(The original article was published on November 28 by Kirk Goldsberry. The content of the article does not represent the translator’s point of view.)
According to the characteristics of its voting mechanism, NBA All-Star games can become some form of popularity competition. So, will the All-Star game to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2023 be different?
The starting lineup of the All-Star game is decided by the fans, the media and other players, and its replacement lineup is selected by the coaches of the whole league. Excellent performance is very important, but fame is almost equally important. Some players may not be able to win the selected honor because they are not famous enough.
Take last season as an example. Of the 24 All-Star players originally announced, 20 have had the experience of all-star selection. Although seven players completed the all-star debut, three of them were selected by NBA President Adam Xiaohua to replace the injured players. However, every year, there are still players who can enter the All-Star for the first time depending on their own strength. In fact, just three seasons ago, there were as many as nine candidates for the first time in the 2020 All-Star game career, and some of them-like Trey Yang, Dong Qiqi, mitchell and Tatum-have become people’s long-term choices and are likely to appear again in the All-Star Game in February 19 next year.
There are not many all-star candidates who can follow the above stars this year. Let’s see which five players are most likely to make their debut in 2023.
1. Xie Yi-Kyrgyzstan-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
In NBA history, a total of 62 people once scored more than 30 points before the All-Star game in a certain season, of which 60 were selected as All-Stars (54 of whom were selected as the All-Star starter). The only two players who were not selected-Chamberlain in 1970 and Dantley in 1983-were still absent due to injuries.
So put the name of Kyrgyzstan-Alexander into this season’s All-Star lineup.
The 24-year-old Thunder combo guard is now one of the best scorers in NBA, ranking third in the league’s scoring list with an average of 31.1 points, second only to donchich and curry. This data alone has qualified Alexander to be an all-star, but this rising star is not just an excellent sports war scorer. He is one of the most active attacking players in the league.
So far in the season, no player has made more breakthroughs than Alexander, and only eight players have taken part in more shifts than him.
In the past 19 games, Alexander’s usage rate was higher than that of Lakers forward James, basketable Nets forward Durant and warrior defender Curry.
Oklahoma City relies on his ability to lead the attack for a reason-when he performs well, Thunder will encounter good things. This season, when Alexander was present, Thunder scored an average of 114.6 points per hundred rounds, ranking eighth in the league. When Alexander took the bench, this important data dropped sharply to 102.6 points, which was the last in the league.
He is one of the most creative and self-sufficient high-yield scorers in the league, combining fengshui ball skills, footstep movements and various shooting methods, which is no less than any player under the age of 25. This season, he also greatly improved his scoring efficiency.
According to Second Spectrum, Alexander scored an average of 1.02 points per shot last season, which was the 35th percentile (that is, it is better than 35% of the players in the league). By this season, he can get 1.15 points per shot on average, which is the 74th percentile (translation: 74% better than the players in the league).
His small increase in efficiency is mainly due to the improvement of jump shot hit rate. Last season, in the hands of the 100 most active jump shots in NBA100, Alexander ranked 95th in efficiency, and the effective hit rate of jump shots was only 44.7%. This season, his efficiency has risen to the 52nd place, with an effective hit rate of 50.8%, although it is only slightly better than the average level of the league, but it is also a significant improvement in this league of “shooting in or losing.
As a jumper, he is also one of the few young players who are still looking for opportunities for China investment. In this era when NBA gradually abandoned the two points outside the penalty area, Alexander went up against the current. His two-point shots outside the penalty area this season ranked in the top ten in the league, while among the top ten, only Durant, DeRozan of Chicago and enbide of Philadelphia had a higher hit rate than him. Maybe he was influenced by the experience of Paul’s team a few years ago (or not?), However, he is becoming one of the few young CIC experts in NBA.
His arsenal is no less abundant than any young scorer in the league. He is using the way that the three hit rates are infinitely close to 50-40-90-his 39.1 percent hit rate is the only data below the sacred threshold of 180 clubs-step by step towards the most perfect in NBA, the most efficient high-yield scorers.
