Louis Tyrone Williams is one of the best bench scorers in the NBA right now and is averaging 20 points, a career high 6 assists and 3 rebounds a game. With averages like this, that would definitely guarantee him an all-star nod right? But things are a little different for the reigning sixth man of the year considering the fact that he is the third scoring option behind Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and the fact that he plays most of his games coming off the bench.
Then again, as i mentioned earlier Lou Will’s case is a little different. Williams faces tough competition in terms of the fact that the Western Conference is filled with backcourt players who are enjoying either a career year or a breakout season. These include Shai Gilgeous ALexander, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard and CJ Mcollum, Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker to name a few and in the most recent returns in fan voting for the all-star game Lou Will was not even in the top 10 in the guards category.
Though fan voting accounts for only 50% of the vote and the coaches and media still have to make their choice, there are a few reasons suggesting that Williams will not make the cut this year. Firstly, Lou plays behind two of the best two-way players in the league, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with Kawhi being one of the more ball dominant stars in the league. Kawhi prefers either isolating to score or operating using the pick and roll, this means more time where Lou is playing off the ball and it is in that time where he is a negative considering the fact that he is averaging career highs in apg in his age 34 season and is almost always a non-factor when it comes to defense.
Secondly, the west is stacked with guard players who are averaging better numbers than Lou and are better on the defensive end of the ball. These players also happen to be the first options for their teams in terms of scoring so that will have an impact as well.
And last but not least, it would be unlikely for a team to have three all-stars considering the fact that the NBA is moving toward Big twos and that most teams have two stars as it is.
I’ll conclude by saying that I don’t think Louis Williams will make the all-star game unless he comes in as an injury replacement and that is also highly unlikely.
The Sporty Rant 