Ryan Anderson, Jeremy Lin: NBA Players deserving their first All-Star bid – Part 4
Ryan Anderson
Ryan Anderson led the NBA in three pointers made last season. Most people would have expected him to fade away this year but he has proven that he is not a one year wonder; rather he has further expanded his game.
He has already sank 84 three pointers in the season so far at the back of 40.4 percent shooting from the three point land. However, this year he is not focusing just on shooting from distance, he is deadly inside the ring as well
and he is shooting 50 percent from inside the arc. His phenomenal shooting has lifted his points per game average to 18.5.
Over top of that the 6 foot 10 inch forward is also a force to reckon with inside the paint. He is grabbing a healthy 7.2 rebounds per game and the former bench warmer is now a regular starter. His exploits may just earn him the
starting spot on the All-Star game as well and he fully deserves it.
But there are two downsides to his claim; first he plays for a 5 win team. Secondly there is stiff completion in the Western Conference for the forward role with the likes of Kevin Durant out there competing too.
Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin may be an All-Star this year from the Western Conference side even if his stats do not back his cause because of the global nature of voting as the fans favourites definitely have more chances of making it the list.
But he puts in more than just big numbers for his team; together with James Harden they both have developed the Rockets in a formidable attacking unit. Houston have crossed the 100 point mark quite a number of times this season
with Lin playing a critical part both in the scoring department and also maintaining a healthy assists ratio to go along with it.
The Asian-American vote bank may help his cause as well as the fans can now vote via Twitter, Facebook and Chinese portals Weibo and Tencent QQ. Either him or James Harden, one of them surely deserve to make their debut for the
All-Star team this February.
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