Isaiah Thomas deserves to be an All Star - but will he make the team?

I fully understand that I'm preaching to the choir here, but I kind of feel like this needs to be covered.  If only to state for the record what all of us firmly believe.  So here goes.

Isaiah Thomas should absolutely be an All Star this year.

If you need numbers to validate this opinion, I'll toss the mic to Chris Forsberg.

Boston Celtics Report- ESPN

There is little reason to belabor Thomas' All-Star case based on his offensive numbers. The 5-foot-9 point guard is averaging career bests at 21.8 points and 6.6 assists per game. The only other players in the league averaging 21-plus points and six-plus assists are former All-Stars in Stephen Curry, James Harden, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, and Kyle Lowry. Thomas has almost single-handedly kept Boston's offense afloat at times this season as evidenced by the fact that Boston owns an offensive rating of 104.9 when he's on the floor, while that plummets to 94.8 when he's on the bench -- a difference of 10.1 points per 100 possessions.

With that out of the way, allow me to point out that "should" and "will" are different things.  Thomas may deserve to be an All Star, but there's still a chance that he won't be one.

The starters are still selected by fans and the chances are pretty good that Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving will be voted in.  Go look at Zach Lowe's list of deserving All Stars.  Thomas makes his list - though just barely.

Melo and Thomas get the last two spots in what amounts to a shoulder shrug.

I don't think that's a slight on either guy so much as it is an admission that there are other good candidates to consider.  One of whom happens to be fellow Celtic Jae Crowder.  You know, the guy that I recently called the team's MVP.

So if Wade and Irving are voted in and the coaches are of a similar mind to Lowe, then Thomas could be left off the squad.

Obviously a lot of different things can happen between now and the All Star break.  Seems like every year there are injury replacements.  Perhaps the coaches will simply like Thomas better than Lowe does - in comparison to other players at least.  Maybe there's some politics at play that I'm not privy to.  Who knows?  All we can do is wait and find out with the rest of the world.

You can tell that Isaiah really wants this and he may be using this as a kind of motivation.

Amir Johnson’s return to Toronto is a meaningful one - The Boston Globe

"If I was 6-foot, there wouldn’t be no consideration about how I’d be in there," he said. "But I’m going to do my part. And then with this team, hopefully we can get a few wins before the All-Star break and even put me in a better position to be there. But hopefully I do make it. I feel like I should and a lot of my peers feel the same way."

He's been fighting an uphill battle all his life and beating the odds every step of the way because of his size.  Perhaps missing the cut once again will only feed more coal into the furnace that drives him.  It could end up being a good thing in a weird way.  But personally I don't think he needs a lot more fuel.  It seems like his drive comes from deep within himself.

So to sum up, Isaiah knows that he's an All Star, fans know he's an All Star, writers know that he's an All Star.  All that's left is to hand him a jersey and let him play in the game.  Will he get that chance?  Or will he have to wait another year?