Charlotte Hornets: Dwight Howard ranks 10th in All-Star voting among East frontcourt players
The first returns are in for the All-Star Game voting and one Charlotte Hornets’ player was named while another was surprisingly left off.
In his first season with the Charlotte Hornets, Dwight Howard has revitalized his career and is back in the conversation to potentially return to the All-Star Game. Looking at the first returns of all-star voting, D12 ranks 10th among Eastern Conference frontcourt players and 19th among the top-20 vote-getters in the East. Although he isn’t among the top players, it shows just how good Howard has been for the team this season.
Although Dwight was named on the first returns, a familiar face for the Hornets was left off. Kemba Walker was absent from the list as he did not crack the top-10 for Eastern Conference guards.
Jaylen Brown, Bradley Beal, Isaiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade, Ben Simmons and Victor Olaipo all have received more votes than Charlotte’s point guard who made the all-star team last year. Still, that doesn’t mean Kemba won’t make the team as the reserves are selected by coaches and that’s how he got into the 2017 All-Star Game.
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Howard has been named an all-star eight times throughout his career with the last time being in the 2013-14 season when he was with the Houston Rockets. Those eight appearances came during an eight-year stretch from 2006-2014. He has been absent from the ASG for the last three seasons but his outstanding play with Charlotte has him back in the conversation.
Dwight has put up 15.7 points per game, 12.1 rebounds per game and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 53.5% from the field and 54.9% from the free throw line so far this season. Those are the best numbers he’s put up since being an all-star in 2014.
The Eastern Conference frontcourt players who received more votes than Howard includes Enes Kanter, Andre Drummond, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Kevin Love, Kristaps Porzingis, Joel Embiid, LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo is the leading vote-getter among all NBA players with LeBron a close second and Kyrie Irving rounding out the top-three.
This is the first year that the NBA will use a new All-Star Game system where the top vote-getters in each conference will be captains and pick their team from the starters and reserves from both conferences. It will not be East vs West this season but there will still be 12 players from each conference.
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With the center position eliminated from all-star voting and being included with forwards, it makes it that much harder for players like Dwight Howard to be named to the game. It will be interesting to see if D12 will be among the top-10 frontcourt players in the second returns and if Kemba Walker will sneak into the top-10 among guards.