Utah Jazz: Team doesn’t deserve All-Star representative

With NBA All-Star weekend approaching and voting for the All-Star Game coming to an end, do the Utah Jazz deserve to have a player in the annual showcase?

Following the passing of the midway point in the 2018-19 NBA season and with all the anticipation growing for the upcoming trade deadline approaching early in February, another thing on the radar of players and fans of both the Utah Jazz and around the rest of the league is NBA All-Star weekend, which is now less than a month away.

On Thursday, the NBA released the third round of voting results for the All-Star Game, which will be played on Feb. 17 in Charlotte and the Jazz found that they are still left without any representatives among the list of top 10 frontcourt players and 10 top guards in the Western Conference for the annual showcase.

The starters for the 68th All-Star Game are largely determined by fan voting, with votes from the fans counting for 50 percent of the overall totals. Following that, 25 percent of the voting comes from the NBA players and the other 25 percent is voting from the media.

Here is a look at the full list of players who received votes in both the West and the East after the third round of voting commenced:

With the absence of any Jazz players on the list of players currently set to take part in the All-Star Game with time for votes to be submitted coming to an end in the coming days, the next question that should be asked is if Utah should have a representative this season at all. And if so, who?

As far as who could have a chance on the Jazz to make the Western Conference squad would really be down to two players at this point: Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

Through Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the two Utah cornerstones have had solid seasons, but not necessarily eye-popping years enough to gathering enough votes for an All-Star nod.

In 43 appearances so far this season, Mitchell is averaging 21.7 points (ranks tied for 19th in the NBA), 3.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 32.9 minutes per game this season.

He is shooting 42.5 percent from the field, 32.3 from 3 and holds an effective field goal percentage of 48.3 percent.

For Gobert, who has played in all 47 of Utah’s games this season, he is still on pace for a career year while averaging a career-high 15 points, career-high 13.1 rebounds, career-high 2.2 assists, two blocks and a career-best 0.9 steals in 31.5 minutes a game.

Gobert is also shooting 65.6 percent from the field, which is the best percentage in the NBA.

Now comes the next question of whether or not the Jazz deserve to have a player take part in the All-Star Game at all, whether that be Mitchell, Gobert or both.

The short and obvious answer to that question would be, as of right now, they don’t.

First of all, look at the teams within the Western Conference and how Utah stacks up with the rest of the pack. Clearly team results don’t solely matter in the grand scheme of things when it comes to All-Star voting, but when a team is performing well and standing out, so does its players.

With Friday night’s victory Cavaliers, the Jazz hold a record of 26-21 and now sit in seventh place in the packed West standings. Utah hasn’t been necessarily eye-popping to fans around the league so far this year, although it is now carrying a six-game winning streak.

Next, look at the level of talent and players that lie within the conference this season and try to make a serious case that Mitchell and/or Gobert are among the top 10 in their position classes — keeping in mind popularity and their amount of stand-out performances — to grab an All-Star roster spot.

With the All-Star voting coming to a close in the next couple of days, it’s hard to make a real case for Mitchell or Gobert to have a spot in the showcase next month over the rest of the talent in the West.

And as we saw in the results of the third round of voting on Thursday, the fans, players and media members think the same.

We will see if things chance for Mitchell, Gobert and the Jazz over the next few days, with voting for the All-Star Game concluding on Monday.