Zaza Pachulia Once Again Among The Leaders In NBA All-Star Voting
By Tyree Morton
After missing out on a starting spot by less than 15,000 votes last year, Zaza Pachulia finds himself among the top vote getters yet again after the first returns of All-Star voting
How is this happening? How did this happen two seasons in a row? This wasn’t expected. After the first returns of All-Star voting was released, it came to our knowledge that Zaza Pachulia is currently second in frontcourt votes.
He trails only behind teammate Kevin Durant.
Averaging just 5.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, it’s clear that his numbers don’t jump off the stat sheet. So what’s the cause for this? Many believe the majority of Pachulia’s votes are coming from the Republic of Georgia, his home country. It also helps to be on one of the most popular teams in the league.
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Pachulia isn’t the first player to get tons of votes because of the major support coming from his country. Just look at Yao Ming, who led the NBA in All-Star votes two seasons in a row (2005 & 2006). Yao Ming was an actual All-Star though, Zaza Pachulia? Not so much.
Zaza has more votes than all but seven players. This is mind-boggling. Pachulia surprisingly has more votes than guys like Dwyane Wade, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, and Chris Paul.
With the new changes of All-Star voting taking place this year, it’s still doubtful that he’ll get in. The fan vote only counts towards 50% of the total votes. The players and media votes will start next week, accounting for 25% each.
This is the breakdown after all voting results are in via NBA.com:
"After all votes are tallied, players will be ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups – fan votes, player votes and media votes. Each player’s score will be calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes. The five players (two guards and three frontcourt players) with the best score in each conference will be named NBA All-Star Game starters. Fan voting will serve as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score."
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Will this cause another All-Star Voting rule change? It’s not impossible for Zaza Pachulia to get in but it is doubtful. Even his teammates can vote for him, whether he deserves those votes or not.
Either way it will be interesting to see where he ends up when all voting is final.