Talking All-Stars two weeks into the season? It happens when David Stern and co. attempt to stuff 66 games into 120 days. The All-Star balloting is already up on NBA.com, and you’ll start hearing campaigns emerge for players like Andre Iguodala, Andrea Bargnani, Tyson Chandler and LaMarcus Aldridge. But they’ll be players this year missing out just as there always are.
With that, I decided to show some love to the guys who will probably never make it for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s luck. It could be winning. Or it could just be media hype.
This is not a top 10 of players who’ve never made it. There are a few – mostly young players, but even studs like Monta Ellis and Rudy Gay who’ve been around the block – who easily have the potential to make an All-Star team or two (For example, I think eventually Ellis or Gay could break in to one or two midseason showcases. Therefore, I didn’t include them.). These are the guys I find that either 1) lack the high-end potential to break in 2) lack the big name or hype sometimes needed to drive a player into the showcase or 3) lack a situation that calls for them to not only put up big numbers, but more importantly to win.
These 10 guys are the NBA’s best current players I don’t believe will ever play in an All-Star Game.
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10. Jason Terry
He’s in that Andre Miller career mode. Terry has forever been one of the leaders of one of the best organizations in basketball. He’s been Sixth Man of the Year. He’s made Finals-clinching shots and now even has a ring. But he’s never making an All-Star team. For his career, Terry puts up almost 16, three and five a night. Nothing about that stands out.
I really don’t think he cares either. It’s hard enough being a 6-2 scoring guard (ask Monta Ellis). Terry passed the “I’m going for mine” marker and into the “Nothing matters but winning” category a long time ago. Yet even now at 34, currently averaging 14.3 points and 3.9 assists, the JET sits just on the outskirts of the All-Star Game.
9. Luis Scola
Scola epitomizes the Rockets: hard-working, skilled but ultimately flawed. If the world only cared about one end of the court, Scola might be one of the best power forwards in the game. Instead, he’s a 16 and eight player who gets beasted nearly every night defensively. The Rockets are the worst defensive team in the entire league this season (108.1 defensive efficiency). A lot of that blame has to go to Scola.
Internationally, his awkward game turned him into a superstar. In the NBA, he’s maxed himself out at nearly 32 years old.
One final thought: to break into the All-Star Game as a power forward might be the single toughest spot. Nearly every team in the league has a four man who can give you 15 and eight on any given night. Scola has been solid for three or four consecutive years. But solid – on an average team – won’t get you far enough.
8. Marcin Gortat
One of my favorite young players in the league if only for his terrible Jumpman tattoo and the fact that he’s on my fantasy team. I respect his game enough that I almost didn’t take a Ginobili/Gortat swap my boy offered me just before the season started (Doesn’t he feel stupid now that he took down the trade offer before I could move on it? Manu’s out for a while.).
In the desert mess that is the Phoenix Suns, Gortat started the year off with a broken digit and a few pathetic lines. The Polish Hammer had averaged 13 and nine during his stint last season in Phoenix and was expected to make another jump. As it is, Gortat’s overcoming that atrocious start to lead the NBA in shooting (63 percent) while averaging 12 and seven a night. As probably the second-best player on Phoenix’s roster, those numbers should keep going up.
Gortat is like Tyson Chandler without the hype (almost necessary to make an All-Star Game when you’re on the edge). Chandler defends a little better. Gortat finishes a little better. But the difference came last season when the narrative was Chandler turned the Mavs from ashy to classy on the defensive end. He might not be having the same impact in New York, but that label will stick with him. All Gortat ever had was the dude with the ugly tattoo who backed up Dwight Howard.
7. Al Jefferson
People in New England still sprinkle Jefferson with roses. He was their baby, the future. It’s too bad for Big Al that his best years came on bad teams – first in Boston when he was considered a future All-Star, and then in Minnesota when he put up huge numbers on a couple of teams that no one bothered to watch. To average 22 and 11 over a span of two seasons and never make the All-Star Game is a shame. But hey, when you win only 44 games during that time, you can’t really complain.
This season, he’s dropping around 18 and eight every night. But no one talks about him as an All-Star anymore. His time has passed.
6. Danilo Gallinari
Mike D’Antoni called him the best shooter he’s ever seen. New Yorkers called him the future. I’ll call him a nice – just a decent – player. One of the outlooks I’ll never understand or agree on with fans is the concept of the breakout player. If a guy is under 27 years old, everything thinks he still has the Leap in him. Gallinari? He’s a 23-year-old 6-10 shooter who can put the ball on the floor, is reasonably athletic and plays in a system that’ll let him shoot and run.
But there are a few problems. He’s been the same player now since 2009. Book him for 15-17 points and five rebounds a night. By now, if you can’t see he doesn’t have Dirk-lite potential then something’s wrong. He’s a phenomenal third peddle. But third peddles rarely make midseason classics.
Where he’s really improved this season is with his playmaking and defense. But again, bumping your assists from 1.8 to 2.7 a night won’t get you any more All-Star votes.
