The first count of fan voting for the 2017 NBA All-Star Game is out, and it’s not good news for the Toronto Raptors’ stars.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan could both be in tough to earn a spot in the Eastern Conference’s starting lineup, with a big push needed ahead of the Jan. 16 deadline. DeRozan currently ranks third, just behind Dwyane Wade of the Chicago Bulls, while Lowry is criminally down in sixth with not only just half the votes of his teammate, but only a quarter of the votes of Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving. Do Cavs fans really need more at this point? No, they don’t, and so even if you can’t rally yourself to vote to support your team, do it to try to spite the Cavs. Does that work? Cool.
Anyway, here are the vote totals in the East:
Guys this #NBAVote total for Kyle Lowry is not Ok. pic.twitter.com/VrjcncIMPs
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) January 5, 2017
Now, when I tweeted that out, some fans got quite mad at me. Why, when I’ve also been regularly using DeRozan’s name with the hashtag? I’m not sure. The argument seems to be that we should all be systematically voting for only DeRozan, since he’s closer, but to that I would counter: A) There are still 12 voting days, so things could change in a hurry in the counts and you wouldn’t want to disqualify a very deserving Lowry out of strategy; and B) With the ability to vote (online or using the hashtag #NBAVote) for 10 different players each day (plus the retweets), you’re not hurting DeRozan by voting for Lowry or vice versa. Like, at all.
(Also, the idea that there is some bias in alternating which player I use the hashtag for – I’ve been going back-and-forth all voting season, as I did last year – is laughable, and I am very annoyed at the world today. But I digress.)
It’s worth noting, too, that the fan votes only makes up 50 percent of the vote this year. Players and media will account for the other half, though Raptors Republic does not have a vote. But the fan vote is still important, and it sends a nice message of support to the players if the fan base comes correct with good numbers for each of their stars. Last year, Lowry closed a 32,000-vote gap in the final four days, for example. He also jumped Wade at the last count the year prior. Both Lowry and DeRozan will probably wind up earning their third respective All-Star nods, anyway, but it’s not a given with the depth at guard in the East this year. There’s plenty of time to push each player higher, and the voting update next Thursday will be interesting.
Reached out to the NBA offices for clarification on how exactly All-Star voting will work this year, and here's what they shared: pic.twitter.com/c6U42s7Xgt
— Andrew Lynch (@AndrewLynch) January 5, 2017
(And no, we probably shouldn’t have someone with a huge following give away a phone for RTs, or whatever happened last year, because it’s a bad look. Kind of funny, though.)
I’ll write up the case for each Raptor to make the team next week and release my full hypothetical ballot some time before Jan. 19.
