The 2010-11 NBA All-Star reserves will be selected Thursday by Conference Coaches. Andrew Bogut has yet to be selected to an All-Star team, despite his 3rd team all-NBA last year. With the Chicago Bulls Joakim Noah’s recent thumb injury which has forced the center to miss most of the first half of the season, Andrew has an outside chance of making the Eastern Conference squad.
Typically, however, coaches go with players on teams with winning records, which unfortunately Andrew’s Milwaukee Bucks do not have at this point (18-28). Atlanta’s Al Horford on the other hand, does. As a result, Horford is the likely selection. Horford made the squad last year as well.
Andrew continues to lead the league in blocks (2.84/game) and is coming off a dominating seven block performance against the New Jersey Nets on Saturday night at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The seven blocks equals Andrew’s career high.
Despite missing seven games this year (injury and illness), Bogut has enough rebounds to rank among the league leaders. His 11.7 rebound per game average ranks him fifth in the NBA behind Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Zach Randolph and Blake Griffin.
Bogut has two twenty plus rebound games already this year, including a career high 27 in an overtime loss to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat on January 7. He had an 18 rebound game against Houston on December 10 and has tallied 18 or more rebounds four times including Saturday night’s game against New Jersey.
Coachs’ decisions are due Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully the coaches can see beyond the Bucks record and put the deserving big man on the roster.