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NBA All-Star Weekend 2013: Should Charlie Villanueva be selected to compete in 3-point shootout?

The 62nd NBA All-Star Game will be played on Sunday, February 17 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The Pistons won't have anybody representing them in that game but could have a few partaking in the weekend's various events. Could Charlie Villanueva be one of the three-point shootout shooters?

By Packey
Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

On Tuesday afternoon, Charlie Villanueva, the NBA's 34th best three-point shooter this year (39%), tweeted that it'd be easy to win this year's All-Star Weekend Three-Point Shootout if the NBA decided to let him participate:

It's possible he's not being serious -- but does he even deserve consideration? "35th best" suggests no, but the NBA's not always interested in pulling from the top of the leaderboard for these types of galas; popularity can go a long way.

Villanueva isn't exactly as popular as he once was, seeing as he played in only 13 games last year and hasn't done much worth any kind of payment since signing with the Pistons in 2009. However, in the midst of a career year, it's conceivable to see Villanueva get to Houston to chuck some treys (not trays). Tweeting about it and leveraging his old social media popularity could be a good start to his campaign, and his name going viral yesterday can't hurt either.

And maybe the NBA will decide to pluck some of the best three-point shooters from the best three-point shooting teams. Villanueva would have to be the Pistons' representative. Villanueva has taken by far the most three-point attempts per minute on the league's 7th best three-point shooting team (38%) and, actually, I would guess Villanueva's 0.27 threes per minute is amongst the top in the association (somebody, please verify this it's 3rd behind Vladimir Radmanovic and Mirza Teletovic, who have a combined 205 minutes. H/T Tom Ziller). All I know is Dude loves catching and heaving.

If Villanueva is selected for this competition, it's probably worth noting he wouldn't be the worst three-point shooter to partake, either. In fact, Kevin Love won it last year despite a 35-percent mark from beyond the arc entering the break. Villanueva would be the third Piston to participate in the last 10 years. Chauncey Billups competed twice (2003-2004 and 2005-2006) and Richard Hamilton once (2007-2008). No Pistons has ever won the competition.

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