Damian Lillard was not happy when he was not chosen to the Western Conference all-star roster. He made that very clear by taking his emotions to Twitter. (Tweet Below) The Trailblazers have played 215 games since they drafted Lillard with the 6th overall pick in 2012 and has started every game for them. Lillard has improved every year and became an all-star last year, but was left off the team this year despite having a better year than last. The third year point guard has averaged an impressive 21.6 PPG, 6.3 APG, 4.7 RPG and 1.5 SPG. He has helped the Trailblazers run away with the Northwest division with a record of 35-17. Portland is the four seed in the Western Conference and seems to be a true contender. There is no doubt that he was very deserving of being on the all-star team but every year there will be snubs, Lillard being one of the biggest this year. He was added to the all-star team on Sunday as Blake Griffin is out due to a staph infection. Lillard joins his teammate, LaMarcus Aldridge, on the all-star team for the second straight year. This is the first time since 1977-1978 that the same two players from Portland were selected to back-to-back all-star games, Maurice Lewis and Bill Walton were the last to do so. Western Conference coach, Steve Kerr, will choose Griffin's replacement in the starting lineup. I think he will either choose LaMarcus Aldridge or Kevin Durant.
Lillard was upset about being a snub and made how he felt public. In every sport there will be snubs and there is no way of getting around it. Adam Silver has already said that he is considering adding more spots to the all-star rosters, something I would be in favor of. There are a ton of good players in the NBA and having regular roster sizes isn't big enough. Another way that snubs could be avoided is to not have fans vote for the starters. I know the NBA won't gt rid of this because the fans would be furious, however when Kobe Bryant gets selected as a starter there is something wrong with the system. I like the idea of getting fans involved but most of the time it is a popularity contest rather than actually voting for the best players. A big reason is that a lot of people don't know a lot of the lesser name NBA players that deserve a spot. Another idea that I would like to see the NBA explore is a fantasy draft. I really like how the NFL does this because it adds another interesting aspect to an otherwise worthless game. Plus, the NBA has done this for the Rising Stars Challenge in the past years. Having a fantasy draft would also let fans see players play with other players they normally would never see. It would be fun to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis join forces for a game. No matter what the NBA does there will always be snubs, there is no way of getting around it. However, expanding rosters would help decrease the amount of snubs per year and holding a fantasy draft would increase interest in the game, in my opinion.
Lillard was upset about being a snub and made how he felt public. In every sport there will be snubs and there is no way of getting around it. Adam Silver has already said that he is considering adding more spots to the all-star rosters, something I would be in favor of. There are a ton of good players in the NBA and having regular roster sizes isn't big enough. Another way that snubs could be avoided is to not have fans vote for the starters. I know the NBA won't gt rid of this because the fans would be furious, however when Kobe Bryant gets selected as a starter there is something wrong with the system. I like the idea of getting fans involved but most of the time it is a popularity contest rather than actually voting for the best players. A big reason is that a lot of people don't know a lot of the lesser name NBA players that deserve a spot. Another idea that I would like to see the NBA explore is a fantasy draft. I really like how the NFL does this because it adds another interesting aspect to an otherwise worthless game. Plus, the NBA has done this for the Rising Stars Challenge in the past years. Having a fantasy draft would also let fans see players play with other players they normally would never see. It would be fun to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis join forces for a game. No matter what the NBA does there will always be snubs, there is no way of getting around it. However, expanding rosters would help decrease the amount of snubs per year and holding a fantasy draft would increase interest in the game, in my opinion.
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