The Pick and Pop: Picking the Western Conference All-Star reserves
The Pick and Pop is where theScore's NBA editors discuss the week's biggest stories in the Association. This week, on the heels of Thursday's announcement of All-Star starters, we collaborate to fill out the All-Star rosters of the respective conferences. First up, the West.
Joseph Casciaro: Draymond Green, Frontcourt
Green is the prototypical modern-era forward. He's a playmaking-4 who can stretch the floor on offense while capably defending most, if not all, positions on the other end. A clear cut top-10 player in the game today.
John Chick: DeMarcus Cousins, Frontcourt
The Kings are in a playoff position, but Cousins' deserving of the honor goes beyond that. Fourth in the NBA in both scoring and rebounding - and even if his field goal percentage is consistently low for a big man - he seems to have picked up an outside shot this season. Boogie forever.
Patrick Britton: Chris Paul, Guard
The Clippers looked like they were on the cusp of imploding after Blake Griffin went down with a torn quadriceps in late-December. Instead, LA went on to win 10 games in a row thanks to the incredible two-way play of Paul, who has been good for 18 and nine this season.
Joe Wolfond: Gordon Hayward, Frontcourt
Totally flying under the radar, while propping up a team that's been better than it's had any right to be given the extended absences of two of its three best players. On top of being a top-shelf passer and shooter, Hayward's ballhandling takes the pressure off the team's overmatched point guards. Without him, the Jazz's offense would be nonexistent.
Sam Morsy: Klay Thompson, Guard
The other half of the "Splash Brothers," Thompson is undoubtedly a top-five shooting guard. He's putting up similar numbers to last season, when he was selected as an All-Star reserve, and remains one of the deadliest shooters not named Curry. Sure, he's on a stacked team, but he's an invaluable piece on the most revolutionary team of its generation.
William Lou: Anthony Davis, Wild card
The Pelicans have been a huge disappointment, and Davis hasn't lived up to otherworldly expectations, but the fact he's been a dominant force on both ends shouldn't be overlooked. Davis is averaging 23-10 with 2.4 blocks and has the league's sixth highest PER. The five ahead of him were all named starters.
Chris Walder: Damian Lillard, Wild card
The Trail Blazers are knocking on the door of one of the final two playoff seeds, which is pretty insane considering they lost a good chunk of their roster over the summer. As the undisputed No. 1, Lillard has become a relentless scoring machine, dropping 30 or more points on 10 occasions - two more than he had all of last season.
Who we snubbed: James Harden, Blake Griffin