PLL All Star format. Why we need coach selections, Thanos, and a whole bunch of sharks.
PLL All Stars have arrived. And while the league may be new, it’s got that one all too familiar issues that plague all star games from any professional sports league in the world. The roster is released, the takes get launched. This player shouldn’t have made it, that player got snubbed, the voting system is trash, pick a complaint. The good thing about being a new league is, you can look at what fans and players complain about most in the other major leagues, and look to address that particular problem. The PLL did that in some ways, and in others maybe not as much.
If you still haven’t seen, spoiler alert, here’s the roster.
By team, it’s:
Archers — 5
Atlas — 7
Chaos — 9
Chrome — 3
Redwoods — 10
Whipsnakes — 10
Redwoods and Whipsnakes having that many guys makes sense. Chaos is obviously right there as well, those three teams have emerged as the clear top half of the league. Atlas at 2–4 with a -12 GD but still having seven all stars is a little bit funky. Woods might lose one if Gurenlian is still healing and can’t go. Of course this is a nice segue into the “who got snubbed” portion of this whole thing.
Joe Nardella got snubbed. He’s been better than Gurenlian this year. In fact, only Baptiste has a better faceoff percentage than him. Nardella is second in the league in ground balls, only a few behind Stephen Kelly, and 11 more than Baptiste. Nardella may not be the social media draw, or the fan favorite, but he’s played more than well enough to be in this game and earn that recognition. Of course, there’s no guarantee that he gets the nod if Gurenlian can’t go. It may go to a guy like Connor Farrell, who is much more the fan favorite right now. Cue segue into the voting issue….
If fans exclusively pick all stars, you have problems. This is well documented. The 2011 NBA All-Star game was a case study for this kind of thing. Yao Ming, despite being out for the entire season, with what was ultimately a career ending injury, was voted a starter in the All-Star game. It was determined entirely by fan vote. Yes, Yao Ming was massively popular, particularly in China obviously, so it’s not all that surprising he got a ton of votes. But my man had not played. This is not good. You can’t have him take a spot from a guy who, ya know, actually set foot on the court. We don’t have anything that egregious in the PLL All-Star game, but it’s feasible that it could happen down the road in the current system. Let’s have fun with player comparisons:
PLAYER A: 11p, 8g, 2a, 36.8% shooting, 1–2 2pt
PLAYER B: 1p, 1g, 0a, 4.7% shooting, 0–1 2pt
PLAYER C: 10p, 9g, 1a, 50% shooting, 0–5 2pt
PLAYER D: 7p, 6g, 1a, 30% shooting, 0–7 2pt
Players B and D are all stars. B is Kyle Harrison, D is Sergio Perkovic. Player A is John Ranagan of the Chrome, not an all star. Player C is Brent Adams, not an all star. The decider here is that Harrison and Perkovic are much bigger fan favorites and much bigger on social media. If you want to convince me that none of these four guys are really all stars, I’m ready to listen on that too.
Consider Paul Rabil is the face of this league and really still this sport. He’s also getting on in years, and while he’s still a productive and impactful player, he might not necessarily be the automatic all star of years past. He’s 0–5 from two point range, he’s shooting 28% which isn’t terrible, but not too amazing either. Kyle Harrison is in the same boat. He’s a face of the league, but he has really struggled in the opening season when it comes to finding the score sheet. He finally got his first goal of the year just a week ago. There are plenty of reasons these guys struggle, and frankly PLL rules might be hurting them a bit. Taking 10 yards out of the middle of the field probably didn’t do a lot to help strong downhill dodgers like Rabil, Harrison, or Perkovic. Not an excuse, and probably worth a closer look at some point. Myles Jones is also an all-star and has struggled this year, although he’s still having a strong impact on games in terms of hockey assists (check out Joe Keegan’s piece on this if you haven’t). But truth be told, you could make a case that all three of these guys aren’t all-stars, and could be replaced by less sexy names like Brent Adams, Eric Law, or John Ranagan. But let’s be honest, an all-star game in the first year of the PLL without Rabil/Harrison/Jones is a non-starter.
