NBA All-Star Game 2020: Predicting the snubs from Western Conference
As always, the Western Conference is brimming with individuals who are highly skilled at their craft. While the Los Angeles Lakers lead the West standings by a decent margin, players from all contending teams are stepping up to grab a bite.
As the league braces itself for a new year of quality basketball, many are hooked on the All-Star projections for the coming February. With a large magnitude of players shaking hands with different franchises this past offseason, the art of measuring the talent level of one against the other in their newest roles has yet again been rendered as an inexact science.
Nevertheless, now that we have sufficient data to process from the first 30+ games of this regular season, it makes sense to dole out a bunch of names that might make it to the All-Star snubs list for this year.
#3 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The presence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the snub list means that Oklahoma City Thunder might be the only playoff-bound team from the West to not have an All-Star on their roster this season.
The sophomore is averaging a career-high 19.8 points per matchup and shooting almost 37% from beyond the arc. Having started in all 32 games for the Thunder this year so far, Shai has showcased an aggressive avatar of his on both ends of the floor. Along with his fluent offensive skillset, SGA is also posting 5 boards and 1.2 steals per game, helping the surging OKC squad become legit postseason threats as early as March.
The Thunder were nowhere near their dream lineup when the regular season started, but Shai's breakout year has headlined a plethora of positives that the front office can build upon in the coming seasons. Although still not at an All-Star level, the 21-year-old may very well become the franchise cornerstone soon if the organisation decides to use its assets to build effectively around him.