The NBA announced its All-Star reserves on Thursday night, and while none of the players voted in by the coaches were shocking choices, Bradley Beal‘s exclusion from the list of Eastern Conference All-Stars came as a surprise to a number of fans and league observers.
Although Beal’s outside shooting rate has dipped this year – his .325 3PT% is a career-worst mark – he has shouldered the Wizards‘ scoring and play-making burden with John Wall out and has put up some massive numbers. His 28.7 PPG ranks third in the Eastern Conference and would be a career high. His 6.4 APG also represents the best mark of his career. Beal is arguably having a better season in 2019/20 than he did when he was named an All-Star the last two years.
However, the performance of Beal’s team cost him an All-Star spot this season. Even after a win on Thursday, Washington is just 16-31. The seven Eastern All-Star reserves were all from the top six teams in the conference — none of those clubs has a record worse than 31-18.
Despite the Wizards’ struggles, Beal and those around him still felt as if he deserved an All-Star spot. As Fred Katz of The Athletic relays, Beal’s fiancée Kamiah Adams went on the team’s post-game show and called the decision “laughable.” The Wizards guard himself addressed the snub after the game to NBC Sports Washington reporter Chris Miller (link via Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington).
“I’m a little pissed off about it, but I know how I am,” Beal said. “I was kind of expecting it, honestly. It’s disrespectful. But the real ones know.”
Even Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, delivered an impassioned case for why Beal’s exclusion was the wrong decision. Bartelstein suggested to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that his client is essentially being punished for sticking with the rebuilding Wizards instead of “jumping ship” and forcing his way to a contender.
“He chose not to (leave), and instead stayed the course — only to not be recognized as an All-Star because his team hasn’t won enough games when, in fact, the Wizards have exceeded expectations,” Bartelstein said. “It can’t be just about the gross numbers of wins and losses. It has to be, ‘What is your impact on the game?’ And so I think the coaches are sending a horrible message to players, that if you want to be loyal and go through the tough times in your organization, you’re not going to be an All-Star in those tough times.”
The All-Star case for Beal is an obvious one that centers around his impressive offensive output, but there are arguments against his case as well. For one, the Wizards’ defense has been historically bad this season. That’s not all on Beal, but his play on that end of the court hasn’t helped matters — the Wizards have a dismal 120.7 defensive rating when he plays, compared to 107.0 when he sits.
Jimmy Butler (Heat), Bam Adebayo (Heat), Kyle Lowry (Raptors), Khris Middleton (Bucks), Domantas Sabonis (Pacers), Ben Simmons (Sixers), and Jayson Tatum (Celtics) don’t have the gaudy counting stats that Beal does, but they’ve all been very effective on both ends of the court — many of them are candidates for All-Defensive consideration this season.
This debate may end up being moot, since even a minor injury to any one of the 12 Eastern All-Stars within the next couple weeks could open up the door for Beal to be named an All-Star anyway. But for now, he’s on the outside looking in, so we want to know what you think of the decision.
Did the coaches voting on the East’s All-Star reserves make a mistake? Should Beal an All-Star? If so, which of the other seven Eastern reserves would you remove from the roster to make room for Beal?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
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This is like ”is Mike Trout really the MLB MVP?” Great player, ungodly numbers, terrible team
Beal isn’t even remotely close to being like Mike Trout.
Elite player on a bad team. That’s exactly what Beal is just like trout.
Beal is a top 3 if not the best shooting guard in the game.
Not the same, Trout is perhaps the best to ever play the game and without a doubt the best player head and shoulders above his competition today. I don’t often agree with the Rockets Homer dude often but here’s an exception. One man can’t carry a baseball team to success but if Beal is so elite he should be able to carry the Wiz to a higher level of competence.
Just because you’re an elite player, doesn’t mean you should make your team competent. Kobe (RIP) averaged nearly 28 points for a 2004–05 Lakers team that finished 34-48 and was a no-doubt All-Star.
