NBA team awards: MVP candidates, title contenders and players on the rise like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The most difficult ballot ever, Part II.
There were players who could’ve been on a second team but didn’t make a ballot, or realizing how many really good and impactful defensive players there are in a league that no longer embraces it.
But the margins were thin, and any omitted names were not because of an insult to their contributions to their team’s success; one name in particular was extremely painful to leave off the All-NBA team — to which this voter is still wondering if a call to the accounting firm Ernst & Young can be made to finagle some things.
Without further ado, here’s this voter’s ballot for All-Defense, All-NBA and All-Rookie.
All-NBA First Team
Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Forward: Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Center: Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
Guard: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
Guard: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
Some choices were especially self-explanatory here: Embiid, Antetokounmpo and Tatum. They were all on the MVP ballot, so there won’t be much to explain or defend.
With the guards, Donovan Mitchell and Luka Dončić received big-time consideration for first team. Mitchell will likely be on the back end of some MVP ballots and deservedly so. SGA, helping drag the Thunder from their tankeriffic ways to the play-in while staying true to his character on the floor, earns a nod.
Curry didn’t play as many games or minutes as Mitchell — 56 games can look a bit squeamish in the history books if he makes it — but he was so damned good when he played. The efficiency and volume rivaled his unanimous MVP season and the subsequent years with Kevin Durant to ease the burden. No such luxury this year, but 49-43-91 is a nasty slash line, plus the moments he produced to keep the Warriors afloat while they battled all types of strife earns him the nod for the last spot.
If Durant played 10 more games (47 this year) at the rate he was playing, not only is he on the first team, he’s in the MVP conversation. His play on both ends was extraordinary, his splits are an astonishing 56-40-90 and his team’s record in games he played was 34-13; that’s at a Bucks-like pace. If — big if — healthy, the conversation about the game’s best player is a lot clearer than we all think.
All-NBA Second Team
Forward: Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
Forward: Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings
Center: Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets
Guard: Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers
Guard: Luka Dončić, Dallas Mavericks
Dončić was on so many MVP ballots before the Mavericks nosedived into the finish, and he’s had his share of culpability in his team’s collapse. Hard to put him on the first team when they weren’t surging to the finish.
Mitchell, like stated above, was an outright monster this season. The 71-point game, the moments he produced and helping elevate the Cavaliers from a cute team to a legit one, deserves all the credit.
With Jokić, he probably could win the MVP this season and still finish on the second team. Similar to the time when David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and later, Shaquille O’Neal roamed the world, it seemed to flip-flop from year to year. This is just his.
Sabonis is mostly a center, but it feels tough to bump him all the way to third team with him being on the MVP ballot, and he could’ve been. Butler, even at his age, is not only productive and impactful, but efficient even if he isn’t playing 82 games
All-NBA Third Team
Forward: LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
Forward: Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
Center: Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
Guard: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
Guard: De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings
Please forgive this voter, Jrue Holiday. You too, Jaren Jackson Jr. In different versions of this ballot, Holiday could’ve been second team with him turning into Antetokounmpo’s second-in-command with Khris Middleton out for most of the season.
Make no mistake, James is not in the conversation for best player in the world, but for a night he can take the mic and go song-for-song with the best soloists in the game. The advanced stats say this might be more of a reputation selection than a sure thing for him, but he’s earned that treatment.
Brown could be the best player on a number of playoff teams, but perhaps he’s found peace being 1B behind Tatum and has filled in some of the blanks in previous years.
Lillard carried the Blazers as long as he could, his production even rivaling Curry’s when you look close enough.
Fox, like Sabonis, deserves so much credit for digging the Kings out of the dungeon. He played in the clutch and delivered. He gets a pick over Ja Morant — both in games played and the why, considering Morant almost wrecked the Grizzlies’ season. That can’t be ignored.
Adebayo always leaves you wanting more, right? But you can’t discount what he gives you: his role in that hellacious defense, especially as the Heat don’t carry a lot of size around him. His offensive game and way to blend in, sometimes a little too much.
