We're halfway through the season and the Clippers are once again one of the 5 best teams in the NBA and on the fringe of title contention, they even have about the same record as last year almost like clockwork. As such, they deserve to have at least 1, probably 2, of their players representing them in Toronto. Which begs the question: Who is the Most Deserving Clipper All Star This Year?
While Blake Griffin and Chris Paul have the star cache to be the likely nominees, are they the most deserving Clippers? This season with injuries to Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, Redick turning into the human torch, and a few games without DeAndre Jordan have made the question much closer than ever before.
I think a case can be made for each of the core 4 players. Blake started the year on a tear, and before going down was having probably his best all around year, seemingly supplanting Chris Paul as the team's best player. But he's missed about 25% of the season thus far, at what point does absence matter? Chris Paul struggled with a malady of injures early which have brought his numbers down, but has healed up and shone as an MVP level player again, especially with Blake out. The past few games with DeAndre out and DeAndre struggling with pneumonia have drastically shown how important he is to this improving(?) Clipper defense Hell, Zach Lowe put DJ in as an All Star reserve over Blake Griffin in his picks this year. Redick has been their offensive MVP and is having a historical season shooting the ball, but is he anything more than a really good complimentary piece?
Is it possible Redick and Jordan are more important to the team, but less deserving as All Stars? If I had to pick one player as the most deserving, man that's a tough one that doesn't have one right answer. So instead I'm opening it up to the Clips Nation staff to tell me who they think most deserves to be an All Star.
Robert Flom:
I think Chris Paul is the top overall choice for a Clippers' All Star player. He has missed a few games and struggled at the start of the season, but his overall numbers are still fantastic and he remains an above average player on the defensive end. CP3 is a top 3 point guard in the NBA alongside Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry, and his incredible play with Blake out has been the main catalyst for the Clippers' run.
Blake Griffin has missed too much time in my opinion to be an All Star, but I think he will get moved in by the coaches anyway. I think I would rather see JJ Redick get the nod, however. He is the most important player for the Clips on offense and is putting up a career (and close to historic) season for a playoff contender. His play should be rewarded with an all star game appearance.
Boltsfan21:
If it weren’t for Blake’s injury, it might be a closer call this year, given the level that he had reached before he went out. But even then, I think I still would’ve had to go with my lord and savior, His Holiness the Point God.
Every game, DJ, Blake, and J.J. wow me with the things they can do with their bodies. But Chris wows me even more frequently with the things he does with his brain. I often take time to rewind plays he makes that look simple in real-time, but that are only simple because of the barely noticed things he does along the way to set them up.
Crafty is a word that’s often used to describe a player like Chris, but I think it sells him short, given that it tends to connote a player who’s compensating for a lack of athleticism. CP3 is still plenty athletic. But it’s that massive, powerful, quick-twitch brain of his that truly sets him apart. So the word I’d use is brilliant. Chris Paul is a brilliant basketball player, an absolute joy to watch, and undoubtedly an All-Star.
Justin Russo:
Personally, J.J. Redick is probably the most deserving All-Star for the team this season. The reason being that he's been the most consistent player. With Blake Griffin missing a ton of time, Chris Paul getting off to a pretty mediocre start (by his standards), and DeAndre Jordan being up-and-down, it seems like Redick has been the one constant — outside of the four games he missed of course. He's average a career-high in points per game (16.6), field goal percentage (48.9 percent), and three-point percentage (50.0 percent). The team is 20.4 point per 100 possessions better with him on the floor than on the bench, and that's the tops on the team. His shooting is the reason the offense hasn't missed a beat since Griffin's absence, and the main reason the team can survive with a non-shooting small forward (Luc Mbah a Moute) out there. J.J. Redick is, by far, in my opinion, the most deserving candidate on the 2015-16 Clippers to be an All Star. Without him, the team is emphatically worse. He's the engine, and the most important player.
Lucas Hann:
The All-Star representative for the Clippers this year has to be Chris Paul. Blake Griffin played 30 All-Star-level games, but he's also now missed over a quarter of the team's contests. Does that automatically exclude him from All-Star contention? I don't think so, especially since he should return soon, but a lot of people seem to think so. It doesn't help his case that the Clippers have such an outstanding record in his absence, strength of schedule aside. Here's the thing with J.J. Redick's All-Star candidacy, and I love J.J.: if the Clippers starting lineup was a meal, he'd be the best damn steak sauce there is, but Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are still the steak. No matter how relatively good the sauce and the steak are, the steak is still more important than the sauce. Redick might accent Paul and Griffin perfectly, and make them better, but without them his production nosedives. Without him, the Clippers get a lot worse, and Paul and Griffin get a little worse, but you can still eat the steak dry. In this analogy, DeAndre Jordan is like a side of steamed broccoli: a good side that brings some balance to the meal. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute? You're enjoying your forty-million-dollar steak, 8-million-dollar sauce, and 20-million-dollar broccoli with a glass of water.
In my mind, Paul and Griffin have to be All-Stars and Jordan and Redick can't be. If the coaches vote to exclude Griffin, I doubt that it would be for Jordan like Lowe states, but we can hope.
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