Why Deandre Ayton deserves your vote to be a NBA All-Star

NBA All-Star voting is in full swing and Deandre Ayton deserves your votes. Let me explain why.

Former Arizona Wildcat and current member of the Phoenix Suns, Deandre Ayton, deserves your vote. For anyone that follows me on social media knows I am a HUGE fan of Ayton. Maybe I am a little bias, who cares, he deserves to be an All-Star this year!

What Ayton has done in his rookie year is all-star worthy. After you are finished reading this post, my goal is to get you to vote No.22 into the NBA-All Star game. Only 17 days left!

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The No.1 NBA Draft pick has lived up to his expectations and some. 39 games into his rookie year and his stats speak for themselves. Ayton is currently averaging 17.0 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 2.2 apg, shooting 60.7% from the field and has 24 double-doubles! Not done. Of those 39 games played this season, he has scored in double-digit points in 34 of those games. Plus, he has 13 20+ point games as well.

His best outing of the season so far was against the Denver Nuggets, which yours truly saw live in person. Ayton put up 33 points, 14 rebounds, four steals and one assist. He shot 16-20 from the field – that’s 80%! The Suns would go onto to lose a close one to the Nuggets 122-118, which you can’t blame Ayton for.

Yes, the Suns are the second worst team in the NBA, but that shouldn’t take away from what Ayton has done so far this season. Luka Doncic, who is second behind Lebron James in the Western Conference for frontcourt players with almost 680,000 votes, plays for the 11th place team in the West, Dallas Mavericks.

On paper, Doncic is averaging a slightly higher points per game at 19.5, but then Ayton is dominating the glass with almost four more rebounds per game. One stat that stands out more than any is PER, or player efficiency rating. Ayton leads all rookies with 24.5 and Doncic is in second at 19.4.

According to Basketball Reference, PER is defined as “The PER sums up all a player’s positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player’s performance.” Basically what that means is that even though both players are averaging close to 32 minutes per game, Ayton is more efficient when you tally everything up. I have convinced you yet for Ayton’s vote!?

Listed at 7-foot-1 and 250 lbs, he is not your traditional center. He can handle the ball well around the rim and in the paint. Ayton has an arsenal of moves with his back to the basket, but can also hit that mid-range jumper. He also has really good hands and can run the floor well. Give it a season or two and he will starting taking three’s, he’s that talented.

The one weakness he does have his is defense, but like any NBA rookie, Ayton will learn with experience how to play defense at the next level. On the plus side though, Ayton loves the challenge when it comes to guarding smaller and faster opponents. Wildcat fans saw a lot of that while at Arizona.

Besides his athleticism, it’s his attitude and personality that makes him an all-around “all-star.” Whether in the locker room, interviews before or after the game or in practice Ayton likes to have fun, but at the same time shows his passion and desire to be one of the greats in today’s game No doubt Ayton will have a long and successful NBA career.

Just to give you a little inside on how the NBA All-Star Voting works, it’s based on 50% of the fan vote, 25% of the media vote and 25% of the player votes. Coaches then choose reserves and from their two captains (the leading vote-getter in each conference) will then choose their team from that pool of players.  Because 50% of the vote is depended on the fans, Wildcat fans need to vote, vote, vote!!  Even better, votes count double day today!

Ayton was also just inducted to the Ring of Honor inside McKale Center during the halftime of the Wildcats Pac-12 opener against the Colorado Buffaloes. Just a matter of time before he gets his jersey retired. Congrats Ayton!

Wildcats fans, I hope I have done my due diligence and proved my case why Ayton deserves your vote to be an NBA All-Star this year. If you have already voted, please spread the word out and get your family and friends to vote. Every vote counts and matters!