Klay Thompson Shouldn't Be Voted An All-Star This Season

Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors is the second-best shooting guard in the NBA — if not the best off guard in the league this season — but whether he makes the 2015 NBA All-Star team remains questionable.

On Thursday evening, the 2015 NBA All-Star starters were announced on TNT with Thompson’s backcourt mate, Stephen Curry, being named as the leader in All-Star votes. The other four players joining Curry as West All-Star starters were Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies.

The league’s coaches will choose who they want to see as All-Star reserves this season, voting on two backcourt players, three frontcourt players and two wildcards. The results will be announced Jan. 29 on TNT’s sports segment, Inside the NBA.

Per tradition, the basketball world’s most entertaining analysts — Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson — gave their take on who should make the 2015 All-Star team reserves, and Klay Thompson was among the names the foursome came to a consensus on.

Here are the crew's All-Star reserve picks: pic.twitter.com/fCrPioKxPg
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 23, 2015

But with the Western Conference littered with so many All-Star caliber guards on teams sitting above .500 (e.g. Mike Conley, Monta Ellis, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Chris Paul), does Klay Thompson even stand a chance at seriously being considered by the league’s coaches?

After helping Team USA win the gold medal at the FIBA World Cup and earning a four-year, $70 million contract extension, Thompson is one of the top-scoring players in the NBA, averaging a career-high 21.9 points on a career-high 47.2 percent clip; in addition, he’s averaging 3.6 rebounds, a career-high 3.1 assists, a career-high 1.3 steals and a career-high 0.9 blocks.

Among guards that have played 39+ games, he’s fifth in Offensive Rating (113.9) and sixth among guards in Defense Rating (96.1) with a career-high 21.84 PER. Under the same criteria, his effective field goal percentage of 56.3 is good enough for 10th, his true shooting percentage of 60.1 is ranked fifth and his +/- of 11.4 is second behind Curry.

Long story short — Klay Thompson, in his fourth year in the NBA, is having a career season. He’s also highly regarded by NBA coaches, who appreciate him not only for his distinguished shooting prowess, but also for his improving defensive ability and high character personality.

But going back to the other Western Conference guards aforementioned, all of them have one major connective attribute that sets them apart from Thompson — each is the most important player in his respective starting backcourt and therefore central to his team’s success.

So while Thompson may be a great player — arguably now an elite level player in the NBA — the fact of that matter is that he’s still just second to Curry and, by the same logic, not as crucial to the team’s success and/or on the same level as his fellow Splash Brother.

Klay Thompson Shouldn’t Be Voted An All-Star This Season

By Angelo Mendoza | Jan 23, 2015