Curry beat out Chris Paul last year. I think Lillard can beat them both. Why? The Shot, Conan, NBA Live, national TV commercials. And he had a better postseason than Curry. What do you think?
25% chance. Some one could get injured. But if Westbrook has the thunder in the playoffs by himself then it will be between him and cp3/curry/Lillard/dragic, in that order.
I wouldn't bet against him. Probably depends on Clips vs Blazers record and I think we'll hold our own. I wouldn't be surprised if we were leading the conference at the half way mark.
0.00% To be a starter, he must be voted in by the fans. Here's the voting from last year: http://www.basketball-reference.com/allstar/NBA_2014_voting.html Curry got 4x as many votes at Lillard, and Kobe, who couldn't even walk, got almost 4x as many. Jeremy Lin, who was a back up in Houston got over 2x as many votes as Lillard. Lin will get even more votes as a starter for the Lakers this year. Harden will get more votes, so will Kobe and Westbrook. Like last year, there will be injuries, but not enough to push Lillard into the top 2 in fan voting. BNM
It won't matter. This is fan voting, it has nothing to do with team perfomance and very little to do with current individual performance. It's based on reputation and popularity. That's why Kobe, who only played in 6 games (and sucked) got almost 4 times as many votes as Lillard last year, and why Jeremy Lin got over 2x as many. CP3 has national commercials and plays in LA. Doesn't matter who's leading the Western Conference at the break, CP3 (and Kobe and Lin and Curry and Harden and Westbrook) will have more votes than Lillard. BNM
That was last year, dude. Last year's voting means nothing. Curry made it because he shined in the playoffs. How did Curry finish the year before? Beating Paul ,who plays in LA, was impressive. I'm well aware that it's voted on by the fans and Kobe will definitely make it. But Lillard has done a LOT since the last All Star game. NBA Live, Conan, The Shot, commercials etc, this resonates with the fans. Look at Paul George. He made it. Durant makes it in a small market. Last year's voting means nothing. And look at what I said when I started this thread and in this post. His popularity among the average NBA fan has gone WAY up. Even Laker fans LOVE Lillard for eliminating Dwight Howard from the playoffs. It was their favorite moment of the playoffs. Read Lakersground. Neither made it last year. I say Kobe and Lillard.
It's indicative of a trend. Fans vote based on reputation and popularity. It was that was last year, that way 20 years ago and will be that way this year and every year where the fans vote for the starters. It would have been more impressive if CP3 had not been injured during the entire voting process. He missed basically all of January and did not come back until 2 games before the All Star break, after the voting had been closed. OK, there's on of your starters. Lin has the double whammy of being both a Laker and Asian. Yeah, Lillard is better, WAY, WAY better, but he was better last year, too but Lin got over twice as many votes as Lillard in spit of being a back up for the Rockets. Add the Chinese vote and the Laker vote together and that trumps Lillard beating Dwight in the playoffs. It's not just Kobe and Lin and Curry and CP3 that Lillard has to leapfrog in the voting, it's also Harden and Westbrook. He may pass a couple of those guys and there may be a couple of injuries, but I don't see any possible scenario where Lillard leapfrogs all 6 guys who got more votes than him last year. If anything, a healthy CP3, a healthy Westbrook (who will lead the league in scoring until Durant gets back) and Lin as a Laker starter will all get MORE votes than they did last year. BNM
Drexler also made the original (only) Dream Team and 1992 and was voted one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. Lillard got cut from TeamUSA this summer. I'm not saying Lillard doesn't deserve it (it's close). I'm saying he won't be voted in by the fans. BNM
I think the fan vote should only account for 40% of the starter votes. The rest should be coaches and GMs, IMO.
If Lillard isn't in the lead for League MVP, he has no shot to start the all star game baring injuries.