FanPost

How to Know If You Have a Superstar

Here in Hinkieville we are very concerned with the word "superstar"- and it is thrown around very frequently while discussing "the process." This term has been under even more fire as of late as we have reacted to and debated the Joel Embiid injury news. I don't know if anybody has actually taken the time though to sit back and define what exactly is the criteria for this "superstar," so that you can know exactly when you have one.

My idea for judging whether a player is a superstar is not a complicated, statistically driven math formula, emotional attachment, or name recognition. While all of these may be important, I think I found an easy way to judge whether you have a superstar, and the work has already been done for us. The answer can be found in the All-NBA teams.

Note that I didn't choose the All Star game, as that oftentimes is too inclusive. For example, take Jrue Holiday who we all know and love here in Philly. Jrue made the All Star game in 2013, and probably deserved it. But almost everybody around the league would agree that he was not a superstar. Good player, but not a superstar player.

For those unfamiliar with the All-NBA teams, each year a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters nominate NBA players to either the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd All-NBA team. Players recieve 5 points for a 1st team nomination, 3 points for a 2nd team nomination, and 1 point for a 3rd team nomination. Points are then added up and the top vote getters are placed accordingly, with each team having 2 guards, 2 forwards, and a center. The following is the 2015 All-NBA team:

all-nba.0.jpg

1st team: Lebron, Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Steph Curry, James Harden

2nd team: Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Lamarcus Aldridge, Pau Gasol, Boogie Cousins

3rd team: Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Tim Duncan

I think this is a pretty accurate list, and does a good job of leaving out fan bias when players like Kobe are selected to start in the 2015 All-Star game based solely off of legacy and not current performance.

So here are some interesting observations that come about when using this method as a superstar guide:

-Trivia Question: the last team to win an NBA championship without a player making the All-NBA team (aka superstar) was....?

.......

......

......

......

......

......

......

pistons-89.0.jpg

The Bad Boys of '89

---Over 25 years ago the Pistons swept the Lakers in the Finals 4-0. I believe the whole league was biased against them anyways, judging by their nickname. They probably did have some players, *cough* Isiah Thomas, who most certainly deserved to make one of the three All NBA teams. Superstars win championships, and the fact that the last 25 champions have had an All-NBA player confirms this and supports this criteria for a superstar.

-Every year there are 15 NBA players given the All-NBA designation. This means that in a perfect world, with 30 NBA teams, every year any given team should have a 50% chance of having a superstar. As we all know though, this world isn't so perfect, and has been rather harsh to the Sixers as of late.

-The last Sixers player to be nominated to the All-NBA team was, as most of you would expect, our beloved Allen Iverson in the 2006 season as he made the 3rd team. This would be his 7th and final nomination to the All-NBA team. Unfortunately, most Sixers fans would agree that Iverson was the last superstar we got to see play in town, and now we are coming up on a decade of basketball without seeing a superstar grace the Wells Fargo Center hardwood.

-There is another superstar though that Philly had in town but to our dismay never saw the court... and that would be the infamous Andrew Bynum. When the Sixers acquired him though, he was a superstar as he made the All-NBA team in 2012. So to their defense they did acquire a superstar player, but failed to do their due diligence on the medical research. We can't fault our new ownership for not trying. Nonetheless, Bynum never played a game in Philly, causing us to miss out on the opportunity of watching a superstar donn the Red White and Blue.

-So when applying this to the current Sixers situation, and process that our GM Hinkie has laid out, this might help us see a little bit more clearly our current status in this superstar hunt. The evidence shows that to win a championship you need a superstar, and if a superstar is a player that makes an All-NBA team (preferably several times throughout his career) then Hinkie should use the All-NBA team as a lense to see if he has a superstar on his hands or a good player, who isn't quite a superstar player. He looked through this lense in the Jrue Holiday trade and realized Jrue wasn't a superstar player, and traded him away which in hindsight was an incredible move. He did it again with MCW, realizing that Carter-Williams could be a good point guard, but would almost certainly never make an All-NBA team. So when presented with the opportunity, he traded MCW for a pick that could- the Lakers top 3 protected pick in this upcoming draft.

We all knew that the Sixers might have been acquiring a superstar when they drafted Embiid, which now is looking quite dim. If Embiid does ever get healthy though, he clearly could be a player that makes several All-NBA teams granting him the "superstar" designation.

Other players on the Sixers roster who have potential superstar status and my totally subjective percentage figure that they will reach this superstar status by making an All-NBA team:

-Okafor: 70%

-Noel: 40%

-Stauskas: 15%

-Embiid: ?????????%

So next time we are blessed with the opportunity to see a Sixers player make an All-NBA team- we can know for sure that he has made it and cemented his superstar status, with us die-hard Philly fans enjoying the ride. As always, I would love to hear your comments below.

Here is a link to see the past All-NBA teams

#TrustTheProcess

A user-created LB joint. The Liberty Ballers staff does not contribute to FanPosts.