No way you can be top 3 in any position if you can’t defend. And Beal couldn’t defend a chair.
Maybe top 3 in the east, but in the entire NBA? No way.
The situations aren’t really comparable. A player on a bad basketball team can have a very high usage rate that leads to inflated numbers, whereas a baseball player’s performance at the plate is largely unaffected by how good the rest of the team is.
Baseball, especially hitting, is based on individual skill more than sport like the NBA where team schemes and so on matter. Beal, though, should be an all star.
Beale should be, yes. Dude if the Wiz had a player or 2. Along with another few ppls on the bench we’d be in the hunt in the east buddy. But forget it. Walls hurt, they gotta go through the draft and I’m cool with that. Should’ve traded wall and a few picks down the road for westbrook. I would of been happy. But I love our pick this season and next year well have top 5 I hope. And land sf or pf type again. Wall Bryant and beal start along with Rui.
No, if Bradley Beal is a star player he should be in the playoffs. Orlando and Brooklyn both have losing record and are in.
Tatum isn’t better
Tatum is still dreaming of being as good as Beal. He may get there, not there yet. Not a prayer Tatum deserves to an All Star and not Beal.
Just more Celtics suck ups voted it that way.
Don’t get me wrong I like Beal, but Tatum’s percentages are higher across the board and he plays defense.
Agree with the agent, if someone votes individual awards based on team results, they should just stop watching ’cause they know nothing.
Winning games hasn’t got anything to do with a players personal performance.
I can guarantee that Giannis starts the season with Golden State or New York & he plays as good as he has or even better & those 2 teams would never have had a prayer to reach the playoffs, probably still behind of Wizzards. SMH
Agree and disagree. The Warriors would win 45-48 games and get the 7-8 seed. Giannis is that good. Knicks suck though.
At least put Beal over Chris Paul
Paul is in the west.
And even an old, short CP3 is a way better defender than Beal.
He’s better then Tatum, Middleton, and Lowry especially. I get the team is bad but the guys that got in ahead of him aren’t worthy either then.
Lowry is extremely underrated – he’s been the best two-way point guard in the Eastern Conference for the last 6-7 years.
Middleton has had a much better season than Beal so far. His 2P and 3P shooting percentages are far superior, and he’s not even that far from Beal in per 36 average points (25.2 vs. 29.1) without being the Bucks first option. Factor in defense and it’s not even close.
Players (and their coaches) need to stop complaining about the ASG. It’s not an All-NBA team that has real consequences. The degree to the merits factor are even intended to factor in isn’t clear. It’s not his Dad’s ASG, and if it were, based on his first half, he’d be borderline anyway.
Beal would do better to think about his 3 pt %. A guy with his shooting ability can only get there with poor (or at least inefficient) shot selection. The best shooter taking all the shots of last resort can work for a team in win column even if it hurts the players individual efficiency; but his game and his team’s record suggests that might not be the case with him.
Interesting point about Beal’s 33% 3pt%, but I think that is overrated compated to an allstar average only a few points higher.
Mostly though I’m not sure he’s NOT one who takes the “shots of last resort”. That he does would explain the lowish number. But I haven’t seen many of their games.
The Wiz are going to lose games regardless; it’s a makeshift roster.
I wonder if Beal gets a punishment for signing the extension last summer… believing that will lead to an eventual force-out instead of regular free agency this coming summer.
Compared to Tatum, Beal has a higher PER, eFG%, FT%, assist/TOV%, and even a higher reb+assist total which is not really a thing but is an upset for a guard. Selecting Tatum at age 21 when Kemba was already named a starter was the bigger mistake.
link to basketball-reference.com
I would have put beal in over Simmons,just to give an example,but yes to simplify things he should be an all star
I think the “his team sucks” argument is so pointless and stupid because, as it’s been stated many times, TRAE YOUNG IS IN THE STARTING LINEUP. Beal is a great player and I believe he should be on there but unfortunately, every single year there is gonna be a snub or two, or more.