Embiid got squeezed out of a starting spot in a four-man frontcourt tier of MVP candidates .
When we submitted our choices for All-Star starters last week, my Eastern Conference starting five included Embiid and Brown, so they are locks to make my reserves as the top frontcourt player and guard off the bench.
Harden is the unofficial leader at 11 dimes per game but is two games played shy of meeting the statistical minimum to qualify.
This final wild card was a tough call, as players like Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday, Miami’s Jimmy Butler and New York’s Jalen Brunson were all strong candidates.
Embiid leads the NBA in points per game and has posted two 50-point games and seven 40-point games, the most recent happening last week against Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
The Sixers are pleased with the chemistry between Harden and Embiid, who has received quality looks in the post, along the elbows and on the nail partly because of Harden’s playmaking.
It became difficult to determine the rest of the field because the Eastern Conference’s parity makes for a lot of deserving players.
Though the Raptors are 5-5 without him, Siakam has played on the team’s five most productive lineup combinations and is averaging a career-best 25 ppg and 6.3 apg in a league-leading 37.7 minutes per game.
Randle was an All-Star two seasons ago and is enjoying a bounce-back, but is he more deserving than Jalen Brunson for the Knicks’ winning season? Does Harden get the benefit of the doubt because the Sixers are surging over, say, Bam Adebayo, who’s playing solid defense and averaging a career-high in points? Siakam is enjoying another strong season, but should he be penalized for the underwhelming results by the Raptors? Lots of factors come into play for the final four spots, but this group has earned the right to be All-Stars.
And Haliburton has averaged 20 points and 10 assists, with terrific efficiency for a team that was in the mix for a top-six seed before he got hurt.
Butler and Harden were tougher because they’ve played the fewest games/minutes among the candidates, but they’re both over the 1,200-minute mark and they’ve been too good when they’ve played to keep them off the list.
Pascal Siakam has the box score stats, but he hasn’t been very efficient, and the Raptors just haven’t been very good.
The Sixers’ center certainly felt so, taking out his frustration on the reigning two-time Kia MVP Jokic and his Denver Nuggets by lighting them up for 47 points and 18 rebounds on Saturday.
Brown should probably be a starter and Harden isn’t putting up the stats he did in his Houston Rockets days, so you could argue Jalen Brunson or Jrue Holiday deserve Harden’s spot.
This season, Adebayo is averaging 21.4 ppg, 10 rpg and 1.2 spg for a Miami team that ranks fifth in defense and is No.
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