The Golden State Warriors are laden with stars. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are all among the very best players in the game, and all of them have been All-Stars before. So why, oh why, is Zaza Pachulia, who lost his starting job to JaVale McGee this season, in the All-Star fan voting starting lineup?
It seems like deliberate trolling on the part of Warriors fans, who are trying to get Zaza into the game so that all five Warriors starters can make it (Curry and Durant are locks, while Klay and Draymond could easily be coach’s selections), but it’s a gross miscarriage of the privilege of All-Star voting, and a perfect example of why the NBA restructured voting for this year.
Thank goodness that the fan vote now counts for only 50 percent of the All-Star selections, with the other half divided evenly between press and the players. With Zaza likely to get zero votes from those two sources, the fans’ gambit doesn’t look likely to pay off.
Pachulia is averaging 5.2 points and 5.8 rebounds, not exactly All-Star numbers. And his defense leaves even more to be desired. So while he’s on the best team in the West, and the best team in a conference typically gets a couple All-Stars, it’s not as if Zaza is blowing anyone away – including Steve Kerr, who has given Pachulia a whopping 17.7 minutes per game – with his play this season.
Still, though: Zaza was a sneaky-valuable part of the Bucks and Dallas when they had some moments in the past couple of years, but he hasn’t been that player for Golden State, if only because the scariness of the rest of the lineup means teams would rather go at him all game. For goodness’ sake, he’s ahead of Kawhi Leonard. One team has noticed, and vows to put a stop to it with this incredible Vine:
https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/817093954684391424
