G: LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
G: James Harden, Houston Rockets
F: Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
F: Giannis Antetokoounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
C: Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
Thanks to LeBron James who is eligible as a guard thanks to most of his guard minutes this season, and Anthony Davis is eligible as a center despite playing most of his minutes forward, we can put our MVP in the top five in all -NBA first team this year. This doesn’t always happen, but I’m glad it worked this time.
G: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazer
G: Chris Paul, Oklahoma City Thunder
F: Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks
F: Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks
C: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
A note on positional flexibility: the NBA vote says “vote for the player in the position he plays regularly”. So I would say that Luka Doncic plays most of his minutes as a guard, but his second most commonly used formation is with Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway Jr., both clearly guardians. So I’m counting on Doncic as a striker in order to get both Damian Lillard and Chris Paul on the second team.
Lillard, Doncic and Nikola Jokic were competing for the bottom of the MVP vote for me, so they were easy selections. Chris Paul’s statline isn’t super impressive: only 17 points per game? But man, it was the difference producer for the Oklahoma City Thunder, which this year had a significantly better payout percentage after losing Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul. Where his normal statistic line is weak, his advanced statistics are out of rank. Putting him on the second team was an easy call.
In the end, I thought Khris Middleton had the tenth best season in the NBA this year. He was an excellent defender, a very efficient scorer, passed and bounced well. He also played for the best team in the game. He is a very underrated player. If the world were right, it would have a shoe business.
G: Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
G: Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
F: Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
F: Pascal Siakam, Toronto Raptors
C: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
There are significant positional shenanigani that occur here. Jimmy Butler has really spent most of his time as a guard this year. Putting Jayson Tatum as a guard requires calling him the shooting guard in a formation with Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis. Honestly, that occurs. Calling Tatum a guard is reasonable. In the end, Bam Adebayo played most of his minutes alongside Meyers Leonard; who is the center there? I’m saying Adebayo is four and Leonard is five, if only to put Adebayo in the role.
But again, I do shenanigans to get the players who have had the best seasons on the team. Tatum has made a jump this season to become one of the best two-way wings in the NBA. Jimmy Butler was already one of them, but focused on creating his teammates more than ever – after being known as an egotist in previous stops, this year he was incredibly selfless.
Pascal Siakam was the best player for the Raptors, key to their defense in second place. I did not agree with his candidacy for the most improved player: he took a reduction in efficiency in exchange for a more important role in the offense, but he definitely deserves a place here. Rudy Gobert easily earns a spot on Joel Embiid thanks to his importance for Jazz and playing another 800 minutes.
Adebayo is the latest selection, but I wanted to reward everything he has done this year. This, in addition to the other possibilities, were not exceptional options. Both Trae Young and Bradley Beal have accumulated huge numbers and played a terrible defense in terrible teams. Devin Booker had his best season, but shares those defensive concerns. In my opinion, Donovan Mitchell’s defense suffered a severe recession, bigger than what his offense took in a positive direction. Russell Westbrook was legitimately harmful to the Rockets for a few months – his last two months took them with him, but it wasn’t enough to defeat Adebayo. Kyle Lowry is much more important to the Raptors than his number would show, but they were better off the pitch with him. It is a tone-setter as much as a producer on the field.
G: Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
G: Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics
F: Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
C: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
The top three on this list are Davis, Antetokounmpo and Gobert, the top three in my ballot of the year defender. Clearly, they belong to this place.
On top of that, Ben Simmons has had a real hit in third thanks to his defensive excellence up and down the position spectrum for the Sixers this season. He is clearly proud to defend whatever his task is. He has led the league in thefts this season.
Subsequently, it fell to Marcus Smart or Kris Dunn. Dunn was the best defender, an absolute dog at the end of the defense, but he played 500 minutes less for a worse team. Smart’s overall impact on the league was greater than Dunn’s oversized effort in smaller minutes in games that didn’t count for much.
G: Kris Dunn, Chicago Bulls
G: Eric Bledsoe, Milwaukee Bucks
F: Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
F: PJ Tucker, Houston Rockets
C: Brook Lopez, Milwaukee Bucks
Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez are two other reasons why the defense of the Bucks has been so exceptional this year. Bledsoe does well to remain attached to his man as he passes on a screen, forcing him into his arms waiting for Antetokounmpo or Lopez. Lopez, once considered an average defender, has clearly improved his game. Bucks’ coach Mike Budenholzer turned it into a considerable force in the paint, limiting his role to great protection. But it is so effective in its role that it earns a place here.
PJ Tucker is the reason why rocket defense works at all. His ability to fight with players of any size and position year after year is incredibly impressive. He does not get flashy stealing or freezes the totals, he just works terribly.
Leonard took off some games and games this year, no doubt. But metrics still adore the way he played defense, thanks to his ability to challenge everything and collect a lot of theft. I could have removed Leonard or Tucker from the list if there had been an adequate replacement forward. Jonathan Isaac would have probably won the place if he had played a comparable number of minutes, but Leonard has still played almost double. Even Jayson Tatum probably deserves a shoutout.
Terence Davis, Toronto Raptors
Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies
Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans
Brandon Clarke, Memphis Grizzlies
Kendrick Nunn, Miami Heat
Remember, All-Rookie teams don’t have positions: the runoff specifically says they only choose the 10 best rookies of the season. These were the top five, four of which are relatively simple. There was somehow a difficult choice as to whether or not to go with Terence Davis and his role-playing contributions for the Toronto Raptors or Tyler Herro and his score for the Miami Heat. Herro was good, but the Heat was better off with him on the bench; meanwhile, the Raptors were better off with Davis on the floor. Davis had a much more efficient game than Herro.
PJ Washington, Charlotte Hornets
Michael Porter Jr., Denver Nuggets
Eric Paschall, Golden State Warriors
Matisse Thybulle, Philadelphia 76ers
This is a bad class of beginners with little depth. Many of the lottery guys had some terrible first seasons. Washington has been legitimately useful, thanks to its intelligent playing style for the Hornets. Matisse Thybulle was immediately a striking defender for a good Sixers team, although disappointing. Michael Porter Jr. didn’t play much, but when he did he was a relatively solid spin player. Eric Paschall showed the ability to score and bounce a bit on bad teams, which put him on top of Jaxson Hayes’ ability to crush for a mediocre team and Cameron Johnson’s ability to shoot for a mediocre team.
Jarrett Culver, Rui Hachimura, Sekou Doumbouya, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jordan Poole, RJ Barrett and Darius Garland all played great minutes and all were negative in their time, performing worse than a substitute player in more advanced statistics. In particular, I really liked Alexander-Walker in the draft and thought it would be better than it was immediately.
