NBA fans were up in arms when the NBA All-Star starters were announced this last week.

Does Andrew Wiggins deserve to be an NBA All-Star starter. In short, yes he does. He certainly didn’t have the highest odds at https://justuk.club to be named an all-star this season, but it’s not like he was undeserving like when A.C. Green was voted a starter or an 19-year old Kobe Bryant was chosen to start in 1998 (Kobe averaged just 15.4 points per game off the bench).

In saying that the former #1 pick is justified in playing his first NBA All-Star Game doesn’t mean he’s a better player or more-deserving than Paul George or Karl-Anthony Towns, or even his own teammate Draymond Green.

In of itself, Wiggins has been in the conversation to be an all-star the entire season; providing the Warriors with another player that can create his own shot on offense and locking down players on the other side of the court.

Wiggins is putting up 18.1 points per game, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists (including the assist to Steph Curry when he broke Ray Allen’s three-point record) while shooting 48.3% from the field and 41.2% from three. His stats are pedestrian when it comes to all-stars and even to his own standards. His 18.1 points would be tied for the lowest PPG in the last five seasons. The reason why he made the team?  Well fan voting, but we still think he’s deserving because he’s doing it for a Warriors team that spent the majority of the season as the top team in the league.

Winning Matters

Though the Warriors have faltered as of late, they’re 36-13 good for the second-best record in the entire league behind the Phoenix Suns; still considered one of the best teams in the league on both sides of the ball, and one of the favorites to compete for an NBA Championship. When it comes to individual awards, the biggest factor is that player’s performance and numbers, but the other side of the coin is how winning increases the chance of that player being recognized.

We’ve dug deep into how winning plays a huge factor when it comes to awarding the regular season’s MVP. Simply put, wins magnifies a players visibility when it comes to accolades and accomplishments being recognized. After all, Wiggins put up more points in Minnesota but rarely sniffed an all-star berth.

Wiggins falls into the category of players like Otis Thorpe, Theo Ratliff, B.J. Armstrong, or Charles Oakley, tertiary players that are contributing to winning teams.

Wiggins is one of many players that are deserving to represent their team in the midseason game featuring some of the best players in the league. Notice I emphasized some because every season there are deserving players that are “snubbed.”

Now would he have been named to the team had he not been voted in by fans? Probably not, but if you’ve been following, he’s a player that many have mentioned as a potential all-star in the conversation so it’s not a complete surprise to those that have paid attention to those conversations and understand the importance of how winning can factor into these decisions .