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Last week, Ed Bemiss of National Sports Rankings explained to us why San Antonio Silver Stars guard Becky Hammon was not listed among his list of hypothetical 2012 WNBA All-Stars.
But coming off a week that earned Hammon a season-first WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week award, might his player rankings show something different?
As per the WNBA release, Hammon opened the week on Tuesday by scoring 22 points and dishing out four assists in an 82-81 win over the visiting Phoenix Mercury. She then tallied 19 points, making all three of her three-point field goal attempts, in an 88-72 win over the Indiana Fever to begin a four-game road trip. Hammon finished the week with a 23 point and six assist performance in a 94-81 win over her former team the New York Liberty.
In total, Hammon scored 20.3 points per game and 4.8 assists per game last week, helping the Silver Stars extend their winning streak to seven games and collect her eighth career Player of the Week award. But most importantly given Bemiss' analysis last week, Hammon averaged 1.7 turnovers per game last week, less than half of her season average entering the month.
All of that was enough to move Hammon into the top 30 - an improvement over last week - but she still didn't crack Bemiss' All-Stars.
But someone else's impressive performances thus far in July did help catapult her into the ranks of Bemiss' Western Conference All-Stars.
West All-Stars
|
91.94
|
Candace Parker
|
Los Angeles Sparks
|
|
91.62
|
Sophia Young
|
San Antonio Silver Stars
|
|
90.47
|
DeWanna Bonner
|
Phoenix Mercury
|
|
89.02
|
Taj McWilliams-Franklin
|
Minnesota Lynx
|
|
88.00
|
Rebekkah Brunson
|
Minnesota Lynx
|
|
87.60
|
Sue Bird
|
Seattle Storm
|
|
87.20
|
Maya Moore
|
Minnesota Lynx
|
|
87.20
|
Nneka Ogwumike
|
Los Angeles Sparks
|
|
86.56
|
Kristi Toliver
|
Los Angeles Sparks
|
|
86.04
|
Seimone Augustus
|
Minnesota Lynx
|
|
85.43
|
Tanisha Wright
|
Seattle Storm
|
|
82.42
|
Temeka Johnson
|
Tulsa Shock
|
It has to be pointed out that Bemiss is putting Johnson here as a function of her being the top player on her team, which is probably a debatable standard given that the Shock have only won three games - Hammon (83.18), Jia Perkins (84.61), Lindsay Whalen (84.59), Samantha Prahalis (84.42), Alana Beard (83.69), Ann Wauters (83.01), and Camille Little (82.61) all rate higher than Johnson. A few of those players have All-Star arguments over Johnson, but for now, Bemiss leaves them out.
Kristi Toliver was the high riser this past week in these rankings, with her 29-point performance against the Minnesota Lynx giving her a bit of a boost.
East All-Stars
|
93.95
|
Tamika Catchings
|
Indiana Fever
|
|
92.47
|
Sylvia Fowles
|
Chicago Sky
|
|
90.65
|
Angel McCoughtry
|
Atlanta Dream
|
|
90.54
|
Epiphanny Prince
|
Chicago Sky
|
|
90.32
|
Tina Charles
|
Connecticut Sun
|
|
89.48
|
Sancho Lyttle
|
Atlanta Dream
|
|
88.71
|
Cappie Pondexter
|
New York Liberty
|
|
86.89
|
Katie Douglas
|
Indiana Fever
|
|
85.87
|
Kara Lawson
|
Connecticut Sun
|
|
84.67
|
Asjha Jones
|
Connecticut Sun
|
|
84.45
|
Essence Carson
|
New York Liberty
|
|
83.97
|
Crystal Langhorne
|
Washington Mystics
|
On the Eastern side, not much changed in terms of who made the team with Essence Carson bumping teammate Leilani Mitchell off the 12-member team.
But with Prince injured for so many games - and likely out in the event of a hypothetical game - Mitchell would probably get the nod as a replacement player.
Who would be the front-runners for your 2012 WNBA All-Star teams? Feel free to drop your thoughts on these or your own in the comments below.
For the full list of this year's current WNBA player ratings - as well as NSR players ratings dating all the way back to 1997 - check out Ed Bemiss' WNBA Player Rankings page.