Seems to be some discrepancies here between the sites. 15th in assists on the ESPN site.
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/assists
But you are right, I overlooked some things he leads in. 5th in field goal attempts, 4th in field goals missed.
I guess I was guilty of only looking for the positives. Geez, way up there in attempt, but can't make the board
in success leaders. That is a problem.
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/field-goals
As Mags already mentioned:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015_leaders.html
Rather than just cherry pick a few stats, you may want to scroll down the page and get to the ones that really matter - the ones that indicate how much a player helps his team win games. After all, isn't Wins the ultimate state.
Start with the most important one WS (Win Shares). Lillard is 6th in the entire league. Everyone above him (Harden, Anthony Davis, CP3, Curry and Jimmy Butler) is an all star. Durant, Westbrook and Cousins don't even make the top 20.
OK, so Lillard plays a lot of minutes. So, maybe that'w why he racks up so many WS. Not really. He ranks 10th in the entire league in WS/48. The only two non-all stars above him are two centers (Chandler and Jordan). Westbrook is 13th and Durant and Cousins aren't in the top 20.
Box Plus/Minus - Lillard is 7th in the entire league. All those above him (Westbrook, Curry, Harden, LeBron, CP3 and Anthony Davis are all all stars).
Value Above Replacement Player - Lillard is 4th in the league. The three above him (Harden, Curry and CP3) are all stars.
By these advanced stats, Lillard is certainly a top 10 player. Combine it with his raw numbers (21.8 ppg, 12th in the league, 6.2 apg , 14th in the league) and Lillard is certainly one of the top 24 players in the league and one of the top 12 in the Western Conference, and therefore, deserves to be an all star.
Speaking winning... In spite of all the injuries, the Blazers are still tied for the 4th best record in the entire NBA and 3rd best in the very tough Western Conference. ATL got 3 all stars, GSW got 2, LAC got 2. POR getting two all stars makes a lot more sense than 10th seeded OKC getting two, or even 12th seeded SAC getting one.
Lillard got snubbed. Lillard got screwed. I hope he shows everyone of the Western Conference coaches who didn't vote for him why they were wrong.
BNM