2. Teresa Halliburton, Indiana Pacers
Last season, when Pacers exchanged All-Star player Sabonis for a group of assets led by Halliburton, people thought that the 22-year-old young defender (Halliburton) would be selected as an all-star one day. But few people expected this day to come so fast.
This season is Halliburton’s first full season in pacers. He is in the league’s leading position in almost every important indicator of shooting creation. Second Spectrum data tracking shows that his passing game can produce 26 shots per game, ranking first in the league, and even ahead of all-star players like jokedge, Harden and Paul. He averaged 10.9 assists in winning the league, scoring as many as 28.9 points for Indiana-also the most in NBA.
Halliburton’s self-attack ability is also elite, and 76 percent of his scores this season are not assisted. According to the data given by Second Spectrum, Halliburton ranked third in efficiency among the 50 players with the most active scoring method in the league this season who are mainly free from assists, the effective hit rate is 58.3 percent (the average NBA level is 49.1 percent), second only to Curry and Mitchell, two All-Star regulars.
This summer, ESPN predicted before the start of the season that Pacers would rank at the bottom of the East with a record of 23-59. Due to the rise of Halliburton, the Pacers have the top 10 offensive levels in the league and have won ten games, ranking in the top four in the east.
Two seasons ago, the new Championship epidemic took away the All-Star Game from Indiana, forcing the league to move the venue from Indianapolis to Atlanta. Halliburton is worthy of being selected as an All-Star for the first time in his career, so he can slowly make up for his previous regret.
3. De Aron-Fox, Sacramento King
The King is already the subject of heated discussion in the whole alliance. They played a terrible attack under the guidance of Fox in every match, and Fox’s performance was also the best in his six years of entering the league.
24-year-old Fox once won the title of one of the fastest players on the court. This speed is still one of his personal labels. When he was present, the king was the team with the fastest pace in the league, playing 104 rounds on average every 48 minutes.
The score data given by Fox has always been an all-star rating. He has scored more than 20 points in each of the past three seasons. This season, he even had a further improvement, with the highest 25.4 points in his career, two-point hit rate (%), three-point hit rate (%) and free throw hit rate (%). They all have the best career.
More importantly for Fox’s All-Star appearance, the king is winning the competition. Looking back on his career, we can find that Sacramento never got a regular season ranking higher than the ninth in the West before the All-Star game. In the past five seasons, the King entered the All-Star weekend with a record of 13th in the West four times. Although it is still a long time before the All-Star vote, the King has won eight of the past eleven games and came to the fifth position in the West, fox and his teammates are expected to end the longest playoff drought in major professional sports events in North America (from 2006). There is no doubt that he can get a seat in the All-Star game.
4. Lauri-malcanin, Sir Utah
Like Indiana and Sacramento, Utah was not considered to have performed well this season. Uh, but the Jazz did quite well. The outbreak of malcanin made the team make an amazing start to the season.
After the inconspicuous Bull career and Knight career, the July 2017 show played the best score data of career. He can get 22.0 points in the game now. The huge offensive space created by coach will Hardy for the team gave him a new glow. According to Second Spectrum, the 7-foot (2.13-meter) markanin’s total hits in the penalty area this season ranked eighth in the league. In the 20 most active inside shooting of NBA this season, his efficiency ranked second, with the inside field goal percentage as high as 66%(NBA average is 57%).
Marcanin’s three-point hit rate also reached 36.5 percent this season, but that is only part of the story. According to Second Spectrum, markanin shot 111 points in receive the ball with a hit rate of 40.5 percent, which is the largest forward in the league. As a 7-foot-tall player, his ability to open space to defense is crucial to Utah’s offensive space.
Malcanin was obtained by Utah from the Knight in the Mitchell deal. He is a model among the big men of modern NBA. He is tall and strong, with excellent skills. He is not only a terrible three-point pitcher, but also has internal deterrent power. Compared with his figure, his shooting ability and the ability to break through from three point line to the basket are especially impressive, and played a huge role in Utah’s pursuit of space-it may also bring jazz an all-star player who will fight at home.
