Zaza Pachulia Is No All-Star, but His Value to Golden State Warriors Is Clear

Twitter can be a deplorable place where fun suffers a slow death as you're bombarded with a never-ending cascade of news ranging from simply bad to positively soul-crushing.

And then Zaza Pachulia comes along.

More precisely, Pachulia and his hilariously high All-Star Game vote totals. Suddenly, the sun is shining a little brighter, and there's a spring in your step. With the announcement that Pachulia received the second-most votes for any Western Conference frontcourt player, the internet lost its mind for a few hours Thursday, and it was glorious.

Of course, nothing good can ever stay as such. There was a contingent ready to pounce on the significance of Pachulia's voting bloc, what it all means and how we can't let this turn the All-Star Game into a mockery.

It's true, the NBA has made significant changes to the way All-Star Game votes are counted, and it's largely because of Pachulia's unexpected ascendance last season, which almost proved successful. Now, the fan vote for starters counts for only 50 percent, with players and media making up the rest.

That's perfectly understandable. It also likely sinks any chance Pachulia will get to start his first All-Star Game. Again, fine. No one is going to mount any full-throated defense that the big Georgian actually deserves to start over, say, Kawhi Leonard or Anthony Davis (the two players immediately trailing him on the leaderboard).

But the All-Star Game is about fun. It's not meant to be a historical record of the season's most dominant players. What you get is a reflection of the most popular players in a given year about two-thirds of the way through a season. That's it.

If the idea of Pachulia starting an All-Star Game really offends you, then you must've had weeks of sleepless nights over Kobe Bryant not only starting last year's game but also ending up as the top vote-getter in the league.

Despite ranking 344th of 423 players in ESPN's real plus-minus metric at season's end, Bryant eclipsed Stephen Curry (who posted one of the top all-around seasons in NBA history) by more than 250,000 votes.

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The idea that the All-Star Game has really ever been about including only the most deserving players is, at best, revisionist history of the highest order.

If you need something to get upset about in these initial All-Star vote totals, don't pick on Pachulia, who ranks a respectable 42nd this year in overall RPM (just behind Kristaps Porzingis) and ninth in defensive RPM while starting for the league's top team.

Instead, look to Dwyane Wade, who ranks 80th in RPM and is a borderline replacement-level player for a borderline playoff team in a weak Eastern Conference, yet has more votes than a cadre of more-deserving players like DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry and John Wall.

"Deserve" has nothing to do with it, nor has it ever.

The other side of the discussion, as the RPM rankings allude to, is that Pachulia has been a fairly valuable addition to the Warriors. By way of basic counting stats, the 14-year vet filling the center position vacated by Andrew Bogut is performing much in the same way Zydrunas Ilgauskas did in Miami back in 2010-11.

You're not asking for the moon and the stars, just some modicum of reliability. And when Pachulia sticks to what he can do (simple post moves, quick passes) and away from what he can't (anything involving ball-handling of any degree), he's better than average.

Overall, the advanced stats are solidly in his favor. Entering Friday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Pachulia ranks first on the Warriors in net rating and first among rotation players in rebound rate, and he's posted a better assist rate than backup point guard Shaun Livingston.

And for as much as the Warriors love to play small ball, they looked mighty shaky without their starting big when Pachulia sat for four games during mid-December with a wrist injury. Sure, it allowed JaVale McGee some time to shine, but Golden State played inconsistent ball in Pachulia's absence.

The Warriors suffered a miserable 21-point loss in Memphis followed by less-than-convincing wins on the road against New Orleans and Minnesota (both victories by single digits) and at home against a New York Knicks squad lacking both Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose.

In the nine games since Pachulia returned, the Warriors have posted the NBA's best defense and have been the sixth-best rebounding team. As compared to before the injury, Pachulia's scoring and rebounding have both seen significant leaps in efficiency. He also leads all Warriors in second-chance points over the past nine outings, of which Golden State has won eight.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

His one-on-one defense is still not great, but with rim protectors like Draymond Green and Kevin Durant on board, head coach Steve Kerr doesn't need him to be great. The Warriors simply need Pachulia to be what he's been so far.

It's hard to deny that Pachulia constitutes some kind of significant piece of the Warriors' puzzle going forward. He's no longer an interchangeable part. He's become something much closer to what Bogut was by the time his tenure in Oakland came to a close, if not better. So far, this year's starters have a higher net rating (20.8) than last year's (13.2).

Of course, much of that can be attributed to the upgrade of Durant over Harrison Barnes, but the Warriors have also adapted to Pachulia's skill set (which differs considerably from Bogut's). And they still have the best record in the NBA, just as they did at this time last season and the one before it.

So no, Pachulia is no All-Star, but such a distinction wouldn't be the outrage to end all others.

Let the fans have their fun.

Warriors Insider's Notebook

When I Come Around

Noah Graham/Getty Images

All the talk coming into Wednesday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers was about how Stephen Curry's play had yet to truly take off and how he had fallen from last year's intergalactically great MVP campaign.

But after his 35-point barrage during a 125-117 comeback win, Curry talked about the concerted effort he made to stick to his style of play of staying aggressive with shots while still facilitating for all the scorers surrounding him.

"I'm not going to fall into temptation of abandoning what makes us successful just to say I shot more," he said. "I have to be aggressive and not turn down shots that I usually take and make."

Usually known for his single-quarter conflagrations, Curry was consistent all night against Portland—his points by quarter going nine, seven, 12 and seven—and there was noticeably more pick-and-roll action with both Draymond Green and Kevin Durant.

"At some points in the game, I was like, 'Yo, shoot that,'" Green said after the win.

"There's not like texts or side conversations where it's like, 'Shoot the ball.' He knows to shoot. I think that everybody makes a big deal of him not taking a lot of shots in certain games or here and there. At the end of the day, he's a smart player. He plays within the flow of the game."

Still, since the loss to Memphis back on Dec. 10, Curry is shooting just 43.1 percent from the field and averaging 21.5 points per game, but the Warriors are 11-1 over that stretch.

The reigning two-time MVP is famous for his hot second halves. Maybe this 35-point effort, confident from start to finish, is the start of yet another.

Erik Malinowski is the Golden State Warriors lead writer for B/R. Quotes are obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. You can follow him on Twitter at @erikmal. All stats via NBA.com/Stats and Basketball-Reference.com.