Why Kristaps Porzingis deserves to be a Dallas Mavericks All-Star

There is no doubt the Dallas Mavericks will have at least one All-Star in Luka Doncic this season. But could there be more?

I don’t see why not. The team is one of the hottest teams right now as they have won six of their last eight games. They are just two games behind the Utah Jazz for the fourth spot and have been finally hitting their strides.

Along with that, many of their players such have been performing at top levels and contributing in many different ways.

One of those players is the magical unicorn himself, Kristaps Porzingis. If you compare his numbers to other stars in the Western Conference, he is certainly up there, if not “there.”

Forward Kristaps Porzingis deserves to be an all-star this year and his season resume supports it.

Let us first look at his numbers this NBA campaign.

2021-2022 Year

This season KP is averaging 19.7 points per game, hitting 45 percent of his shots and knocking down a career high in free throws.

Over the past five games he has scored 82 points and knocked down nearly 45 percent of shits.

Some of his recent highlights this season include:

• a 34 point performance against the Portland Trail Blazers.
• On December 27th he scored 12 of his 21 sots and went three of seven from the three.
• Against the Trail Blazers this past Wednesday he put in 22 points and hit eight of his 18 shots.

One other key eye-popping number is his points per 40 minutes. Currently, he is averaging 26.2 points. Contrast that to his statistics the past two years and well his numbers have surely improved.

So how does he compare to the rest of the pack?

KP vs the West

Let’s compare his number to say Anthony Davis and he isn’t far behind. Davis is currently averaging 22 points and scoring on 51 percent of his shots. Compare that to KP’s current numbers and he only lags three points behind Davis and is hitting just six percent less of his baskets.

However he does lead Davis in other categories such as three point shooting and turnovers.

Oh and against All-Star starter Anthony Wiggins, he is ahead in almost every category. Against the Warriors starter he is averaging more points, rebounds and blocks. The only category he trails in  is field goal percentage, as he lags just three points behind.

Now we can admit that certain players do deserve a spot ahead of him in the All-Star game including Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony Towns.

If you look at the All-Star format only two guards, three front court players and two wild cards are selected to the game.

With KP playing so well, I don’t see why he can be selected as an All-Star in the wildcard category at the very least.

• Published on 01/28/2022 at 12:56 PM
• Last updated at 01/28/2022 at 12:56 PM