He's leading his successful team in scoring, yet somehow he didn't get picked for his second career All-Star Game.
NBA All-Star Weekend is just eight days away, and it’s official that the Toronto Raptors will have four of their members participating in the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles and G-League star Alijah Martin will face off in the Rising Stars game on Friday, while two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes and head coach Darko Rajakovic will represent different teams in the big game on Sunday.
Toronto can confidently say that it should’ve had two more players participating who were snubbed. Second-year guard Jamal Shead, who leads all but one player selected in assists per game, was snubbed to represent the Sophomore team in the Rising Stars Game. The more obvious snub, though, is Brandon Ingram, who was not selected to his second career All-Star Game after leading the Raptors in scoring, who are 3.5 games out of the second-seed in the East.
Toronto Raptors guard/forward Brandon Ingram (3) | © Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Any time someone is deemed a snub for a list of players selected for some sort of honor (e.g., All-Star, All-NBA, All-Defense, etc.), there also needs to be a player on the list to take off in favor of them. In this particular case, it’s possible that the two most questionable players to make the Eastern Conference All-Star reserves over Ingram are the two former Raptors.
Rounding out the Eastern Conference All-Stars are four-time All-Star Pascal Siakam and first-time All-Star Norman Powell. Both players were pivotal pieces in the 2019 Raptors championship team, and now are thriving with the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat, respectively.
Powell, who received his first career All-Star selection, has very similar numbers to Ingram on a worse team. Ingram has averaged 21.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game on 47/36/83 shooting splits through 50 games. Powell has averaged 23.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists on 47/39/84 shooting splits through 43 games.
Siakam, on the other hand, has averaged 23.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 4.0 assists on 49/38/69 shooting splits through 48 games. While his numbers may seem the best of the three, they appear almost meaningless when his team’s record is taken into account. Siakam’s Indiana Pacers currently sit as the 15th team in the Eastern Conference with a 13-38 record. The last player to be selected for an All-Star Game with his team’s win percentage at .255 or lower was Kobe Bryant in his farewell tour in 2016.
Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) and Miami Heat guard/forward Norman Powell (24) | © Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
For both players, Ingram should have the better argument. His team has been far more successful for the majority of the year, and he is the clear No. 1 option offensively. Powell is the second option behind Tyler Herro in Miami, and Siakam is the main scorer for the Pacers with Tyrese Haliburton out, but his production clearly isn't translating to wins. Time will tell if Ingram is selected as an injury replacement for festivities in Los Angeles.