Atticus771
02-10-2006, 11:06 AM
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5316462
Mahoney on Basketball: Should all Pistons starters be All-Stars?
Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders is going to the All-Star game. So how many of his players will join him?
The reserves for the Feb. 19 game in Houston will be revealed Thursday, and some people think every Detroit starter should get chosen - a reward for helping the Pistons roll to the NBA's best record.
The Pistons certainly wouldn't object.
"I think we deserve it," point guard Chauncey Billups said.
Maybe that's true. But Chris Bosh, Gilbert Arenas, Paul Pierce and Michael Redd also rate, and picking all five Pistons would mean leaving out at least one of the other guys.
The seven reserves on each team will be voted in by the head coaches in their conferences. Commissioner David Stern will later choose a replacement for Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal, who was voted in as a starter by fans but is injured.
Hopefully, those selecting the backups will first remember the point of the game: The players in an All-Star game should be "all stars."
And while Billups, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince are all great players, they aren't all superstars.
That point seems to be overlooked lately by people who think that All-Star berths should be a reward for team success.
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy had two players from his sub-.500 team voted in as starters, but said he wouldn't vote for any player as a reserve who played on a team with a losing record.
"It's not who you're taking it away from," Van Gundy said. "You're rewarding people who win, because those are the people who deserve to be rewarded."
And they will be - at another time. The reward for team success comes in the pursuit of titles. For great players on bad teams, the All-Star game is their biggest and best chance to showcase talents that are otherwise going unnoticed.
Does Bosh get left home because recently fired general manager Rob Babcock failed to build a good cast around him in Toronto? Should Pierce not get recognized for averaging better than 25 points per game because Danny Ainge hasn't settled on a plan that works yet in Boston?
The Pistons are one of the best run organizations in the NBA under Joe Dumars. They won a title and went to the NBA Finals twice in two seasons under Larry Brown, then have gotten off to one of the best starts in NBA history this season under Saunders, who will coach the Eastern Conference.
Still, none of their players was voted in as a starter, and the belief is that can be made up for by sending them all to the game as reserves.
Brown has made up his mind. The Knicks coach said he voted for all of his former starters.
"I think they've earned that right based on their performance," he said.
Billups and Hamilton are no-brainers, and Ben Wallace deserves to go for his rebounding and defense, plus the energy he provides to the Pistons. That leaves Rasheed Wallace and Prince, the two starting forwards.
Both are perfect players within the Detroit system, and the Pistons wouldn't be half the team they are without all the things the two of them do on both ends of the court.
But that doesn't necessarily make them perfect for an All-Star game, which is a showcase for individual offensive talent. Nobody is tuning in to see how somebody fights through a screen or defends a pick-and-roll.
In other words, would you rather see somebody like Prince or Vince Carter a week from Sunday night?
Clippers guard Sam Cassell, himself an All-Star hopeful, was making the case earlier this week that All-Stars should come from winning teams. He quickly had to amend his argument when it was pointed out to him that would mean not considering Kevin Garnett, his former teammate in Minnesota.
That's the problem with linking All-Star spots to team achievement. Only 13 teams had winning records after Tuesday's games, and there are just too many talented players to rule out more than half of the league.
The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, whose record of 72 wins is being chased by Detroit, put only Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the All-Star game that season. So if the Pistons feel they were snubbed, it shouldn't take them long to get over it.
After all, what makes the Pistons great is the way they play as a team, not as individuals. And for great teams, the rewards come in June, not February.
---
Brian Mahoney covers the NBA for The Associated Press. Write to him at bmahoney(at)ap.org
Anyone else notice just the tiniest twinge of jealousy? I'd be interested to see what city Mahoney is based in.
Mahoney on Basketball: Should all Pistons starters be All-Stars?
Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders is going to the All-Star game. So how many of his players will join him?
The reserves for the Feb. 19 game in Houston will be revealed Thursday, and some people think every Detroit starter should get chosen - a reward for helping the Pistons roll to the NBA's best record.
The Pistons certainly wouldn't object.
"I think we deserve it," point guard Chauncey Billups said.
Maybe that's true. But Chris Bosh, Gilbert Arenas, Paul Pierce and Michael Redd also rate, and picking all five Pistons would mean leaving out at least one of the other guys.
The seven reserves on each team will be voted in by the head coaches in their conferences. Commissioner David Stern will later choose a replacement for Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal, who was voted in as a starter by fans but is injured.
Hopefully, those selecting the backups will first remember the point of the game: The players in an All-Star game should be "all stars."
And while Billups, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince are all great players, they aren't all superstars.
That point seems to be overlooked lately by people who think that All-Star berths should be a reward for team success.
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy had two players from his sub-.500 team voted in as starters, but said he wouldn't vote for any player as a reserve who played on a team with a losing record.
"It's not who you're taking it away from," Van Gundy said. "You're rewarding people who win, because those are the people who deserve to be rewarded."
And they will be - at another time. The reward for team success comes in the pursuit of titles. For great players on bad teams, the All-Star game is their biggest and best chance to showcase talents that are otherwise going unnoticed.
Does Bosh get left home because recently fired general manager Rob Babcock failed to build a good cast around him in Toronto? Should Pierce not get recognized for averaging better than 25 points per game because Danny Ainge hasn't settled on a plan that works yet in Boston?
The Pistons are one of the best run organizations in the NBA under Joe Dumars. They won a title and went to the NBA Finals twice in two seasons under Larry Brown, then have gotten off to one of the best starts in NBA history this season under Saunders, who will coach the Eastern Conference.
Still, none of their players was voted in as a starter, and the belief is that can be made up for by sending them all to the game as reserves.
Brown has made up his mind. The Knicks coach said he voted for all of his former starters.
"I think they've earned that right based on their performance," he said.
Billups and Hamilton are no-brainers, and Ben Wallace deserves to go for his rebounding and defense, plus the energy he provides to the Pistons. That leaves Rasheed Wallace and Prince, the two starting forwards.
Both are perfect players within the Detroit system, and the Pistons wouldn't be half the team they are without all the things the two of them do on both ends of the court.
But that doesn't necessarily make them perfect for an All-Star game, which is a showcase for individual offensive talent. Nobody is tuning in to see how somebody fights through a screen or defends a pick-and-roll.
In other words, would you rather see somebody like Prince or Vince Carter a week from Sunday night?
Clippers guard Sam Cassell, himself an All-Star hopeful, was making the case earlier this week that All-Stars should come from winning teams. He quickly had to amend his argument when it was pointed out to him that would mean not considering Kevin Garnett, his former teammate in Minnesota.
That's the problem with linking All-Star spots to team achievement. Only 13 teams had winning records after Tuesday's games, and there are just too many talented players to rule out more than half of the league.
The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, whose record of 72 wins is being chased by Detroit, put only Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the All-Star game that season. So if the Pistons feel they were snubbed, it shouldn't take them long to get over it.
After all, what makes the Pistons great is the way they play as a team, not as individuals. And for great teams, the rewards come in June, not February.
---
Brian Mahoney covers the NBA for The Associated Press. Write to him at bmahoney(at)ap.org
Anyone else notice just the tiniest twinge of jealousy? I'd be interested to see what city Mahoney is based in.