Introducing the 2014-15 NBA No-Stats All-Star Team
At the end of the season, the NBA will bestow upon various players awards for their performance throughout this season. The league will hand out the MVP, the Rookie of the Year, the Defensive Player of the Year, the Sixth Man of the Year and more. It will name the First-, Second- and Third-Team All-NBA and the First- and Second-Team All-Defensive teams.
The players you'll read about below probably won't receive any of those honors. With the exception of one player, they're fairly unlikely to even be in the discussion. These are the players who contribute on the margins.
Almost all of them are the fifth options in their team’s lineup when they're in the game—the glue guys who hold the lineup together, supplementing the primary options in a way that makes the unit click. They're the No-Stats All-Star Team (more like the Not-All-That-Many-Stats All-Star team, really, but No-Stats just has a better ring to it).
We'll do this like All-Star voting: two guards and three frontcourt players as our starters, with two additional guards, three additional frontcourt players and two wild cards as the reserves. And here they are:
STARTERS
GUARD: Courtney Lee, Memphis Grizzlies
Lee averages a scant 10.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 31.1 minutes per game, but he plays a crucial role for what's been the best Grizzlies team of the Grit 'N' Grind era this season. Lee's nailing 43.2 percent of his threes and his outside shooting provides crucial spacial for Mike Conley, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph to do their work.
The Grizzlies' offense has been 6.7 points better per 100 possessions with Lee on the court than when he's on the bench, as they take and make more threes with him in the game. While the new starting lineup featuring Jeff Green has not been great (-2.2 points per 100 possessions), the usual Conley-Tony Allen-Lee-Randolph-Gasol unit is 7.4 points better per 100 possessions than their opponents.
GUARD: Jared Dudley, Milwaukee Bucks
Dudley has come a long way from his struggles of last season. Appearing on Zach Lowe's The Lowe Post podcast about a month ago, Dudley let on that he dealt with various knee and back issues throughout last season that weren't healed until about two weeks after he was dealt to Milwaukee.
Now, he's back to knocking down long balls at a 40.5 percent clip and chipping in with rebounds and crafty dishing. He's active on defense, guarding as many as three positions within a given game, and he's always communicating. Think the Clippers could use someone like Dudley now? Yeah, I do too.
FRONTCOURT: DeMarre Carroll, Atlanta Hawks
The lone Hawks starter to not make the Eastern Conference All-Star Team, Carroll might as well be the poster boy for this squad. He's long and athletic, and he spends much of his time on the floor doing the dirty work.
He's tasked with guarding the opposition's primary wing threat almost every night. His positioning is almost uniformly excellent, and he knows how to use his body, his teammates and his knowledge of angles to make things considerably more difficult for whoever's he's dealing with.
While Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and even head coach Mike Budenholzer get most of the attention that's been showered on the Hawks this season, Carroll's been the most overlooked key component of their success.
FRONTCOURT: Timofey Mozgov, Cleveland Cavaliers
It's Timofey Mozgov, not J.R. Smith or Iman Shumpert, who's been Cleveland's best midseason acquisition. He's making just under 60 percent of his shots with the Cavs, averaging 10.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game since the trade.
Cleveland has gone 21-8 with Mozgov on the roster, outscoring opponents by 14.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. Mozgov ranks 17th in the NBA in Points Saved Per 36 Minutes, a metric developed by Seth Partnow at Nylon Calculus.
ESPN's Real Plus-Minus pegs him as basketball's eighth-best center this season, and he's been even better than that if you just count his stint with the Cavaliers. He's come a long way from being the final throw-in in the Carmelo Anthony trade.
FRONTCOURT: Andrew Bogut, Golden State Warriors
Bogut only plays 23.6 minutes per game, and he averages just 6.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 blocks a night. His usage rate is only 13.4 percent, the 13th-lowest figure among players who garner at least 20 minutes per game.
He checks in at second in Partnow's rim-protection metric, Golden State's league-best defense is 5.6 points better per 100 possessions with him in the game, and he's one of the NBA's best defensive rebounders. He's the anchor in the middle that allows the Warriors to do all that crazy switching along the perimeter, and he seems likely to get at least some DPOY attention that doesn't go to teammate Draymond Green.
BENCH
GUARDS: George Hill, Indiana Pacers; Tony Allen, Memphis Grizzlies
Though he's missed a good deal of time this season, Hill almost immediately went back to doing what he does best upon return. He's knocking down spot-up threes (42.1 percent on catch-and-shoots, per NBA.com), getting the offense into rhythm (the Pacers are scoring at a top-five rate since February 1) and using that long-armed frame to lock down the front end of Indiana's quickly improving defense.
Allen, meanwhile, is also doing some extremely familiar things on the court. He has his follies now and again in the open court, but his perimeter defense is key to Memphis' current position as the second-best team in the Western Conference. He's still an active and aggressive off-ball cutter, finding the creases in the defense to make himself available for Conley or Gasol at opportune times.
FRONTCOURT: Harrison Barnes, Golden State Warriors; Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Clippers; Al-Farouq Aminu, Dallas Mavericks
Harrison Barnes' improvement has been one of the more undersold stories of this spectacular Warriors season. He regressed badly under Mark Jackson last season, but playing in Steve Kerr's more free-flowing system has allowed him to utilize his skill set in different ways.
It's a big change from when he was often the top offensive weapon on bench units last year, as he's now the fifth option in a loaded starting lineup. He's knocking down 42.5 percent of his three-point shots, posting up smaller wings when he has the matchup advantage and just generally not trying to do more than is asked.
Matt Barnes, meanwhile, has recovered nicely from an early-season shooting slump to knock down 36.5 percent of his deep attempts. The Clips have been 11.4 points per 100 possessions better overall with him on the floor, 2.3 on defense and 9.1 on offense. ESPN has him graded as the ninth-best defensive small forward in the league this season, and the 10th-best overall.
Aminu is a long-armed defensive menace, wreaking havoc in passing lanes and near the rim whenever he's on the floor. While his shooting would appear a problem on the surface, Dallas has actually been better offensively with Aminu in the game to go along with the expected defensive bump they've received from his presence.
WILD CARDS: John Henson, Milwaukee Bucks; Cody Zeller, Charlotte Hornets
Henson's our second member of the Bucks on this squad, and though his per-game averages of 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks may not show it, he's actually had some pretty gaudy lines at various times this year. Like Dudley, he's active and engaged on defense, playing a sizable role for one of the league's biggest surprises. He's struggled at times with turnovers, but his prowess as a dive man in pick-and-rolls has made him an effective offensive weapon.
Zeller has come on strong in his second season with Charlotte. His athleticism jumps off the screen every time he's on the floor, and he's learned how to leverage it in a variety of ways. His mid-range and face-up game is still developing, but it's his quick and active feet on defense that have been the most pleasant surprise. Charlotte's been 2.7 points better per 100 possessions on defense with Zeller on the floor this season.
All stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.
