On January 28, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, at the same time, the NBA officially announced the starting lineup of the 2022 Cleveland All-Star, the specific list is as follows:
West – James (Ticket King & Captain), Curry, Morant, Wiggins, Jokic
East – Durant (captain), Trae Young, DeRozan, Alphabet Brother, Embiid
Generally speaking, the all-star starts are strong league stars, and this year is the same, and the vast majority of the rosters are familiar faces for fans, but there is also some controversy here, yes, we are talking about Wiggins.
As of today, Wiggins has played in 44 games for the Warriors, averaging 18.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, shooting 48.1% from the field, 40.4% from three-point range and 57.8% from the field.
First of all, we must affirm that Wiggins's efficiency has indeed improved, and his shooting percentage, three-point shooting rate, and true shooting rate this season are all career highs, but even after the improvement of Wiggins, it is difficult to talk about the All-Star level, after all, his points, rebounds, and assists have fallen to a new low in the past four years.
So only from these data to see, Wiggins is indeed difficult to reach the All-Star starter level, but, Wiggins's selection is really not an accident, the following is simply from several aspects to give you an analysis and analysis.
1. The value that data is difficult to reflect
We say that Wiggins's basic data is indeed not very good, but for the Warriors, Wiggins' role is indispensable.
On the offensive end, although Wiggins did not have many high scores, he had won 2 times 30+, but his output was very stable, and he could score in double figures in every game so far this season, even Curry had not done this;
Defensively, Wiggins has become one of the Warriors' best defenders on the outside, often against the opponent's arrow players, statistically speaking, this season's Wiggins opponents, the shooting rate dropped from 46.0% to 41.8%, these are basic data is difficult to reflect the things.
2, the first time or to see the popularity
All-Star starters have always fought for popularity, and in the final fan vote, Wiggins reached 3.45 million votes, ranking third in the Western Conference frontcourt, behind James (9.13 million) and Jokic (5.31 million).
In the media vote, Wiggins ranked sixth, in the player vote, Wiggins ranked fifth, these two votes his ranking is not as good as the dream Green, Gobert, but because the fan vote accounted for 50%, so Wiggins finally forced Green and Gobert to be selected as the starter.
3. The Warriors have an excellent record
This is a very critical point, from the perspective of the past years, the record has always been a criterion for all-stars, the most direct is in 2015, the first Eagles in the East directly four people selected as all-stars, the Warriors' current record is 35 wins and 13 losses, ranking first in the league, and it is normal for the two to be selected as all-star starts.
4. The western front is dismal
I have to admit that the competition in the Western Front this year is indeed not fierce, George has been injured for more than a month, Leonard has not returned so far, the thick eyebrows are also stopped, Gobert, Green, Downs is indeed stronger than Wiggins in terms of strength, but their popularity is not as good as Wiggins.
At the end of the day, the All-Star starter is not the best lineup - the league voting mechanism has been much better after the reform, in previous years, whoever has a high number of votes can enter the starting lineup, once the 2016 All-Star, Pachulia (768,000 votes) almost squeezed Outrant (782,000 votes) into the starting lineup, that is outrageous.
Speaking of Wiggins, as the leader of the class of 2014, Wiggins was placed very high expectations, but after eight years in the league, let alone an All-Star, he has not even won the best of the week, and this year's selection of the starter depends on strength on the one hand, on the other hand, there is indeed a luck bonus (too many competitors are injured).
At this stage of his career, it is not realistic to expect Wiggins to suddenly transform into a league superstar, but he has indeed proved that he has the ability to play as a deputy in a strong team, and this All-Star is a very wonderful compliment, I hope he can continue to maintain it.