I looked but didn't find anything. The complete rosters (save changes for injuries) are: East: Ben Wallace Jermaine O'Neal Tracy McGrady Allen Iverson Vince Carter Michael Jordan Jason Kidd Paul Pierce Antoine Walker Brad Miller Zydrunas Ilgauskas Jamal Mashburn In my predictions, I didn't pick Jordan or Miller but did predict the others. Instead, I predicted Jerry Stackhouse and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. West: Steve Francis Yao Ming Kobe Bryant Kevin Garnett Tim Duncan Shaquille O'Neal Stephon Marbury Shawn Marion Steve Nash Dirk Nowitzki Gary Payton Chris Webber In my prediction, I didn't choose Marbury or Marion, opting instead for Mike Bibby and Elton Brand. In fact, I have to wonder about these misses. Maybe Abdur-Rahim isn't All-Star material, but Brad Miller? I think there are 4 or 5 (dozen) guys I would have guessed before him. Not a bad player but not too close to an All-Star either. And Marbury and Marion both seem like legit choices. But, I have trouble passing on Elton Brand for Marion. Marion is good but doesn't approach the consistent game of Brand, imo. Here's the article: http://msn.espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0128/1499975.html What is notable about Artest's absence? Do I just give some of these Pacers a lot less respect than they deserve?
I predicted all the players in the East except for Brad Miller. I had Ray Allen penciled in instead. I can't believe they took two backup centers considering how many poor centers there are in the league. I only chose Illguaskus because he was a center. In the West I pedicted everyone but Marion. I had Karl Malone instead. I figured with as well as the Jazz were playing they had to at least have one player on the squad. And I agree with the voters in not giving Artest a spot. He is good but not an All Star. (but then again I think Artest is more deserving than Brad Miller)
Actually Miller is having a better stat year than Ilgauskas and his team has a great record. With the lack of quality Centers in the East somebody had to back up Wallace.
Miller is having a better year than I thought. His FG% is better (50.7% vs. 42.2%), his assists are higher (2.7 vs. 1.5) and his turnovers are lower (1.6 vs. 2.7). Plus he has a very slight rebounding edge: 8.4 vs. 8.1. But, Ilgauskas scores more (18.2 vs. 13.9) and has more blocks (1.9 vs. 0.7). But, there are still too many forwards in the east that put them both to shame. Why pick up a 3rd center?
I don't disagree with this. I was actually surprised Ilgauskas made it. His team is horrible and he doesn't have outstanding numbers I would have picked several other players over him. BTW the reason I knew Miller wa shaving a good season is not because he has been noticeable but that he is on one of my fantasy teams. CK
I really don't think that Jordan should have made it. Stackhouse should have made it over him (as well as Rose, or Davis). If you take away his name, he would not have even gotten consideration.
Marion 21.5ppg 9.60rpg 2apg 1.93spg 1.16bpg 2.09TO .445FG% 70-200 3's 35% 85.6%FT Antwawn Jamison is worse in almost every statistic. He averages 2ppg more but he doesn't have another 20+ppg scorer on his team. He shoots a higher percentage from the field but he took only half as many 3s to do that.Adjusted FG% Marion shoots 48.8% to Jamison's 48.1%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shawn Marion is clearly the #3 forward for the reserves this year, there is no doubt. Not as consistant as Brand? Check the game log and how much talent Brand has around him. What does Marion (Marbury) have? A ROY, JJ who plays like a star every 5th game only, no bench and 3 injured starters. He probably shoots the best percentage in the entire nba in the 4th quarter, is top5 in the crunch time stats all year.
How does the format of picking allstar reserves go? I guess its the same as fan votes, 2 guards, 2 forwards, and 1 center. I can understand if thats the format and thats how B. Miller got in, but if there is another way, I want an explanation!
If anyone had ANY doubts as to how valuable Yao is to us, the fact that Brad freakin' Miller got selected as a reserve All Star cinches it. The guy is better than a journeyman, but not much. Amazing.
I really don't have a problem with Marion over Jamison or Brand -- all 3 are deserving, but Marion's team is doing better, so more power to him. But it should be noted that because both Jamison and Brand are low-post players on teams without consistent perimeter threats, they draw far greater defensive attention from opponents, especially in the 4th quarter. Jamison, as a matter of fact, is regularly double-teamed without the ball whenever he goes into the paint. With the attention that has to be paid to Marbury and Stoudemire, I doubt that ever happens to Marion. Oh, and FWIW, the one time Phoenix and GS have played each other this year, Jamison kicked Marion's butt on both ends of the court.
I'm just glad Mashburn made it. I thought that was criminal when I heard he had never been on the all-star team before.
Until Artest can grow up mentally(not basketball thinking mentaility, but controlling himself), he doesn't deserve to be an all star. His antics have been ridiculous this year and if he did play it would be time for Shaq to teach Ron a good lesson.
The West's frontline is gonna eat the East alive. With Yao, Duncan, and Garnett starting, and O'Neal and Nowitzki backing up, that's 5 7-footers there.
I have heard alot of media, NBA execs, players, etc. whine about how they thought players like Artest, Rose, Hamilton, Stackhouse, and so on didn't make the East All Star team. That raises an interesting question. If all the players competing for reserve spots on the East team actually played in the West how many would make the team? The only two I can think of would be Kidd over Nash and Pierce over Marion. I don't think Jordan, Miller, Illgauskus, Mashburn, Walker, or anyone else in the East would make it in the West. So these complainers need to shut up and just thank themselves that they are even considered because if they were in the West they wouldn't even get looked at.
