Alex Abrines announced to deserved spot in Rising Stars Challenge
By Tony Heim
The NBA made one blogger’s day when they announced Alex Abrines would be replacing Joel Embiid in the Rising Stars Challenge.
Alex Abrines replacing Joel Embiid in the Rising Stars Challenge is destiny. I’ve already proclaimed Embiid as the future of the NBA. And this is how I feel about Abrines.
The thing is, Embiid really isn’t hurt. I’m sorry but my man would not be doing this if he was.
Embiid doesn’t need surgery. It even says that he could have had the injury before the incident that caused him to leave the game. If Embiid was playing on it before technically he could be playing with it now.
But the universe had something other to say.
Embiid is a physical specimen. Abrines is a shooting specimen. The basketball gods knew this; they did what any good god would do. They made fate bring the two together.
Alex Abrines is a very confident shooter, but he isn’t very comfortable doing much else on an NBA court. The skills are there. The body is not. Once Abrines adds on weight he’ll be able to match up physically with his opponents; that’s when we’ll see him making plays like this on a regular basis.
Abrines is having a hard time finding consistent minutes in Billy Donovan’s wacky rotation experiments. That’s got to be difficult for a guy used to playing an important role on a talented FC Barcelona team. What this selection does is give him an idea on how he’s seen by his peers.
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I’d say his peers think highly of the Spaniard Sharpshooter. Abrines was picked over four 2016 lottery picks (not including Ben Simmons) and one 2015 lottery pick. Two other 2016 first rounders were passed for Abrines.
This isn’t just good news for Abrines. It’s also great news for the Thunder. This is the first time rookie teammates (Domantas Sabonis) on a team with a winning record have been selected to this competition since 2009.
I’ve preached it all season and I’ll say it again. This season isn’t about playoff wins. It’s about player development. And two Thunder players proved they are some of the most intriguing prospects around the league.
It’s 2017. I’m treating this news as if it were a playoff win.