MELO DENIED!

He will probably be added due to Boozer and Yao's injuries.

But they are clearly sending a message.

DD

 

i hope they add melo and not josh howard.

 

I always thought it was the coach who selected the reserves.

I don't think D'Antoni was sending a message, more likely he just picked a bunch of his own players like Stoudamire.

Plus missing 15 games is a lot.

 

Yeah I saw this too.. crazy man. I thought he'd atleast be a reserve

 

a strong message.

 

No, all of the NBA coaches vote on the reserves -- not just the coach for the ASG. David Stern will select the injury replacements (Yao + Boozer).

 

I like the message.

 

It still makes sense, the coaches voted for guys from the best team in the NBA (who more than likely tore their own team up), rather than a guy who missed 35% of the first half of the season due to suspension for an average team. I've got no problem with that.

 

it's a stupid message. the punishment was 15 games. which melo served. it was not 15 games and the all star game. if you say he shouldn't play b/c he's missed so many games, then neither should Yao if he came back healthy tomorrow.

if the fans voted him in, he should go. the league should not be retroactively punishing melo for it.

 

I read that yesterday and wondered why there wasn't a thread about it here.

Has this ever happened before? The league leader in scoring not making the All-Star team? I certainly can't remember a previous example. But you know, Melo isn't the only guy who isn't going to Vegas who should be. Ray Allen isn't going either. That blows me away. And of course, Elton Brand and Zach Randolph.... I don't like Randolph, but you can't argue with his numbers.

 

The coaches didn't suspend him. They voted based on performance.

Carmelo is the 25th leading scorer in the NBA based on total points, due to reasons entirely within his control.

I don't see anything wrong with not giving All star appearances to guys who don't play for significant stretches, especially when its their own fault.

I wouldn't have a problem if Yao wasn't selected as a reserve due to being injured and missing significant time.

 

with stern selecting the injury replacements, i don't think melo stands a chance.

my money is on josh howard getting one spot and either camby or okur getting the other.

usually players from losing teams don't get all-stars. allen, brand, randolph, gasol, miller, artest, davis, etc... also, guys who've been out for a while usually dont get in like odom, paul, and melo.

 

How can it be a "message" when it is done by votes from 30 different individuals unless you believe in some sort of conspiracy theory? I personally think that the coach voting is the fairest way to select "deserving" players.

BTW, is Yao's replacement selected by Stern going to be the starter? If so, it really sucks. That means someone who missed TWO cuts of the selection process would start over the coaches' choices.

 

no, yao's replacement doesn't have to start. i think most assume dirk will get the starting C spot. this also helps open up more forward spots, which the west needs. although the coaches didn't seem to think so when they voted parker in over some of the forwards.



and in a vacuum, melo's situation would not keep him out of the ASG. missing 15 games, but still being the leading scorer would've gotten him in. there's no doubt that the fight is why he wasn't a reserve. there may have been some of the 30 coaches who wouldn't have voted for him, but i think there's little doubt that the fight changed enough minds to make him fall below other reserve possibilities. the leading scorer has never not gone to the ASG. i'm guessing he would've had to have missed at least half their games and maybe still been out when the decision was made to keep him out sans fight.

 

that's a shame. i have him on my fantasy team and the dude always gets 30 points.

i think he'll replace boozer or yao's spot though.

 

Hollinger explains the reason for the forwards being snubbed.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2007/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&id=2751487

Blame the system.

It's easy to think that the Western Conference coaches are fools for taking three guards on the All-Star team when the conference is dominated by forwards. It gets even easier when one realizes the league's leading scorer was among the omissions.

But the result of any vote is only as good as the system it uses, and in this case the All-Star voting process has a fairly obscure flaw that can lead to results like the ones we saw Thursday. The way it's set up, it's possible for multiple players at a position with weak competition to make the squad ahead of better players at a very strong position, even if that's a result that none of the coaches intended.

Let me construct a model of the vote and walk you through it so you can see what I mean. The system requires the coaches to choose two guards, two forwards, a center and two "wild cards" from any position. The league then tallies up everybody's votes and announces the winners.

We'll begin with the Western Conference guards. One of the choices was obvious: Steve Nash. Presumably he was on every ballot except Mike D'Antoni's (coaches can't vote for their own players). But at the other guard spot, suppose that the coaches were evenly split between Tony Parker and Allen Iverson as the second guard, and that no other candidate drew a vote. Additionally, suppose that D'Antoni would vote for both since he can't select Nash. In this example, it's possible that each would end up with eight votes from the 15 coaches.

Now move on to the forwards. Again, there were two fairly obvious choices: Dirk Nowitzki and Carlos Boozer. Dirk was probably unanimous except for his own coach, and Boozer may have been, as well (the votes were cast before the extent of Boozer's knee injury was known).

At center, Amare Stoudemire was also probably a near-unanimous choice (though it doesn't affect the discussion any if Marcus Camby got a few votes.)

Here's where it gets tricky. The coaches can also select two wild cards at any position to fill out their roster. Presumably they all went for forwards, given the strength of the position in the West. But if they all went for different forwards, there's a real problem. Suppose that among the four primary candidates at forward -- Shawn Marion, Josh Howard and Elton Brand -- Marion pulled down 11 votes while the other three got seven apiece.

In that case, when the league tallied up the votes, the final result would be:


Nowitzki -- 14
Nash -- 14
Boozer -- 14
Stoudemire -- 14
Marion -- 11
Parker -- 8
Iverson -- 8
Anthony -- 7
Brand -- 7
Howard -- 7


So Parker and Iverson would make it ahead of the three forwards, even though no coach (except D'Antoni, who had to) put both players on their ballot. Which is a striking outcome, because it produces three guards on the team even if every coach wanted only two.

And the more muddled the forward picture gets, the more likely this scenario is to happen. For instance, if Zach Randolph had pinched a few votes from the other three at the bottom, the margin between the two guards and the forward would be even greater. In fact, in extreme cases it's possible to end up with four guards and two forwards on the team even if the coaches wanted four forwards and two guards.

We can't know whether this is what happened because the league doesn't announce the voting results, but it's the most logical explanation. And if it is the cause, this probably isn't the first time. For instance, the Eastern Conference had a few weird years at the start of the decade when two centers made it as reserves even though the league was dominated by guards -- this model shows why.

Is there an easy way to fix it? Sure.

Have the coaches vote for the five subs at each position first. Then have them vote for the two "wild cards" at any position from the players that are left. It would take a little longer and wouldn't produce a tidy little announcement of all seven players at once. But if that system were in place, the Western Conference would have four forwards and two guards on the squad like everybody intended, rather than an All-Star team nobody would have selected on his own.


John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider

 

Good. He is a freakin punk anyways.

 

randolph deserves a spot on the team.

 

No Michael Redd, Zach Randolph(totally deserves it), No Melo, and No Joe Johnson who is 9th in scoring in the league!