5. Desmond Bain, Memphis Grizzlies
Bain would have been the most likely player to finish his first all-star show this season if it weren’t for the sprained right toe at the beginning of this month. In terms of performance at the beginning of the season, no one has attracted more attention than him.
In the fourth game of this season, Bain’s limelight overshadowed Durant and Owen, scoring the highest 38 points in his career and sending out seven assists (also equalizing the highest point in his career), helped the grizzly beat basketable nets. That night, Bain shot 13 shots without assists, hit 10 times and got 26 points on his own, he also announced to NBA that he had become a scorer much more mature than the past two seasons.
Bain is already one of the most threatening young three-point shooters in the league. His three-point shot in his career was close to 900 times, and the hit rate was an astonishing 43.6 percent. But in his first two seasons in the league, most of his three-point shots were assisted by his teammates. Although his receive the ball was compared with an elite pitcher like Thompson before he shot three points, his hot State this season came from his independent shooting ability, and his mastery of this new skill is prompting people to discuss his upper limit again.
During the rookie season, he shot five unassisted shots per hundred rounds on average. Last season, the number increased to 10.1. This season, although he played around Morant, one of the most frequently used players in the league, the figure continued to climb to 14.5 times.
In the professional basketball world, the most critical characteristic of superstars is the independent scoring ability that takes into account efficiency and output, which is exactly what Bain practiced in the third year of his career.
Unfortunately, Bain’s amazing performance at the beginning of the season was severely hit by injuries. However, he may still have enough time to rebuild his image as an all-star hot candidate if he can return to the stadium Yogueta december.
6. Other candidates
Tyres-Maxi, Philadelphia 76ers
The eye-catching start of the season in macciana was also stopped by injuries, which may make 76 people win a few fewer games, and may also make maxi miss his All-Star debut. Before he suffered a foot injury, he could get more than 22 points in the game, providing 76 people with a stable three-head position beyond enbyd and harden. Now he is in a state of truce. Yogueta he missed a month or more, then it may be difficult for him to get enough support to be an all-star.
Anthony Edward, Minnesota Timberwolves
Edwards is only 21 years old, but he has already shown great light. In the third year of his career, he was on the road to all-star, but he was not very close to the destination. Timberwolves’s record was higher and lower, and Edwards’ key data did not change much compared with last season. But Minnesota has suddenly won five of the past seven games. If Timberwolves can maintain such a victory momentum and Edwards can also be hot in December, he is likely to be an All-Star this season.
Jay Brunson, New York Knicks
Brunson played well in the first 20 games for the Knicks, with the highest scores and assists in the team. There is no doubt that he became a strong player early, but is he an all-star player? We have to wait and see for a while, especially because his group of players in the eastern backcourt is full of many famous candidates.
Paul bankero, Orlando Magic
If a rookie will squeeze into the all-star lineup this year, it will lead the rookie scoring list with an average of 23.2 points. As a player, his data is impressive, but magic only achieved a 2-10 record in his games. Further observation shows that there is still room for progress in his jump shot. According to Second Spectrum, bankero hit 26 shots in 94 jump shots this season, with a three-point hit rate of only 26%. However, poor shooting efficiency is not an abnormal thing for the rookie, and we should respect bankelo’s data. He can finally enter the all-star, but will it be this year?
Aveney Simmons, Portland Trail Blazers
In his fifth NBA season, Simmons upgraded. He now has an average score of more than 23 points, which is another versatile Portland scorer beside Lillard. Last Friday, when Lillard was absent, Simmons showed his all-star qualification to the world. He scored 38 points in 25 shots, shining Madison Square Garden, and led the pioneer to win the Knicks. That was his best match of the season. Yogueta can devote more such performances in the next two months, then he can become an all-star player this season.
Original: Kirk Goldsberry
Compilation: asteroid falling
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