Rockets: Russell Westbrook is latest proof of flawed All-Star voting system

After the fans’ All-Star ballot was released, Houston Rockets’ guard Russell Westbrook has proven to be yet another example of a flawed voting system.

Surprise, surprise. A Houston Rockets‘ player has been the victim of a flawed All-Star voting system yet again. If you recall, former Rockets guard Chris Paul was snubbed during his first year in Houston, which was the 2017-18 season in which he posted averages of 18.6 points and 7.9 assists per game.

On top of that, Rockets center Clint Capela was snubbed during the 2018-19 season in which he posted averages of 16.6 points per game along with 12.7 rebounds, which were both career-highs for the Switzerland native.

It’s well known that the All-Star voting system has long been flawed, as there are multiple ballots, which include the fans’ ballot, the players’ ballot and the media ballot also, which is far too complicated. What’s worse is that the fans’ ballot accounts for 50 percent of the overall vote, while the players/media votes account for the remaining 50 percent.

While this was implemented with the best intentions, which was to get the fans involved, it’s produced outrageous situations like Russell Westbrook’s bizarre situation this season. Although Russ is averaging more points, fewer turnovers and a better field-goal percentage than the 2018-19 season in which he was an All-Star, he still trails Lakers guard Alex Caruso in the fan vote.

Alex Caruso has 1,284,932 fan votes. That's more than:

Nikola Jokic (1,232,979)
Russell Westbrook (1,094,254)
Brandon Ingram (1,015,453)
Donovan Mitchell (928,911)
Devin Booker (811,479)
Ja Morant (629,473) pic.twitter.com/nGF0NvvtRi

— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 24, 2020

Granted, we don’t know if Westbrook missed the All-Star team altogether because the only thing that has been officially announced thus far has been the starters, but it goes without saying that Russ shouldn’t even be competing with a role player like Caruso for a spot on the All-Star team. Not only that, Caruso has drawn more fan votes than surefire All-Stars like Nikola Jokic in spite of the fact that he only averages 5.5 points per game while playing 19.1 minutes per contest. Let that resonate for a bit: Caruso doesn’t even start for the Lakers but has more fan votes than Russell Westbrook, who ranks 11th in scoring and 10th in assists this season.

It would be a little easier to stomach if Caruso was a 3-point sniper and shooting an outrageous 45 percent from downtown, but at 34.2 percent from long-range, he’s far from elite. Hopefully the player/media ballot will place Westbrook on the Western Conference All-Star team because it would be a travesty to see Russ miss a spot on the team due to a lack of fan votes.