Every year, players are snubbed from the All-Star game. It’s inevitable.
Often, the snubbing can be chalked up to too much talent in the league. There are never undeserving All-Stars, so making selections for the last couple spots comes down to nitpicking. It’s rare that coaches make a flat-out mistake by not selecting a player, but that’s what happened this year with De’Aaron Fox.
When you break down Fox’s case, it’s baffling that he won’t be competing in the All-Star game. He’s top ten in the league in scoring, averaging a career-high 27 points per game. He’s one of basketball’s best slashers and mid-range scorers, and by becoming a borderline lethal three-point threat (he’s shooting a career-high 38% from deep on over seven attempts per game, and half of them are unassisted), he’s a virtually unstoppable bucket getter. He’s a great playmaker. He’s the lead point-of-attack defender on his team and one of the few All-NBA guards who compete on defense night in and night out. Long story short, he shoulders a huge load on both ends and contributes at an all-league level for a team firmly in the playoffs in a ridiculously competitive Western Conference.
If you don’t think that’s All-Star worthy, you don’t know basketball.
Of course, saying Fox should be an All-Star means he would have to take someone’s spot. Who would that be? Winning shouldn’t hold much weight in All-Star selection. It’s an individual accolade, after all. So, that said, Fox undoubtedly has a better case than Karl-Anthony Towns who currently holds a wildcard spot. You could argue that Fox has been the better individual player than Anthony Edwards, too. If you’re in the “winning does matter” camp, then there’s zero reason why Stephen Curry should be an All-Star over Fox. The Warriors aren’t even in the play-in and Steph is having a comparable individual season to Fox.
All of that is not to say that KAT, Ant, and Steph are undeserving. They should be in the game, but so should Fox. The real problem is that it’s time for All-Star rosters to be expanded. The NBA is more talented than it’s ever been. There are at least forty All-Star level players competing for just 24 spots and that’s unfair to the players, especially when individual accolades matter for their contracts and their legacies. Increasing the All-Star roster size to 15, the size of a real NBA team, makes so much sense it’s crazy the change hasn’t been made yet.
De’Aaron Fox has been inexcusably excluded from the 2024 All-Star festivities, and it’s blatant evidence of a problem that needs fixing. It’s time for change.
The Bench Mob Blog 