5. Ryan Anderson
Are you as shocked as I am? It’s not because Anderson is averaging 18 and seven while hitting over three triples a game. It’s because quite honestly, who would’ve ever thought some ordinary-looking dude from some ordinary school (Cal) who has an ordinary, and believed-to-be extinct game could actually back up what all the bloggers said about him? Anderson has been killing since the minute he broke into the league with New Jersey in 2008. But there have been dozens of bit players putting in work during limited minutes; Anderson broke the mold and kept up his surprising pace even with starter minutes.
Whereas Anderson could play a big role for a championship contender, I can’t see him ever playing in an All-Star Game. At the end of the day, Dwight Howard sits back against his velvet-pillowed couch, turns on his 80-inch big screen television and gets to thinking “Ryan Anderson is the next-best guy I have.” That’s not going to be what keeps Superman around. I think that’s all that needs to be said.
4. Kyle Lowry
Lowry needs some love. He really does. You may not have bothered to notice, but at least statistically, Lowry was one of the top five guards in the league in the final third of last season. This year, all he’s doing is averaging 15 points, six rebounds and 10 assists. He’s the perfect bulldog point guard: someone who doesn’t back down, won’t shy away from the moment and plays with a contagious energy. You can win with Lowry.
Despite the numbers, I’d be shocked if he ever made the league’s ultimate showcase. First of all, Houston isn’t winning right now (2-6) and if Lowry were to leave to go find a winning team, he’d almost assuredly come off the bench. Small, cannonball lead guards who play with that patented Big East energy are perfect backup point guards. Does anyone doubt Lowry is a better player than Mike Conley? Even back at Memphis earlier in their careers, that’s what it looked like. But Lowry normally came off the bench. Memphis had more invested in Conley, and it was just a better fit.
Then there’s the competition. How will Lowry sneak in there with so many points (Westbrook, Parker, Rubio, Lawson, Paul and Nash) already claiming their space in the Western Conference?
3. Lamar Odom
Has there been a more disappointing player this season than Odom? He’s out of shape (Rick Carlisle now has him on an individualized program). He was hurt more by the Laker divorce than anyone else (The Lakers mourned the loss for a few days. Odom still looks like he misses the beach.). And now in Dallas, he’s struggling to fit in on a team that’s struggling to put even two games together. Blame it on Khloe.
Odom isn’t even averaging 20 minutes a night right now, and his numbers (less than seven and five a night with only ONE BLOCKED SHOT so far) are pathetic. Still, we all know what he’s capable of. Just a few months back, he was coming off a season where he dropped 14.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and three dimes a night on 53 percent shooting. He’ll still be the best bench player in the league whenever he decides to wake up.
2. Kevin Martin
Despite shooting below 45 percent from the field for his career, Martin has been one of the most efficient, effective and coldest scorers in the game for a minute. Last season, if Houston had given him just a little more PT, Martin could’ve been top five in the league in scoring (he averaged 25.9 points per 36 minutes).
But Martin will never make it for a few reasons:
1) Houston is too middle-of-the-road. You can’t hate ’em because they’re never that good, and you can’t use them as a punching bag because they’re never that bad. No one cares enough about them.
2) There might not be a player in the whole league who’s less hyped than Martin. Go outside right now and ask five knowledgeable sports fans if they know anything about him. Shoot, even J.R. Smith gets more pub than this cat.
3) Two guards are supposed to inspire and excite us. Martin’s most exciting move are the wild floaters he shoots. He’s the average actor consistently playing the background characters while bartending and bussing tables on the side.
4) Too much competition on the wings. Martin scores at an all-pro pace, but does virtually nothing else. He doesn’t rebound. Can’t create. Doesn’t play much defense. I’m willing to bet if his shot didn’t look like Sarah Jessica Parker, we’d be more in love with him.
1. Nene
Does he put up bigger numbers than some of the other cats on this list? No. But try telling me he’s not the best player. Nene is tough, physical, unselfish, plays hard and has a motor… everything you’d want out of a big man. Despite his slow start this season (12 points, eight rebounds), he’s had three straight years where you could pencil him in for 14-15 points and seven-eight rebounds.
The Nuggets re-upped him this offseason for $67 million over five years and no one batted an eye. Legit centers who can score and yet still look like they could snap Josh Childress in half are hard to come by. In fact, you might not find another big man in the whole league with his combination of physicality and touch.
And yet, I don’t think I’m alone in predicting he’ll never make an All-Star Game. Denver looks like they’ll be a top three team in the West this year (at the very least, top five), and with that often comes a player or two picked for the midseason showcase. Ty Lawson would be the first one. The second one? Even though Nene could be their most important player, it’s hard to justify taking someone with such mediocre numbers. And at 29 years old, he is what he is. No one’s waiting on a breakout year.
Nene will probably never make an All-Star Game because he’s so unselfish. For Denver fans, it’s too bad Nene seems like too nice a guy.
Who are some players you believe will never make an All-Star Game?
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