All-Rookie First Team
Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder
Keegan Murray, Sacramento Kings
Banchero, Williams and Murray were 1-2-3 on the ROY ballot. Usually rookies file in one of two manilla folders: great starters or great finishers. The former is a huge reason why Banchero wound up with a first-place vote, and the latter is why the last spot went to Ivey in Detroit.
You could make a case Jalen Duren has the better long-term prospects for the Pistons’ franchise, but Ivey had to carry the load earlier than expected with the absence of Cade Cunningham and improved drastically late (18.4 points and 6.6 assists from Feb. 1 on).
Kessler missed out on being on the ROY ballot, but it’s no shade to him. He’s a reason why the Jazz wouldn’t take Rudy Gobert back if they could have him for free. It was a simple role, but he filled it effectively and has more room to grow. And defensively, he’s pretty damned good already.
All-Rookie Second Team
Bennedict Mathurin, Indiana Pacers
Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons
Jabari Smith Jr., Houston Rockets
Jeremy Sochan, San Antonio Spurs
Tari Eason, Houston Rockets
Mathurin could’ve finished on the first team considering his manilla folder of great starter; he was shot out of a cannon to start the season. Duren is a monster in waiting, the Pistons were so high on him they could’ve taken him at No. 5 and been good with it.
Smith Jr. had an almost quiet-like year in Houston with all the losing, but he began to come on particularly late in the last two months, shooting 36% from 3 and his 30-12 game against the Pacers in March really opened some eyes. Same for Eason, a mid-first-round pick who got more minutes from February on and played into a more comfortable role for a really, really young team.
Sochan, aside from his hair, is becoming a competitive pest in all the right ways for the Spurs. Awkward looking gait and shot, but somehow it works. Are we allowed to call him sneaky athletic?
All-Defensive First Team
Forward: Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies
Forward: Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
Center: Brook Lopez, Milwaukee Bucks
Guard: Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks
Guard: Dillon Brooks, Memphis Grizzlies
There’s a reason the Bucks have the best record in the league, even after missing a top player for most of it. Lopez plugs and clogs, Holiday slithers around everything and everyone. They all work together to each other’s and the Bucks’ benefit. It’s amazing Holiday is still such an impactful defender 14 years in at a grinding position, but he’s literally everywhere — as is Brooks, a total pest and annoyance, but he’s so willing to take on any and everyone. He’s strong and quick, and his name grudgingly comes up a lot when talking to league folks about this stuff, because the metrics aren’t always a truth-teller (see Jokić being called a “great defender” by some math).
Mobley didn’t make the DPOY ballot, but there’s a world in which he could’ve finished first. Stronger than he looks and willing to help out on everything with two small guards, he was an easier-than-expected choice. But JJJ was the easiest choice of all, being everywhere he needs to be and even in places he’s not supposed to be for Memphis. He’s over your shoulder and in front of you — hence why he accounts for all the steals, blocks AND fouls. But he’s a monster on that end, even if you can take advantage of his aggressiveness. He’s too good to ignore.
All-Defensive Second Team
Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Forward: Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
Center: Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
Guard: Derrick White, Boston Celtics
Guard: Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
Antetokounmpo could very well belong on the first team and hasn’t exactly slipped from his 2020 form when he won both MVP and DPOY, along with Green being a chief disruptor whenever the champs feel like playing up to their title. There’s a lot on the line for Green this season and he’s ramped it up, especially defensively. He’s seemingly had more energy than perhaps the year he finally won the award in 2017 — specializing in mucking up everything whenever he chooses.
Adebayo was even crowned as one of the best defenders by last year’s DPOY, Marcus Smart (who was painfully missing on this ballot, barely). He switches in space, defends the elbows and protects the rim. White might’ve boxed out his own teammate on that end this season, nearly an unexpected development but he’s been perhaps the Celtics’ most consistent defender night to night.
It may appear Butler is on cruise control until it gets close to the playoffs, but he goes hard on that end routinely, too strong and knowledgeable about angles to get beat badly or torched — and then he turns into a souped-up version of himself later.
Jaden McDaniels and Alex Caruso barely missed out, especially with Caruso being a lynchpin on the Bulls having a top-10 defense most of the season. Really hard to leave him off.
