Did Dejounte Murray deserve to be named an All-Star?
The Spurs young star is having a breakout season, but the team itself is terrible
Many aspects go into being named an NBA All-Star. A player usually has to be helping his team immensely while also putting up absurdly good numbers. Sometimes they have to have a big social media following, other times they are just too skilled to not be an All-Star. Efficiency still isn’t as important in the selection process as it should be, which is indicative of some of the selections this season.
Jayson Tatum is a prime example having extraordinary traditional statistics of just under 26 points and 9 rebounds per game, but his eFG% and TS% are just over league average and his PER doesn’t even rank in the league top 30. Yet, because of how talented he is, how popular he is, and how every once in a while he can drop 50 on a team, he was rewarded with an All-Star selection even though some players were more deserving.
LaMelo Ball isn’t efficient either, but he is almost averaging a 20 point triple-double and is certainly positively impacting his team this season, not to mention he is one of the most popular players in the NBA, which is why Adam Silver gave Ball the replacement nod over Jarrett Allen and Jrue Holiday.
I could give more examples of inefficient players making the All-Star team like Russell Westbrook in years past, but the main point is that the selection process doesn’t weigh efficiency as much as popularity, team record, and traditional statistics, which is simply disappointing.
Dejounte Murray is another one of those selections, having some of the best traditional statistics in the Western Conference this season with averages of 19.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 9.2 assists per game, but also abysmal advanced shooting statistics with an eFG% of 49.1 and a TS% of 50.1 not to mention being only a 31.6% 3 point shooter as well.
However, because of Murray’s elite perimeter defense (leads the NBA with 2.1 steals per game) and his ability to get guys open with his elite playmaking skills, Murray’s PER of 21.77 actually ranks 20th in the NBA, which is extremely impressive if you consider how inefficient his shooting metrics are.
Like I have mentioned in previous articles, PER at its most basic definition is a player’s positive achievements including shots made, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks…etc subtracted by negative aspects of the game such as turnovers, missed shots…etc.
Shooting efficiency is a huge component of PER and Murray is impacting the game in so many different ways to obtain such a high PER without effieicnt shooting, which is why he most definitley deserves to be an All-Star. In fact, no one in the NBA that has less than an eFG% of 50 and a TS% of 51 is higher than Murray in PER.
The Spurs would not even have half of their wins without Murray, and even though he could be deemed another inefficient All-Star simply because of his scoring, he certainly deserved an All-Star selection based on how he has positively impacted his team in more ways than one.
It remains to be seen how the Spurs will continue to build around Murray in the coming years, but yet again San Antonio has produced another homegrown star that many teams overlooked in the draft, and it’s paying off in a big way for both Murray and the Spurs.