The Official All NBA Teams Are Out
For me, it’s this announcement that is always the most juicy and filled with the most controversy. Now that we’ve seen how thinks have shaken out, this year is no different. As I’ve done for all of these awards/teams so far, here is what I had last month on how I would divide it up
All NBA 1st Team
What makes this tough is that injuries have really impacted a couple spots. This means that despite their strong seasons, I’m leaving Curry, CP3 and Kyrie off. They’ve simply missed too many games. If I had to separate all three teams out given everything we know, this is how I’d do it
G – James Harden
G – Damian Lillard
F – Lebron James
F – Giannis Antetokounmpo
C – Anthony Davis
All NBA 2nd Team
G – DeMar DeRozan
G – Russell Westbrook
F – Kevin Durant
F – Draymond Green
C – LaMarcus Aldridge
All NBA 3rd Team
G – Victor Oladipo
G – Bradley beal
F – Paul George
F – Al Horford
C – Joel Embiid
Well, it looks like for the most part my first two teams were close with the third team being a bit of a disaster. Clearly missing time due to injury mattered more to me. A lot of people initially will be surprised by Dame making 1st Team All NBA, but I could see that a mile away. He had a big time regular season on a POR team that was much better than everyone thought. He even improved his defense a little bit! My surprise is more the Durant over Giannis part. I know Durant had a good year, but was it really better than Giannis’? I guess maybe it was given the 1st team voting difference, but I’m not so sure. Durant also did have the most 2nd team votes so take that for what it’s worth.
I also vastly overrated Draymond Green, so that one’s on me. I thought Embiid would sneak into the 3rd team only because I didn’t realize you could have a C/F position. Being able to count Aldridge as a PF obviously changes things, and I don’t really have a problem with Embiid making 2nd team, he was that good. I guess for me, the biggest overall surprise is Jimmy Butler making 3rd team over a guy like Al Horford. Between the amount of games Butler missed, and the type of season Horford had, I’m not sure how that really makes any bit of sense. It’s also pretty crazy that Gobert ended up getting nearly 20 more votes than Al, as a guy who missed serious time as well.
I guess what’s confusing about this, is why does time missed for some matter more than others? Like Steph Curry played 51 games this year to Kyrie’s 60, and I would say he was marginally better. Like it seems as though all the guys that missed serious time it hurt their chances, yet Curry and Butler both got in. That feels weird.
It’s also pretty hilarious that the Thunder could have two All NBA guys and still lay an egg in the postseason. That’s embarrassing. So now that we know how the three teams shook out, who do you have a problem with? Who do you think got snubbed? Who do you think the morons are that voted AD for 2nd team? Let’s waste the rest of this short week by debating, because who wants to work.