards and Thompson will get in over Lillard because his team is better. and they will go 7 forwards.
As for front court in the west, obviously Zaza and Blake are not going to make it, so there isn't much left for debate but I would think they will choose Gasol over LMA.
In Windhorst opinion Steph Curry won't make it as a starter because the players dont' like him and won't vote for him. He also said that many players dont' appreciate Kawhi and think that all the praise is not deserved and his more a system player.
I believe that. We saw it with Harden 2 years ago with the "Players" MVP. I think most players feel like Curry gets off easy with having so many star players on the team. Everyone knows Draymond is the heart of that team. Players respect Harden, Westbrook and LeBron because they are grinders and put their teams on their backs.
