Oklahoma City Thunder: Serge Ibaka’s All-Star Game Case
Over the years, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have typically been the Oklahoma City Thunder’s representatives at the NBA’s annual All-Star Game. And despite their omission atop the voting in the initial ballot, smart money would be on the pair making the final cut.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry is leading the pack out West, and thus far, he will be joined by Kobe Bryant in the backcourt, with Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin and Marc Gasol making up the frontcourt. However, I fully expect the pair to be in the final squad representing the Western Conference at Madison Square Garden.
Westbrook has been playing out of his mind this season, averaging 28 points, 7.3 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals. Meanwhile, Durant has put up 22.4 points and five rebounds in a very limited capacity at 28.2minutes per game. Either player missing the exhibition in New York would be a travesty.
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However, perhaps there should actually be three Oklahoma City Thunders players at MSG on Feb. 15.
Serge Ibaka has grown leaps and bounds since being drafted into the league back in 2008. Back then, he was a nothing much more than an extremely athletic bigman who gave nothing short of a 100percent effort. Now, he is far from being the polished article but he has become one of the better two-way players in the NBA.
Defensively, Ibaka is now a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate thanks to his shot blocking prowess, as he is one of the top two or three rim protectors in the game. Since the 2010-11 season, no other player has sent more basketballs flying the other way more so than the Congo-born star.
Furthermore, this year, he has been the best defensive player on the team with the best defensive record.
Without Westbrook and Durant for a large chunk of the season, OKC knuckled down to establish themselves as a stingy outfit in order to stay competitive.
With Ibaka inside swatting (and/or altering) every shot in the vicinity, teams have found it difficult to put up points on the Thunder, thus the league-leading 96.1 points allowed per game.
Then again, as we all know, the All-Star Game is all about scoring in the most lavish manner possible and hardly anyone cares about defense – until the last few moments of the fourth quarter, of course. Nevertheless, Serge Ibaka would still be able to thrive in that kind of environment given how much he has improved on that front.
The 25-year-old has always possessed a pretty smooth and reliable mid-range jumper which is why his career field-goal percentage is in the mid-50s.
This season though, he has extended that range all the way to the 3-point line and established himself as one of the better shooting bigs, converting better than 40 percent of his attempts from outside the arc.
In addition to this, this season alone, Serge Ibaka has already scored more 3-pointers than he had ever done throughout his previous five years in the NBA.
So to recap: Ibaka is a shot blocking machine who will spike away anything within range; offensively he has the tools to terrorize even the best of defenders; plus he is extremely athletic, so he has the ability to soar up high and hammer down alley-oops for some jaw dropping finishes – as is the custom during an All-Star Game.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a model All-Star game player to me.
Unfortunately for Serge, he hasn’t gotten much love when it comes to the selection process. The current ballot doesn’t even have him within the top 15 vote-getters among frontcourt players in the Western Conference.
Essentially, what that means is that his best bet will be for a coach – currently Golden State’s Steve Kerr (24-5) — to select him when completing the squad.
Ultimately, even though Serge Ibaka’s talent certainly screams he’s an All-Star, he will probably miss out on the star-studded showcase once again. As is the case with so many things in the Western Conference, the competition is ridiculously strong so he will most likely be watching at home like the rest of us.
But rest assured; he won’t the only high-profile snub.