Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

When the All-Star voting officially started, fans took action and voted enthusiastically for their favorite players.

In fact, people were already discussing it before the All-Star voting began.

Especially in the west.

For many years, there has been a saying that the West is strong and the East is weak.

This season, with the trade and transfer of players during the offseason, there are more stars in the West, and the pattern of the West being strong and the East being weak is becoming more and more obvious.

There are too many stars in the Western Conference, making the competition for All-Star spots even more intense.

The first is LeBron James.

In the past decade, LeBron James has been in the Eastern Conference and has been the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference All-Star voting many times. His personal strength, historical status, and influence are unquestionable, but this season he came to the West.

Everyone wants to know whether he still has the same influence and popularity as before after coming to the West, and whether he can still win the All-Star vote lead?

Of course, no one doubts whether James can make the All-Star team.

Judging from his performance this season, although the Clippers' record is not good, it is probably a foregone conclusion that he will be selected as an All-Star starter.

One is James and the other is Durant, both of whom are regular All-Star starters. Their influence and fan base are there, and as long as nothing unexpected happens, their All-Star starting spots have basically been booked in advance.

According to the All-Star voting rules, there are three frontcourt players and two backcourt players.

This means that the two frontcourt seats in the West have already been reserved, leaving only the last seat.

There are many outstanding frontcourt players in the West.

In addition to James and Durant, there are Anthony Davis of the Pelicans, Paul George of the Thunder, Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets, Brook Lopez of the Lakers, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Timberwolves, LaMarcus Aldridge of the Spurs, Luka Doncic of the Mavericks, etc.

With so many people competing for one seat, you can see how cruel it is.

In fact, the competition for frontcourt players is not only fierce, but also fierce for backcourt players in the West.

Because there are also many excellent backcourt players in the West.

For example, Zhuang Yu, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of the Warriors, James Harden and Chris Paul of the Rockets, Russell Westbrook of the Thunder, Damian Lillard of the Trail Blazers, DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs, Devin Booker of the Suns, etc.

Needless to say, Zhuang Yu and Curry were both starting guards for the Western Conference All-Stars last season.

There is no doubt about their personal strength, performance on the field, as well as their popularity and influence. Last season, Zhuang Yu was the Western Conference and league vote leader.

With Zhuang Yu's performance this season and his Chinese identity, it is almost certain that he will be selected as an All-Star starter.

People are only concerned about whether he can become the Western Conference vote leader like last year. After all, there is now one more LeBron James in the Western Conference.

As for whether Curry can be selected as an All-Star starter again?

The fans are somewhat controversial.

The Warriors' record is certainly excellent, and they are now ranked first in the Western Conference and also first in the league. However, in terms of personal data alone, Curry is obviously not as good as Zhuang Yu or James Harden.

James Harden has performed really well this season.

Averaging 36.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game, these terrifying statistics are almost comparable to those of Michael Jordan.

Harden's performance last season was equally outstanding, averaging 30.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game, but he was ultimately not selected as an All-Star starter, which made many fans feel sorry for him, thinking that it was unacceptable that he could not be selected as an All-Star starter with such performance.

Harden's performance this season is even better. It would be hard to understand if he still was not selected as an All-Star starter.

Of course, Curry's performance this season is also very good, averaging 27.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. His personal data is even better than last season.

And everyone knows that if the Warriors didn't have Kevin Durant, Curry's averages would be even better.

In addition to Zhuang Yu, Curry and Harden, Russell Westbrook has also performed well this season. So far, he has averaged 23.2 points, 11.0 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game, averaging a triple-double for three consecutive seasons.

In addition, Damian Lillard of the Trail Blazers averaged 26.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 6.8 assists, CJ McCollum averaged 21.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists, Devin Booker of the Suns averaged 26.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 6.8 assists, DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs averaged 21.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 6.2 assists, Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz averaged 23.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.2 assists, Mike Conley of the Grizzlies averaged 21.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 6.4 assists, and Klay Thompson of the Warriors averaged 21.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists…

In the past, a player who averaged 20+ points per game had a high chance of making the All-Star team.

If he can average 20+5+5 per game, there is a high probability that he will be selected as an All-Star starter.

But now, not to mention the Western Conference frontcourt players, there are more backcourt players who can average 20+ points per game than you can count on both hands. Even those who average 20+5+5 or more may not necessarily make the All-Star starters.

This is scary!

This is a change of the times, a change in the overall playing style of the league, and also because there are more and more excellent players.

In the past, averaging 30 or points per game in the regular season was enough to win the regular season scoring title, but now it is impossible to even hope for less than points per game.

Even in the same season, there was more than one player who averaged over 30 points per game in the regular season.

