No. 240 in the league, but was unexpectedly promoted to the All-Star starter!
Halfway through the NBA regular season this season, the situation in the East and West is gradually becoming clearer, the top four in the West are stuck together, and the Clippers have caught up with the top three after a wave of 25-7: Timberwolves, Thunder and Nuggets, while the Suns, Pelicans and Kings behind them are slowly pulling away from the gap. There is not much suspense in the East, the Celtics are unbeatable, the Bucks can hold the second position with offense alone, and the third-place 76ers have Embiid, the "regular season killer", can face any team, and in the case of not enjoying the bag, 30+ punch cards have become a daily standard. At the same time, the All-Star weekend is also coming, and the league announced the All-Star starters in the East and West, West: Alexander + Doncic + Durant + Old James + Jokic, East: Haliburton + Lillard + Tatum + Antetokounmpo + Embiid.
In fact, to enter the All-Star starter, the standard is not difficult, leading the team results and personal data. But among these 10 people, there is one name that is particularly abrupt. Let me start by giving you some of his stats for this season. He averaged 25.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, with a two-point shooting rate of 42.6%+34.7%, 23rd in the league in offensive efficiency of 121.1, 154th in the league in defensive efficiency of 114.5, and 33rd in the league in terms of round possession and game contribution value. In addition, he averaged 4.3 points per game in key moments, and many people have already guessed who he is based on that alone. But there's one statistic that's striking: he's shooting 51.2 percent this season, 240th in the league, and his true shooting percentage (weighted by free throws) is 60.3 percent, which ranks 95th in the league. He also averaged nearly 18 shots per game (8.6 three-point shots) and eight free throws.
He's Lillard. The way Lillard entered the All-Star starters was also very dramatic: first, the fans voted that he was the third in the Eastern backcourt: behind Haliburton and Trae Young, the players voted for the fourth in the Eastern backcourt, behind Haliburton, Maxey, Brunson, and the media voted for the fifth in the Eastern backcourt: behind Haliburton, Brunson, Mitchell, Maxey. But after the league's "fair and fair" weighting formula, Lillard finally scored 3.75 points, the same as Brunson, but because Lillard's fans voted more, the starters belonged to Lillard, not Brunson, who led the Knicks to fourth place in the East, or even Maxey of the 76ers!
It's not that he hates Lillard, but that he has no gold content and persuasiveness on the basis of being praised by the league, let's take three examples to understand. First, Lillard's offensive performance this season is very inconsistent, the 240th true shooting percentage in the league is the data presentation, and in the 41 games he has played, there are 2 games with more than 40 points, 11 games with 30-39 points, 17 games with 20-29 points, 10 games with 10-19 points, and 1 single-digit score, based on an average of nearly 18 shots per game, the true shooting rate is the lower level of the league, which is really average, and it all depends on the number of shots. Wearing a watch, it often takes several slumps to recover. Second, he averaged less than 9 shots from the three-point line per game, but he could get an average of 8.1 free throws per game, which is higher than the free throw master Embiid!
In the first half of the season, Lillard also entered the top 10 list of official MVPs 3 times, and compared it horizontally, the Clippers have won 25-7 in the past, Leonard has scored 2 times, both of which are crane tails, and Harden has only received 1 nomination. In the end, it is naturally Lillard's defense, and the most impressive is the Bucks' away game against the Rockets, Lillard scored 18 points on 5-of-16 from the field, 1-of-8 from three-point range, and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line. After a game, he was named at least 6 times by the Rockets' Jalen Green, Tate and even the veteran Holiday 6 times, that is, one-on-one singles, eaten raw, and none of them could be prevented. The Bucks' defensive efficiency this season has dropped to about 20th in the league, and Lillard has a lot of responsibility, without good defensive habits and an attitude of doing dirty work!
In the end, the pressure will fall on the inside brother and Lopez, and the playoffs will suffer a big loss! So, why can Lillard be an All-Star starter? Just because he can shoot key shots, or can he always attract the attention of the world when he wears a watch? But the efficiency is not high, and he only shoots 34.7% from three-point range this season. In horizontal comparison, Lillard started in the East, but the efficiency value is not even as good as Murray, who is tenth in the Western backcourt, Murray averaged 21 points and 6.5 assists per game this season, with a two-point shooting rate of 47.4% + 40.4%, and is the second oldest member of the team, and the Nuggets' record is not bad.
Including Harden, the fans voted for fourth place in the West in the first three rounds, but the result inexplicably fell to the sixth in the fan vote, and then the media voted 0 and the players voted eighth, and finally were surpassed by Edwards and Irving in a row! The league will suppress you and not let you enter the All-Star, does Harden have a place to reason? Curry, who has no cylinder, averages 5.6 free throws per game, which is worse than Lillard? At the end of the day, the All-Star Stage is still the league's final say, with fans going through the motions and symbolically participating, and the league only likes to praise those stars they consider to be individual heroes.