The All NBA Teams Are Out Which Means It's Time To Argue On The Internet!
Before you yell at me, the CMS would only let me upload 4 pictures at once. They wouldn't split it in 5ths I guess. So sorry to Jokic and Nuggets fans. Love you guys and think it's bullshit you can't watch your team on TV.
With that said, All NBA's are out folks so let's have ourselves a look
Maybe it's just me, but this feels pretty standard. Remember, this is all voted on before the playoffs so none of what we've been experiencing the last few months matters. The one spot on first team that will probably be debated is Booker over someone like Steph or Ja, but the Suns were the best team all year and Booker was the best player who also had himself a more than worthy All NBA season. Guys like Jokic/Giannis/Luka are locks for basically as long as they are still alive, and while of course Tatum will get hate because he plays for the Boston Celtics, there wasn't a more deserving forward this year for that top spot, so that shouldn't surprise anyone either. I get wanting to argue Embiid over Jokic for 1st team, but last time I checked Nikola Jokic was the MVP. You win MVP, you get 1std team in my book./
We sort of have the same deal with the second team as well. Who would you say doesn't deserve to be 2nd team on that list? You aren't putting either 3rd team forward over DeRozan, Steph and Ja were arguably the best two point guards in the conference, and Embiid was a fucking MVP candidate. No complaints there.
For third team, I was happy to see a few things. First, that Trae didn't get snubbed. About damn time that man made an All NBA team. All he does is drop 30/9 on your eyeball on a consistent basis. Crazy he had never made an All NBA team before this season so it was cool to see him get the nod. Same with Siakam. The Raptors had a weird year, had a ton on injury issues and he had himself a nice bounce back season carrying that Raptors team. He may only have that spin move in his bag, but he's elite at it. This is where I imagine Heat fans are a little upset and I get it. First seed in the conference and you have 0 All NBA guys? That's tough. Especially when Butler had a damn good year? I wonder if it was a games played thing. Siakam finished at 68 to Butler's 57 so that's probably what did it. Where that gets tricky is LeBron only played 56 games and his team missed the playoffs. That's who I'd really. bepissed make All NBA, but it's LeBron and you knew he was going to make at least one of the teams. It's not like he stunk, but did he have a better season than Butler who led a much better team? Hard to say he definitely did.
Very cool to see KAT make it as well, and that just earned him a shit ton of money
Jesus, look at those salary numbers. What is the cap going to look like where a team can have that type of money on the books AND spend on good talent to fill out a roster? That's nuts.
It goes without saying that the easiest solution to all this bullshit is to simply get rid of positions and just select the top 15 players. If that means one year there are 2 centers, fine. If one year the top 5 has 0 centers and is all guards, fine. It should be about who had the best seasons, not who had the best seasons as long as we fit everyone into a position and even bend the rules to give them eligibility in positions they did not play. My guess is we see that change at some point and people will lose their minds because of all the legends that had been snubbed because they were held to an old set of rules.
All in all, outside of some maybe upset Jimmy Butler fans and Sixers fans that I'm sure are crying about Embiid, this played out how I think most predicted. All these guys had tremendous seasons and it just goes to show you how great of a position the league is in moving forward. Guys like Luka, Ja, Booker, and Tatum are all young as shit and are littered across All NBA teams. Three of them made 1st Team. That tells me the future of the league is in great hands.