Why not have players and coaches pick their own all-stars, and let fans vote on the starters or something along those lines. For small communities within the positions (faceoff, goalie) there is a ton of respect for others that play the position; it would become a serious honor to be voted by peers as the best in the business. Just find some mix of fan/player/coach selections. There needs to be a check on a pure fan vote. Let the fans pick 50 players, then let Gurenlian put his on Thanos Infinity Gauntlet glove, snap it so 25 players randomly drop off, and the coaches fill in the rest. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
I also which we knew a bit more about what’s going on this weekend beyond the game. There’s a skills competition, what are the skills? I’m sure the old standard of fastest shot will be on the menu. I can do without the whole trick shot thing to be honest, but I understand it’s a crowd pleaser. Let me tell you what I want to see: Sharks and Minnows. All offensive players on the sideline with a ball in stick (minnows) and all defensive players in the middle of the field (sharks). Offensive players all go at once, have to stay in between the top of the two point arcs, and make it from one sideline to the other without dropping their ball. Madness ensues. They go back and forth until the last player with a ball in his stick is the winner. I could go for musical ground balls. Say five pods or so of 10 players. 9 balls per pod. Players wait around the outside of a circle for the whistle, at which time they go pick up a ball and successfully make it back out of the circle with the ball. The player who doesn’t get a ball is eliminated. Remove a ball, repeat, until you’re down to a winner for each pod. Pod champs battle each other for supreme ground ball champion status.
Let’s talk about the parts of this that are definitely going right. The format is pulled almost completely from what the NBA has done in recent years, and has been a big hit. Top two vote getters are team captains, and they draft their teams. This past year, the NBA televised that draft. Players and captains had a ton of fun with, it was all over social media, the broadcast was great, fun was had by all. That should be the idea. And the PLL is on that path. It’s no coincidence they try to follow in the footsteps of what is by far the most player friendly and fun league of the big four.
They had Trevor Baptiste and Matt Rambo (captains) announce their first picks during halftime of the Chaos/Chrome game. Rambo went with Michael Ehrhardt which….okay. Teammate, LSM is a lean position in the all-star game and Ehrhardt is ridiculously good, he can hit 2’s, fellow Terp, I get it. Baptiste went with Rabil which…ain’t it. If you’re going to take a midfielder and the best player in the world, maybe the best player ever, is available in Tom Schreiber, you take him, don’t you? Oh wait he did with the next pick, he just took his teammate first. Ok ok all is forgiven. Love a team guy. Rambo took Connor Fields next, and the rest of the draft happens July 9.
I kinda was hoping for the draft to happen literally on the field before the game. Understanding that it’s unlikely to ever play out this way, but I can wish. Just school yard, line up and pick teams, roll out a ball and play. Obviously televise the whole thing, let RJ and company talk to guys who have been picked or are waiting to get picked, endless shit talking, etc. To be honest this is something I’ve always wanted for all sports. Imagine if the NBA All-Star game was done. Or the Pro Bowl did it and just played 7 on 7 instead of their joke game. Lean into the fun and personality these guys bring (I realize how tall of an order this is for the NFL, where all things must be done The Right Way at all times). Maybe next year. What they’re doing definitely works. They’ve done live reveals on YouTube before a number of times leading up to this year, and the viewership seemed solid for all of them.
Overall it’s tough to knock much about this All-Star process with the exception of the pure fan vote. It’s important to have fans be a part of the selections, but we’ve proven many times over we won’t ever really get it right, and frequently we’ll send players who definitely shouldn’t be playing because we recognize their name on a list. The PLL is still new, and that means the opportunity to be malleable and quickly adjust is still present. There is no longer standing process or tradition to adhere to, so strike out and make it your own.
