Washington Wizards: John Wall deserved to be an All-Star Game starter

While he’ll likely make the reserves, Washington Wizards point guard John Wall is having a career year, and should have been an All-Star Game starter.

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall is having arguably the best year of his career and is proving himself to be one of the best point guards in all of the NBA.

Despite that, however, when the All-Star Game starters were named, Wall didn’t make the cut, rather Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving did. Now, Wall will likely (at least, I would hope) make the All-Star Game reserves, but he deserves to be in the starting spot over Irving.

Now, I’m not going to argue that Kyrie Irving isn’t deserving of an All-Star spot, or even that he’s not necessarily deserving of the starter position, Irving is a fantastic point guard, but I believe Wall is more deserving of the spot than he is.

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If you just look at the overall stats, Wall has been having an incredible year, especially in the context of his own career.

So far this season, he’s got a career-high in points per game (23.0), field goal percentage (46.3%), free throw percentage (82.4%), steals per game (2.2), and assists per game (10.2).

For anyone who’s been watching the Washington Wizards this season, this really shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s obvious that, at 26 years old, Wall is finally playing fully healthy for the first time in awhile, and it’s amped up his game considerably.

But not only is Wall having a great year for his career, he’s having one of the better years in the entire NBA. When you look at his overall stats comparative to the rest of the league, it’s obvious that he more than deserves an All-Star spot, and certainly the starter spot.

He’s 11th in the league among guards in points per game, which is just four spots (and just 0.8 points per game) behind Kyrie Irving. He’s 16th among guards in rebounds per game (4.5), well above Irving, and second in the league in steals per game, again, well above Irving. Wall is also 9th in the league in double-doubles with 26, Irving has only six such games.

But where Wall really shines is in the assist numbers. He’s third in the league in assists per game, just behind James Harden and Russell Westbrook (for reference, Irving is 25th). He’s also second in the league in assist points created (24.1) behind only Harden.

While Kyrie Irving plays for a better team, and scores (marginally) more points per game than Wall does, I believe that, based on the statistics, it’s blatantly obvious that Wall has been the better all-around point guard this season.

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Wall will almost certainly make the All-Star reserves, but I believe that he, without a doubt, deserved to be the starter over Kyrie Irving, and I think anyone who’s looking at the overall statistics will agree.

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