Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
The all-star starters for the East, chosen by the fans, will be Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry in the backcourt; with Cleveland’s LeBron James, Indiana’s Paul George and New York’s Carmelo Anthony manning the frontcourt.
Thomas’ chances of being an all-star took a step forward with Lowry edging out Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving for the starting nod. While most agree that Irving is an all-star talent, he didn’t play his first game of the season until Dec. 20 against Philadelphia after sustaining a left knee injury in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against Golden State. And coaches typically don’t reward players with all-star selections when they have missed a significant portion of the season.
Basically, if you’re a Celtics fan and you’ve been voting for Isaiah Thomas, you’ve been throwing your vote away. As Sherrod Blakely pointed out in the article above, you should’ve been voting for Kyle Lowry, because if Lowry makes the All-Star game as a starter Kyrie Irving is less likely to make it as a reserve which means our favorite fun sized point guard has a better shot of squeaking in as a coach’s selection. Why do we care about this? Because we’d like to think that the All Star game is at least occasionally meritocratic.
However, if you’re a fan of Kobe Bryant, just stop reading right now. What are you doing here? Are you hate reading this blog? Because if you are, you’ve made the right choice, because boy are you going to hate reading this!! Anyway, Kobe fans must be pretty excited that he’s making one last All Star appearance. Nobody got more votes than him. Because, apparently, a guy who’s made hundreds of millions of dollars in basketball without doing a thing to make the players around him better “deserves” to have one final All Star appearance. Or something. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the All Star game is just the sort of meaningless spectacle that the most overrated (in my opinion, at least) player in the modern history of the NBA deserves. The All Star game and Kobe are made for each other.
Anyway, the link above has the rest of the All Star game starting lineups on the off-chance that you care (you probably don’t).
Page 2: Where Kelly may never be as good as Dirk, but right now he’s better than Dirk
Despite that unimpressive outing, Olynyk is actually on pace to accomplish something as a shooter that Nowitzki never did. Actually, no 7-footer in NBA history has ever hit 43.3 percent from the 3-point arc on at least one attempt per game, which Olynyk is doing a little more than midway through the season (on a healthy 3.2 tries per contest). The current record over a full season, according to Basketball-Reference.com? In 2009-10, when Nowitzki hit 42.1 percent from deep. Incredibly, Olynyk has already drilled more 3-pointers than Nowitzki did that season.
It should be borne in mind that Kelly’s numbers are being buoyed by a couple of really crazy games. Still, he can shoot the ball.
Jay knows it. Jae knows it. We know it. But does Kelly know it? What is going through his mind in that split second when you, me, Brad, and everyone else is thinking/bellowing “SHOOT IT” and he’s, you know, not shooting it?
Page 3: Toronto loves Amir
But Amir Johnson wasn’t booed last night. To the contrary, the Celtics forward is so beloved by Raptors fans, they treated him to a standing ovation and video tribute. He finally walked out of the C’s first quarter huddle and gave a lengthy wave in all directions, ala Kevin Garnett in his last Garden appearance.
Pretty amazing when you consider that Amir left Toronto for an in-division rival.
Finally: $2.1B will buy you a lot of things, but it won’t buy you the Celtics.
Forbes announced today its annual valuations of the National Basketball Association’s 30 teams. The New York Knicks reclaimed the top spot after a one-year hiatus. The team is now worth $3 billion, which is a 20% value increase from 2015. This increase is driven by a new cable deal and having the highest premium-seating revenue in the league. The Los Angeles Lakers, who topped the list in 2015, dropped to No. 2 this year, with a value of $2.7 billion. Rounding out the top five are the Chicago Bulls (No.3), Boston Celtics (No.4) and Los Angeles Clippers (No.5).
The Forbes department of specious statistics has assigned valuations to the various NBA teams because clicks. But before you ask Pags and Grousbeck if they’ll take a check postdated to March of 2178, you should know that the team is not for sale.
The rest of the links:
CSNNE: Five possibilities with Celtics’ Brooklyn pick | Celtics may look for more out of Jerebko
ESPN Boston: Celtics need to pop the clutch in close games
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