2013 All Star Voting: Duncan behind Durant, Howard, Griffin

By Quixem Ramirez
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Given the fan voting structure, we shouldn’t be too surprised that Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker were largely overlooked.

The NBA released the early results for the 2013 All-Star voting today. Miami’s LeBron James and the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant lead the voting with 641,348 and 639,419 votes, respectively.

Duncan, in particular, was underappreciated by the fans. He is fourth among Western Conference frontcourt players behind Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the Lakers’ Dwight Howard and the Clippers’ Blake Griffin. With 189,577 votes thus far, Duncan needs approximately 120,000 votes to catch Griffin and claim the third frontcourt spot. Only Durant and James have higher player efficiency ratings (PER) than Duncan.

Parker, meanwhile, registered 69,983 votes — good for seventh among Western Conference backcourt players. Through 21 games, Parker is setting career highs in free throw percentage (.802) and PER (22.5) while nearly eclipsing last season’s assist average with 7.6 assists per game. Houston’s Jeremy Lin, notching 289,319 votes, and the Lakers’ Steve Nash, 118,073, garnered more votes despite producing substantially weaker seasons.

Ginobili has the weakest case of the three to no fault of his own. His PER and true shooting percentage are well above average but pail in comparison to prior seasons. Ginobili is averaging 17.3 points per 36 minutes, his lowest average since the 2003-04 season. With 47,800 votes, Ginobili is ninth.

The 2013 All-Star game will be played on Feb. 17 in Houston. Voting can be accomplished on Facebook (via ballot), Twitter (hash tag #NBABALLOT) and through NBA.com.

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