Daily NBA Fix: Still Hope For Centers In The All-Star Game?

On today’s Daily NBA Fix, Dallas Mavericks center Zaza Pachulia came 14,227 votes short of making the All-Star Game as a starter.

Is there still hope in the modern NBA for true centers? Zaza Pachulia was just over 14,000 votes short of supplanting Kawhi Leonard for the final frontcourt spot in the Western Conference in this season’s All-Star voting.

You can thank Georgia — the country, not the state — for the push to get their countryman in. While nationalism help pushes Zaza this high, there is certainly humor in Draymond Green getting fewer votes than a traditional center.

In the Eastern Conference, Carmelo Anthony beat out Pau Gasol by just over 1,000 votes for the final frontcourt spot in the East, but that isn’t surprising.

While the “big” center may be a bit of a dying breed, perhaps Zaza’s rise to near stardom should give traditionalists hope that fans haven’t completely turned their back on the idea. Should Zaza be in the All-Star Game? That will be up to the coaches to decide as the reserves are picked next Thursday on TNT, but perhaps we can take solace in the fact that NBA fans — at least in Georgia — haven’t turned their back on big guys. Maybe the coaches will give the Georgians what they want.

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And perhaps this is a nice bit of vindication for Zaza himself, as he was derided as the “Plan B” for the Dallas Mavericks after things went south with DeAndre Jordan. Pachulia is having his best season in over a decade, averaging a double-double with 10.2 points and 10.8 rebounds a game. He’s also almost twice as good as Jordan at the free throw line with at 79.3 percent.

Looks like now Jordan will need his own Plan B to get into the All-Star Game.

Centers aren’t dead in the NBA, not by a long shot, but it hasn’t helped that many of the better ones are on teams that have been underwhelming this season. Dwight Howard is still around, and Hassan White is only getting better in Miami, but it seems many of the teams making the most noise aren’t relying on their centers (and particularly the more traditional kind) to get by.

It is likely that Green, Whiteside, and a few others will get the nods from the coaches’ selections, but it appears the fans just aren’t as interested in seeing them play.

Except in Georgia, of course.

Davis Goes Into Overdrive Against Pistons

The NBA is changing, and perhaps we’ll see more big men like Anthony Davis. Davis reminded us that despite his New Orleans Pelicans’ struggles, he’s still a hell of a player as he scored 32 Thursday night. That’s his second straight game with 30 or more points and the fifth in a row with more than 20.

Davis is still in a spot where he isn’t blamed for all of the Pelicans troubles, but those times are coming. He may only be 22 years old, but soon he’ll start being expected to carry this team to a winning record and the playoffs. We’re already hearing whispers now, and they will only grow louder.

However if he’s scoring 30 or more points, maybe all the blame shouldn’t be on him.

Gasol Carrying the Torch For the Grizzlies

Marc Gasol is certainly a throwback to the more traditional NBA, but that isn’t a bad thing either. The Memphis Grizzlies needed all 27 of his points last night to get past the Denver Nuggets.

The Grizzlies sit in fifth in the Western Conference with Zaza’s Mavericks on their tail. It doesn’t seem like Memphis (or any teams other than the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder) have enough to get out of the Western Conference, but Gasol is making sure they, at least, get a chance to by keeping them in the playoff hunt.