Sep 28, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard/forward Gordon Hayward (20) during media day at the Zion Bank Basketball Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Will a Jazzman Make the All-Star Team?
Tyson Newman: Gordon Hayward. I expect the coaches to vote Hayward in since he’s Utah’s best player and the Jazz should be in the playoff picture.
Karthik Narayanan: Gordon Hayward. He is the best-known face on Jazz.
Greg Foster: Unless the team shocks the NBA and comes out of the gates dump-trucking teams, en-route to a 38-15 type record, I don’t see a Jazz player making the All-Star squad. The West is so deep and chock-full of star players in bigger markets, and the All-Star Game is a glorified popularity contest.
If it’s going to be anybody, I’m going with Rudy Gobert, because out of all the positions in the West, center has the shallowest talent pool.
Richard Lu: If anyone is going to be an All-Star, it would have to be Rudy. The backcourt positions in the west are just way too crowded (Kobe & Curry will be voted in, then you have CP3, Westbrook, Harden, Durant, Leonard, etc.). Any Utah representative would have to be a frontcourt player.
Ryan Aston: I’m going to go out on a limb and say Rudy Gobert can make the All-Star team this season. I think there’s a real chance that Gordon Hayward is better than Jazz fans or anybody for that matter thinks, but I don’t know if it all comes together this season.
Gobert, meanwhile, could impress west coaches with his defensive impact as Andrei Kirilenko did when coaches voted him into the ASG in 2004. That said, I would be really surprised if anybody from the Jazz got the nod.
Blake Draper: Gordon Hayward will continue to be an all-around force on the court, and the Western Conference coaches will send him to the All-Star Game as a result.
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