The NBA has released the early voting results for the NBA All-Star game slated on February 19 at Charlotte, North Carolina and unsurprisingly, Jeremy Lin of the Brooklyn Nets made it in the Top 10 among all Eastern Conference guards.
Lin’s team, the Brooklyn Nets, is languishing at the cellar of the Eastern Conference, with a woeful 8-26 record as of January 7, and unless he is a superstar in the mold of Kobe Bryant, it is unlikely for the 28-year-old Harvard graduate to make it to the East All-Star team. There is also another option where the designated coach picks him as backup point guard.
Based on tradition, the coach of the highest-ranked team in the East and the West before the All-Star break shall be the designated coaches for the All-Star team representing their conference, so it is possible that it is going to be a match-up between Tyronne Lue of the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and Steve Kerr of the league-leading Golden State Warriors.
As it is, Jeremy Lin stands at No. 8 among guards with 59,962 votes. But his ranking is better than his former teammate at Charlotte Hornets, Kemba Walker and Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley, reports the International Business Times.
While Lin is expected to get more votes in the days to come because of his popularity among Chinese fans and his team’s market size, it is unlikely for him to make it to the All-Star East team unless he makes it to the Top 2 in voting for Eastern Conference guards.
The top vote-getters
As it is, Kyrie Irving of the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers is leading the votes among Eastern Conference guards followed by Dwyane Wade of the Chicago Bulls with 278,052 votes. The list is followed by the Toronto Raptors’ backcourt duo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, with Boston’s Isaiah Thomas on the fifth spot and Washington’s John Wall at sixth place.
Unless Jeremy Lin can dislodge Kyrie Irving from the first place or Dwyane Wade from the second spot, there is no way that Tyronne Lue would pick him as part of the guard rotation of the NBA All-Star East team.
It would be unfair of Lue to pick Jeremy Lin over the likes of Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics or Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets as the two teams are in serious contention for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Lin cannot be like Kobe Bryant last year whose team was almost in the cellar of the Western Conference but he still made it to the NBA All-Star West team by virtue of having the most number of votes from fans for guards in the West.
That’s in addition to the fact that last year was Kobe Bryant’s swan song in the NBA so the fans gave him a warm send-off by voting him to the All-Star despite the miserable standing of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Respectable averages
Jeremy Lin is currently logging in respectable numbers although he had only played 12 games as he was bothered by back and hamstring injuries early in the season.
He is averaging 13.9 points, 5.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor.
Kemba Walker, on the other hand, is norming 23.2 points, No. 17 in the league, along with 5.4 assists and 1.3 steals and he’s shooting 41.8 percent from three.
Avery Bradley is logging in 17.8 points and 6.9 rebounds, each career highs, and he is considered to be among the small handful of players capable of defending both guard positions very well.
Jeremy Lin was set to have a stellar year for the Nets, as he played well before he suffered his second hamstring injury of the season, notes Fansided.