The Cleveland Cavaliers are having another good season and one of the reasons for that is because of the All-Star play of Darius Garland, the Cavs point guard. He was named an All-Star a year ago, but this year he is being snubbed by the NBA, especially by the opposing coaches in the league who have recently voted for the reserves.
The starters for the game were announced last week and Cleveland’s other guard, Donovan Mitchell, was named a starter. That selection was based a lot on the fan’s vote which in essence was a popularity contest. Because of that, the other starter selected for the Eastern Conference team was Kyrie Irving and that started this snub of Darius Garland to the reserve team.
Two of the reserved guards that were selected from the Eastern pool were DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls and Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks. The NBA coaches also voted for any two players at any position and that helped put a player like guard Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in the game as well.
For the record, the other reserves for the Eastern team include forward Bam Adebayo, of the Miami Heat, guard Jaylon Brown of the Boston Celtics, center Joel Embid, of the Philadelphia 76ers, and forward Julius Randle of the New York Knicks. The NBA coaches voted for three frontcourt players, so that means that probably Haliburton and DeRozan were the extra guards that were selected in front of Garland.
No. 3 All-Star that shouldn’t have made team: Jrue Holiday, G, Milwaukee Bucks
Jrue Holiday is having a good season with the Milwaukee Bucks but in general, it hasn’t been the difference in the success of his team. Holiday is averaging a nice 19.2 points a game to go along with seven assists a game as well. He’s been sidelined 11 games this year while starting in 39. He’s had 11 games of dishing out more than 10 assists.
Holiday is a great player but Garland, in only his fourth season in the league, is having a better season. Regarding assists, Garland has had 15 games of 10 or more assists and 25 games of having more than five assists which is more than the 23 games that Holiday has in that department. Regarding steals, Garland has six games where he collected more than three in a game while Holiday only has four. Now he’s not the defender of Holiday, but Garland is much-improved on that end in the team scope.
While the scoring averages are similar, Garland’s is at 22 points which is better than Holiday’s (19 pts) as well. In addition, when you start looking at the consistency of those scoring games, Garland has shown more of that and has had many more big games of scoring north of 30 points. Garland has seven of those so far and Holiday only has four of those.
No. 2 All-Star that shouldn’t have made team: DeMar DeRozan, G, Chicago Bulls
DeMar DeRozan may have a better scoring average than Garland this season, but in almost every other statistical category Garland has DeRozan’s number. Also, the Chicago Bulls are going nowhere and DeRozan is way past his prime, while Garland is a rising star in the NBA.
DeRozan is an outstanding player and would be deserving of this reserve role selection to the All-Star if it weren’t for the fact that there are younger players like Garland that are waiting in the wings. DeRozan has a 26-points-per-game scoring average, but he doesn’t come close to Garland in many other categories, including in the assist department.
Garland has had 40 games of five or more assists, including 15 games where he’s had 10 or more. DeRozan only has one game this year where he dished out more than 10 assists. When you talk double-doubles, Garland has had 15 of them, thanks to that assist category, while DeRozan has only produced three of those games.
In terms of helping his team out in the win column, DeRozan is sitting at a 23-25 record, while Garland has a 23-22 record to date. The win percentages aren’t that different, but what Garland can do moving forward this season to get his team to the playoffs is a lot more than DeRozan will be able to do for his Bulls team.
No. 1 All-Star that shouldn’t have made team: Tyrese Haliburton, G, Indiana Pacers
This selection to take Tyrese Haliburton might be the toughest argument to make in favor of Darius Garland because Haliburton has an excellent all-around game like Garland. He’s averaging a double-double in terms of points and assists this season as he’s going for 20 points along with 10 assists per game. That scoring average is his best yet in his young NBA career.
Haliburton has collected 23 double-doubles between points and assists in only 41 games, while Garland has collected 15 of those games. While Haliburton has collected a winning record while he’s played, he’s missed 11 games this season and because of that his team is struggling with a 24-29 record and trying to stay close to the competition in the Eastern Conference.
The fact that the Cavs are in the playoff picture, ranked as the No. 5 seed right now and the Pacers are floundering toward the bottom of the pack, is one of the main reasons Garland should have made the All-Star Game instead of Haliburton.
Garland definitely has the statistical numbers to be in the big NBA showcase game instead of DeMar DeRozan and Jrue Holiday and that’s too bad that the coaches around the league didn’t consider that more in their selections. And beyond that, to not recognize that Garland is a rising star and that he made the All-Star team as a reserve a year ago is disappointing.
I believe part of the dilemma for the coaches too was that DeRozan was named a starter in the game a year ago along with Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks.
The selections of Donovan Mitchell and Kyrie Irving this year as East starters made the decisions with the reserves very tricky in a deep pack of guard players that are deserving in their own rights.