Landon Buford
The All-Star reserves were announced earlier tonight and rookie sensation Luka Donics was not named as one of the seven alternates for the Western Conference. Instead, the players that were select were Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, Karl Anthony Towns, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Nikola Jokić.
This season Doncic is averaging 20.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.4 per game. Luka is averaging 20.4 points per game, which puts him currently 28th amongst his peers in scoring according to ESPN.com. He has also won back two back NBA Western Conference Rookie Of The Month Awards for November and December.
During December, he scored 20-plus points on ten separate occasions in the span of 15 games and eclipsed the 30 point threshold twice in that same period. In a five-game stretch from Dec. 18 to Dec. 26, Doncic put himself in rare company as recorded 23 points, six rebounds and a career-high 12 assists at Denver (12/18/18), a game-high 32 points, four rebounds, five assists and a career-high four steals at the L.A. Clippers (12/20/18), and he would finish this five-game stretch with 21 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists against New Orleans (12/26/18). The only other player to do that as a teenager is LeBron James. He is well on his way to winning his third in a row for the January as well as he has already recorded two triple-doubles this month.
Recently I spoke with Mark Cuban and asked if he thought the coaches should vote Doncic in with him being the third overall vote-getter.
“There are a lot of great players in the NBA and not all the teams have seen him play yet. So, it is hard to expect the coaches to vote him in, but look I think he was sixth or eighth among the players’ vote, which is incredible,” said Cuban.
Doncic is not the only player that the fans might think that got snubbed this year. Other players that can be mentioned on this list is Rudy Gobert, Tobias Harris, Donovan Mitchell, De’Aaron Fox, Derrick Rose, and Devin Booker were considered snubbed in the Western Conference.
In the Eastern Conference, Pascal Siakam, Jayson Tatum, Eric Bledsoe, D’Angelo Russell, Jimmy Butler, and Dwyane Wade, who received a lot of the fans votes because this is his final season in the NBA.
Luka will be featured in the 2019 MTN DEW ICE Rising Stars Game in Charlotte and his coach for the event will be feature Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki.
