Luka Doncic deserves to start the 2021 NBA All-Star game over Damian Lillard

After putting up gaudy numbers through most of the season, there was little doubt that Luka Doncic would feature in his second consecutive All-Star Game. The Dallas Mavericks star averaged a double in January, a feat that only two other players – Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook – have done in NBA history.

While Doncic All-Star’s bid was a lockout, the news prompted him to start the controversial little game. Doncic found himself tied with Portland Trail Blazers defender Damian Lillard for a back-to-back starting point. Players and members of the media, which make up 50% of All-Star voting, gave Lillard a small margin over Doncic. The tiebreaker went to the player who got more fan votes, and that was Doncic. The fans got it right.

“I was surprised that he was connected, to be honest,” Doncic says. “I didn’t expect to start this game. I know Lillard may deserve more than I do. “

Doncic is going to be mediocre. The 21-year-old in Slovenia quickly brightens the attention and compliments the play of other players. Last season, when he was up for the best player award, he said Devonte was ‘Graham of the Charlotte Hornets’ more deserving of recognition.

However, it is easy to make a case for Lillard. The five-time All-Star is once again playing out of his mind. This season, he gets an average of 30 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7.9 assists. He also shoots 44.5% off the floor and 38.5% on three points. More importantly, Lillard’s ability to build his play late in games – known simply as “Dame Time” – is his team in the early playoff hunt.

It is these late game heroes that make Lillard famous. A player may not be as highly respected or feared in the closing times of a game in the NBA today. In the climax – the last five minutes of a game in which the score is within five points – Lillard shoots an eye 61.5% overall. Its three-point firing is even brighter at 58.8%. For comparison, Doncic fires just 48.6% and 27.3%, respectively, in clutch positions.

The Mavericks have recently undergone a classic “Dame Time” performance. In their game on Feb. 14, Lillard scored seven of the Blazers’ nine points in the final five minutes of the game, including a three-point dagger shot. His performance halted Dallas’ comeback effort, giving Portland a 121-118 victory.

Lillard’s worthy reel late performances will attract a lot of eyes. They certainly moved a lot of votes too. However, in just his third year, Doncic is proving to be just scratching the surface of his talent.

“He really deserves it,” Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle said of Doncic’s All-Star selection. “I had no doubt it was going to be the start of the game. It’s good for the organization, it’s good for our team, it’s good for it. We are early in a long and emotional life course. Every year, it has improved. Every year, he takes a new tool out of the toolbox. ”

Coming off last season’s First Team All-NBA selection, Doncic is playing at an even higher level. It has both increased its productivity and become more efficient. This season, he averages 29.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 9.4 assists. He is also having the best shooting season of his career, hitting 47.5% of his views overall and 33.5% from the back of the three-point arc.

In his last five games – the Mavericks haven’t played since Feb. 14 due to bad winter weather in Texas – Doncic has been raining down. He scored 186 points in total, a franchise record for a five-game race, and scored 40 or more points in three of those contests, including a 46-point high against the New Orleans Pelicans. In Dallas ’last three games, he made up more than 50% of the team’s total scoring with 118 points himself and added 32 assists leading to a further 78 points.

Beyond the numbers, it just picks defenses apart. Doncic will feature more patients on the floor this season. Instead of pushing the case, it is more calm and orderly in the half-court, waiting for plays or openings to develop. One wrinkle that came out of this is more confidence in his midfield game – something that has fallen out of fashion across the league. He shoots mid-range images at the highest frequency of his career and makes them at a clip that would make Dirk Nowitzki proud. He has even developed a Nowitzki signature signature one-legged fadeaway.

Overall, it links to 47.5% of its mid-range photos, per NBA.com. His favorite place to shoot from the angle. It is more effective from the right angle, where it lines 0.94 points per bullet. Last season, he took just 29 attempts from this area and scored just 0.76 points per shot. It’s already up to 35 hits this season.

Of course, it’s easy to go back and forth comparing both Doncic and Lillard games and stats. It’s fun too. They are both amazing players and deserve All-Star selections. At the end of the day, however, All-Star fan voting boils down to a popular contest. It’s a game for the fans, after all, and the Doncic fans chose desperately to start over Lillard.

Doncic collected a total of 3,335,042 fan votes. Lillard, meanwhile, captured 2,848,663 votes. That’s a difference of 486,379 votes. If this was an election, Doncic won in a landslide. No wonder he won as many votes as he did either. It has brought in international appeal.

Since joining the league, Doncic has been one of the best-selling jerseys in the world. His No. 77 jersey has been in the top 15 since his rookie season. During last season’s NBA restart, he had his second-highest-selling jersey, behind just LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

To be sure, contractual motivation is linked to the start of the All-Star Game. That’s at least one of the reasons the game promotes the best players in the league. Pride, no doubt, is also a factor. Fans don’t seem to care about any of that, though. They vote for their favorite players because that’s what they want to watch.

As for Doncic, it doesn’t matter who starts the game. It’s just about being able to say you were an All-Star.

“At the end of the day, in two years’ time, everyone will know that you were an All-Star – not the beginner, the non-starter,” says Doncic. “So in a year or two, nobody knows who started the game. All they know is that you were an All-Star. I think that’s the point, for me. ”