Unfortunate absences from the 2023 NBA All-Star lineup: James Harden can't be ignored

The NBA has announced 14 reserve players for the 2023 NBA All-Star game in Utah, completing the list of 24 players to receive this special annual honor.

However, like every year, cases of "left behind" also appear.

Let's take a look at the 5 most unfortunate and possibly the most controversial absences below.

The Sacramento Kings have a representative in the All-Star Game, bigman Domantas Sabonis in the reserve group, an easy result after he was left out of the list of 10 starting names. However, Sabonis' teammate De'Aaron Fox did not appear.

The pundits soon called Fox's case "unbelievable" because the defender was in excellent form, averaging 24.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. Fox is the best "clutch" player this season, making a big contribution to helping the Sacramento Kings stay in the top 3 on the regional rankings.

Knowing that the Western reserve group has many excellent defenders and all deserve to be in the All-Star like Ja Morant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Damian Lillard, but Fox's absence is still quite unfortunate.

After De'Aaron Fox, James Harden is the most unfortunate and controversial name since the list of NBA All-Star 2023 players was finalized.

The Philadelphia 76ers can be compared with the Sacramento Kings in terms of performance, and the All-Star Joel Embiid is similar to what Domantas Sabonis achieved. But at the same time, James Harden was absent, just like De'Aaron Fox was in the West.

This will be the first time in 10 years that Harden has not been named an All-Star after 10 consecutive appearances. He averaged 21.4 points with 11.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game.

The efficiency of "The Beard" is also very high with 45% FG, 39% 3PT and 86% FT.It is also impossible to ignore the index of 11 assists / game - leading the whole NBA that Harden owns.

When it comes to assists, if James Harden leads the NBA with an average of 11.0 assists per game, Trae Young is the player with the highest total assists in the league. In addition, the Atlanta Hawks defender added 27.0 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

There is another special statistic related to Trae Young: He is the only person in the NBA this season to average 27 points and have over 9 assists per game, namely 20.0 PPG and 9.9 APG.

Knowing that the Hawks are not having a very good record, but Young is a key factor in this team and constantly strives to raise the level of his teammates, aiming for improvement in overall performance.

The only thing against Trae is probably the poor performance of the Atlanta Hawks.

Since Karl-Anthony Towns was injured in November, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been able to maintain a win rate around 50% and to achieve this, the big credit belongs to the talent of young star Anthony Edwards.

The #1 pick from the 2020 NBA Draft was like putting the team on his shoulders, averaging 25.0 points with 6.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists per game with an efficiency of 46% FG, 37% 3PT and 77% FT. Edwards saved the Timberwolves many times, corrected his teammates and led the team to victory.

Another factor to mention is that Anthony has not missed any games since the beginning of the season, and Minnesota is in a safe position in the Playoffs group. This is probably enough for the best player on the roster to be named at the NBA All-Star.

Davis has played just 28 games for the Lakers this season, averaging 27.0 points and 12 rebounds per game. Without the injury barrier, AD will almost certainly be an All-Star next to LeBron James.

He plays the leader in the position of defender holding the ball, often shining when the team needs and quenching the thirst for a high-quality PG with good health and stability.