In this era of data explosion, the NBA even had to modify the rules of the All-Star voting to maintain the fairness of the voting process.

For the players, the competition becomes increasingly fierce.

To be selected into the All-Star team and the All-Star starting lineup, they not only have to play well enough, but also have to play better than their competitors.

Therefore, there is no industry that is not subject to internal competition, even the NBA!

Of course, the few people at the top of the pyramid don’t need to worry too much because they are so powerful.

For example, Zhuang Yu.

So far this season, he has averaged 30.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.0 blocks per game, with comprehensive and gorgeous statistics.

As one of only two players in the league with an average score of over 30 points per game, coupled with the Lakers' excellent record, the huge Chinese market and countless Chinese fans behind him, it was not difficult for Zhuang Yu to be selected as an All-Star starter.

On the first day of the All-Star voting, Zhuang Yu topped the Western Conference All-Star voting, with 1 more votes than LeBron James.

LeBron James is second and first in the Western Conference frontcourt.

The second in the Western Conference frontcourt is Kevin Durant, the third is Anthony Davis, the fourth is Paul George, and the fifth is Mavericks rookie Luka Doncic.

This young player from Slovenia is hailed as a super genius and has achieved outstanding results in European competitions at a young age.

He has already attracted much attention before entering the NBA.

This summer, he was selected by the Hawks with the third pick in the first round of the draft and was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks.

Just after entering the NBA, he was established by the Mavericks as the cornerstone of the team and the core of the team. His performance was also quite outstanding, not like a first-year player at all.

In the past thirty regular season games, he averaged 21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, which are very impressive statistics.

And the game content he showed on the court did not look like a first-year rookie at all. He was even more experienced than some players who had played in the league for several years.

Luka Doncic's amazing talent, outstanding performance, Slovenian identity and handsome appearance have won him the love of many fans. His popularity has also earned him a considerable number of All-Star votes as a rookie.

Compared with the West, the competition in the East is obviously much smaller.

It is only the first day of the All-Star voting, and the situation is still unclear, but some clues can be seen in the Eastern Conference.

Currently ranked first among Eastern Conference frontcourt players is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks.

This is thanks to the Bucks' record this season, as they currently rank first in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, Giannis Antetokounmpo's personal performance is also very outstanding. In the past 30 games, he averaged 27.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. With his data and the team's record, if nothing unexpected happens, he will definitely be selected as an All-Star starter.

Behind him is Kawhi Leonard, who moved to the Raptors this season.

Although he changed his team, Kawhi Leonard's performance remains stable and outstanding, even better than when he was with the Spurs.

Behind them are Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler from the 76ers, and Jayson Tatum from the Celtics...

As for the backcourt players, the one currently ranked first in votes is Kyrie Irving of the Celtics.

In terms of personal data alone, Irving's data is actually not that impressive, averaging 23.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game, which is not as good as Damian Lillard in the West, and is about the same as Devin Booker of the Suns and DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs.

But he is in the Eastern Conference, where the competition is not that fierce.

His teammate Jayson Tatum averaged only 15.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game this season, but he ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference frontcourt player votes, which shows that the Eastern Conference is indeed much more comfortable.

Especially the defenders.

Behind Kyrie Irving are Dwyane Wade who has returned to the Heat, Kemba Walker of the Hornets, Ben Simmons of the 76ers, Victor Oladipo of the Pacers...

There is no need to say much about Wade. He is now just a substitute in the Heat, averaging 15+4+4. Obviously, this data is not enough to be selected for the All-Star Game. The reason why his votes ranked second among Eastern Conference guards is mainly because of his past accumulation, his fan base, and the fact that the competition in the East is not that fierce.

In fact, the one with the best average stats among these players is not Irving, but Kemba Walker. He averaged 25.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game this season, which is better than Irving, Wade, Simmons and Oladipo.

Except for Irving and Walker, Wade, Simmons and Oladipo's average points per game are all below 20 points.

If this were placed in the Western Conference, judging by the single-round data, it would probably be difficult for him to even make it into the top five backcourt players, or even the top ten backcourt players.

So it is still happy to be in the Eastern Conference. No wonder some people used to complain that James could only dominate the Eastern Conference and didn't dare to go to the West.

Now that James has gone to the West, the Eastern teams can finally be happy.

The only one who is unhappy is probably DeMar DeRozan.

When he was in the Eastern Conference, he was always bullied by James. In the playoffs last season, he was beaten by James to the point of being almost autistic, with no expression on his face.

Now that I have finally arrived in the West, I thought I could get rid of James' shadow, but I didn't expect that James also came to the West.

Is this over yet?