Forgot about Dray: 3 deserving All-Star starters NBA fans snubbed
So long as the NBA's voting process to determine All-Star starters remains a popularity contest allowing fans to choose their favorite players, deserving starters will continue to be left on the bench in lieu of bigger names with lesser games.
The trickle-down effects are plentiful - from deserving reserves getting left off the team altogether to players with contract incentives suffering financial consequences.
Here are three deserving All-Star starters the fans snubbed this time around.
Draymond Green
Jerry West wasn't exaggerating when he called Green a top 10 player earlier this season. While Stephen Curry is the Golden State Warriors' unquestionable MVP, it's Green's combination of defensive versatility, playmaking, and board-crashing that makes the defending champions so impossible to match up with.
Green is averaging 14.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals, has already recorded a league-leading eight triple-doubles, ranks top five in ESPN's Real Plus-Minus, and is once again in the running for Defensive Player of the Year honors.
While the defensive wizard is scoring at career-high rates, he's also dished out more dimes than LeBron James and pulled down more rebounds than Anthony Davis.
Who Green should replace in the starting lineup: Kobe Bryant
The combination of Bryant's farewell tour with the longtime shooting guard logging more time at small forward this season always meant one of Green or Kawhi Leonard was going to lose out on a starting frontcourt spot.
Related: Bryant leads all vote-getters for 18th All-Star selection
Jimmy Butler
In terms of two-way dominance, few players have the pedigree of Jimmy Buckets.
Butler is in the rare predicament of having to guard the opposing team's best player while also carrying his own team's offense - and he does it while logging more floor time than anyone else in the Association.
How has all that wear and tear affected the 26-year-old? The reigning Most Improved Player has averaged a career-high 22.4 points per game to go with five rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.8 steals to keep the beat-up Chicago Bulls afloat in the race for the East's No. 2 seed.
Who Butler should replace: Dwyane Wade
Wade is a legend who may not have many more chances to start an All-Star Game, and, in fact, might not be a surefire All-Star at all anymore based on merit. He's nowhere close to the force Butler is on either end of the court, and he plays eight less minutes per game for an inferior team.
Paul Millsap
Is there a more underrated player in the league right now? Like Green and Butler, Millsap will almost surely be selected as a reserve next week, but the two-time All-Star's complete game deserved a better fate in fan balloting.
Millsap, the best player on the East's third-best team, is posting career highs virtually across the board (save for rebounds), averaging 18.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks. The only other players who have ever boasted that kind of stat-stuffing in a season while also knocking down at least 35 3-pointers: Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki.
Related: Eastern Conference All-Star starters announced
Who Millsap should replace: Carmelo Anthony
A more team-oriented and defensively focused 'Melo has been fun to watch as part of the resurgent Knicks, but Millsap has been the more complete player on the superior team for the better part of two years now.