NBA: The 25 best NBA players never to make an All-Star game
The 25 best NBA players never to make an All-Star game — 7. Andre Miller
The most important ingredients to an All-Star berth are strong counting stats and team success, all wrapped in a “have you been an All-Star before” tortilla. For Andre Miller, a 6’3″ point guard drafted in 1999 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, he quickly began racking up the counting stats as he ran the Cavaliers’ offense in his second and third years.
As a second-year player, Miller finished sixth in the league in assists per game, and the following year, led all players with 10.9 per contest. Paired with his 16.5 points per game, he had the numbers to be in the All-Star mix. Yet he did not have the track record, and he played on an abysmal Cavaliers team.
The mix never came together for Miller after that. He bounced around the league, scoring and passing but never earning top honors. He would play on a number of good teams, making the playoffs 11 times over the course of a 17 year career, a steady hand at the point. No player has more career assists than Miller without an All-Star berth, his 8,524 ranking 11th all-time in league history.
Closest Call: The aforementioned 2001-02 season was likely Miller’s best bet as he had the statistical marker of leading the league in assists. However, his small market team did not propel him into the national spotlight; he was not even among the top-10 Eastern Conference guards in fan voting.