It’s the other side of the coin when your team is based above all on collective strength rather than individuals, even when this collective leads you to the top of the NBA. This is the case of the major players of the Suns, who are currently not favored by the public votes for the next All-Star Game while the Arizona franchise nevertheless has the best record in the league ( 31 wins – 9 losses).
After the second point made on the votes of fans yesterday, Devin Booker appears only in 5th position with 648,317 votes, far from the leading trio Curry-Morant-Doncic among the backs of the Western Conference. Among the exteriors, Chris Paul is 7th. For interiors, Deandre Ayton is 10th.
Monty Williams, priority
If it still seems likely that one or two Suns players will complete the Western Conference roster, the main objective of those concerned is to ensure the presence of their coach, Monty Williams, who will lead the formation of the West if Phoenix stays ahead of its conference.
“We are talking seriously. It’s our only objective, to bring our staff there. I think they deserve it. The way they built this program here and the fact that we’re ahead. We have to do our part to make it happen”, said Chris Paul after the Suns’ victory in Toronto.
Monty Williams was a bit embarrassed when his point guard’s attention was brought to him. In the same way, seeing as many Suns players as possible at the next All-Star game would be the greatest reward for him.
“God, I don’t even know what to say. That’s pretty cool”, he first replied. “I don’t think coaches think about it as much as you might think. I think we even think the opposite. We would like to have two, three, four guys who can go there. Let these guys go there to have fun. But it’s pretty cool that he says that and the team thinks the same thing.
Devin Booker provides after-sales service
Devin Booker, for his part, can take an example from recent similar scenarios, when the Pistons in 2006, the Celtics in 2011 or the Hawks in 2015 were able to send four players to the All-Star Game, thus rewarding the records of these teams in seasonal course.
“If we take care of what we need to do on the pitch, I’m sure the rest will come by itself. I think having the best record in the league also helps bring in maybe three or four guys.”, he said last week.
On the other hand, the Suns had already had a superb 2020/21 exercise, and only Chris Paul had been in the game, while Devin Booker was injured. Suddenly, the guard took the lead, promoting his teammates for the All-Star Game on his Twitter account followed by a million accounts, with the #ChrisPaul, #MikalBridges# and #Deandre Ayton accompanied by the # NBAAllStar.
“It allows us to show it to everyone, to open their eyes and ears to the fact that he put us forward like that”, rejoiced Deandre Ayton. “We do not hide to say that our objective is to bring back a ring. I think the whole world knows that. That’s what we’re going to keep as a goal, but those accolades also come with accumulating wins. So of course, we would like to have our teammates, our staff and as many people as possible there to live this experience together”.
As on the ground, will the union be the force for the final selection of the next All-Star Game for the Suns? Answer in the coming weeks…
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Devin Booker | 33 | 32.8 | 43.7 | 40.6 | 87.1 | 0.8 | 4.5 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 23.4 |
| Deandre Ayton | 26 | 30.7 | 63.1 | 14.3 | 70.5 | 2.8 | 8.1 | 10.9 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 16.8 |
| Chris Paul | 40 | 32.3 | 47.4 | 32.8 | 83.5 | 0.3 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 10.1 | 2.3 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 14.0 |
| Mikal Bridges | 40 | 34.1 | 51.7 | 39.6 | 85.1 | 0.9 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 12.4 |
| Cameron Johnson | 39 | 25.6 | 45.8 | 43.8 | 82.5 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 11.9 |
| Frank Kaminsky | 9 | 20.1 | 54.5 | 33.3 | 90.0 | 1.2 | 3.3 | 4.6 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 10.6 |
| Cameron Payne | 35 | 20.3 | 38.8 | 31.9 | 86.4 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 10.2 |
| Javale Mcgee | 36 | 16.0 | 65.4 | 25.0 | 67.5 | 2.3 | 4.8 | 7.1 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 10.0 |
| Jae Crowder | 34 | 28.3 | 40.4 | 34.4 | 78.6 | 0.4 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 9.4 |
| Landry Shamet | 36 | 20.5 | 38.1 | 36.5 | 84.6 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 7.8 |
| Jalen Smith | 19 | 14.3 | 49.1 | 25.9 | 83.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 5.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 7.5 |
| Bismack Biyombo | 4 | 16.3 | 68.8 | 0.0 | 62.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 6.8 |
| justin jackson | 3 | 7.8 | 71.4 | 60.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 4.3 |
| Elfrid Payton | 21 | 12.2 | 40.2 | 20.0 | 53.3 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| Paris Bass | 2 | 3.7 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Abdel Nader | 14 | 10.4 | 34.3 | 28.6 | 60.0 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
| Ishmail Wainright | 16 | 6.5 | 29.4 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.6 |
| Chandler Hutchison | 6 | 3.7 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
| Emmanuel Terry | 3 | 6.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.0 |
| MJ Walker | 2 | 4.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
