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Trae Young’s NBA All-Star selection not as rare as it might seem

ByPhil Watson|
Atlanta Hawks Trae Young (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Atlanta Hawks Trae Young (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Trae Young was selected to start the 2020 All-Star Game, set for Feb. 16 in Chicago, even though his team, the Atlanta Hawks, is last in the East.

Three players were chosen to make their NBA All-Star Game debuts as starters next month. Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is a legitimate MVP contender, while Pascal Siakam has helped the Toronto Raptors to unexpected success after the defending champions lost superstar Kawhi Leonard in the offseason.

Then there is the case of Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young. Young was the only All-Star starter selected from a team with a losing record … and, man, do the Hawks ever have a losing record. At the time of Young’s selection, Atlanta was just 11-34, a .244 winning percentage.

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The NBA All-Star Game is thought to be reserved for the game’s best players from the Association’s best teams, but Young’s selection as a starter is not as rare as it might seem at first glance.

Since selection of starters was turned over to the fans for the 1975 NBA All-Star Game, there have been 83 starters selected from teams with losing records at the All-Star break (some players more than once).

Young will be No. 83 on that list; Atlanta has 10 games remaining before the break, so their absolute best-case scenario would to have a 21-34 record … if, you know, they win 10 in a row after winning 11 of their first 46.

To be clear, this is not to imply Young is an undeserving pick. He’s shown a lot of growth as a player this season for a Hawks team that has been without John Collins for 25 games due to a suspension and has had sixth man Jabari Parker for just one game and 15 minutes since Dec. 23 because of a shoulder impingement.

The team regularly starts two rookies in Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter, two second-year players in Young and Kevin Huerter, while Collins is the old man of the starting unit as a third-year guy. So this is a team that will take lumps during the learning process.

In just more than four more minutes per game this season, Young has hiked his scoring average by a 10 points per game (to be fair, he’s taking 5.3 more shots per game) and is getting 3.4 more foul shot attempts a night than he did as a rookie.

His per game numbers are eye-popping: 29.1 points, 8.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 35.1 minutes per game, shooting .445/.370/.839 (up from .418/.324/.829 as a rookie).

The downside? He’s averaging almost a full turnover more per game (4.7 as opposed to 3.8 last season) and his defense will never remind anyone of Tony Allen (Tim Allen, perhaps … Tony Allen? Not so much).

Fans chose the starters from 1975-2016. Since the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, fans have accounted for 50 percent of the formula for selecting starters, with media and player voting each weighted at 25 percent. Young is the fifth starter in those four years to be chosen from a losing team.

The others were Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019 and a trio of starters in 2017: Davis, along with Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jimmy Butler, then with the Chicago Bulls.

But starters being tabbed from losing teams isn’t rare. This is the 44th NBA All-Star Game since fan voting was instituted (every year since 1975 with the exception of the lockout season in 1999) and with 78 starters from losing clubs, that’s an average of nearly two per year (1.77 to be precise).

Here’s the one that will surprise: There have only been six NBA All-Star Games since 1975 in which every voted-in starter played for a team that had a winning record at the break. Six times in 44 years. Those years were 1989, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2009 and 2018.

Young is already guaranteed not to be from the worst-ever team to have an NBA All-Star Game starter. The absolute worst the Hawks could be at the break is 11-45, a winning percentage of .196); two players — Dwyane Wade of the 2007-08 Miami Heat and Carmelo Anthony of the 2014-15 New York Knicks — are below that mark.

Wade’s Miami club limped into the break in 2008 at 9-43, a .173 winning percentage; Anthony’s Knicks were 10-43, just a half-game better with a winning percentage of .189.

Young could fall below the next two names on the list. Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was elected in his final season, 2015-16, with his team 11-44 (.200) at the break. Tracy McGrady of the Orlando Magic was chosen in 2004 as his team was 13-41 (.241).

At Atlanta’s current pace, Young would end up being fifth or sixth on the list. Bryant’s 2014-15 Lakers got to the break at 13-40, a .245 winning percentage).

Of the 83 players elected from losing teams, only 25 came from teams that were really losing (teams with a winning percentage of worse than .400) and only one of those teams are among the five losing squads to have not just one, but two, NBA All-Star Game starters. That’s a rare feat.

The worst of the worst from that bunch was, as coincidence would have it, the Atlanta Hawks. Specifically, the 1980-81 Atlanta Hawks, who hobbled into the All-Star break with a 19-34 (.358) record, but had both Dan Roundfield and Eddie Johnson selected as starters.

The rest of that dubious bunch of teams and players:

For the most part, however, the players on this particular list proved themselves with more successful clubs either before or after their selections that landed them here. Heck, a whopping 27 of these players are now in the Hall of Fame, with Bryant all put a lock to join them later this year.

Here is a full breakdown by team of the selections:

The 2020 NBA All-Star Game will be played Feb. 16 at United Center in Chicago, the first time for the 25-year-old arena to host the mid-winter classic. The last time the game was held in Chicago was at old Chicago Stadium in 1988. It was also played at that venue in 1973.