Only 15 players can be named All-NBA, but that hardly means more aren’t deserving of that esteem. As with the annual hand-wringing over All-Star selections, announcement of the league’s top players at their respective positions leads to inevitably heated discourse.
This guy didn’t make it! This guy shouldn’t have! This team doesn’t have any All-NBA members?
And all that relative outrage is mostly futile. Outside of a select few players who stand above the rest, there’s no concrete right or wrong answers for any of these spots. The league is rich with upper-echelon talent, and assorted media who vote for postseason honors have many different ways of valuing it. There’s no consensus rubric for player evaluation.
But none of that means this year’s All-NBA teams shouldn’t be scrutinized; it just means doing so should be a far more casual exercise than it so often proves.
We’ve no qualms with the First Team. Stephen Curry, James Harden, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis were no-brainer selections, and Marc Gasol was a clear favorite at center. There are certainly arguments to be made for other players who man the middle, but the voters basically got the top-five right, and nobody should be surprised that’s the case.
It’s the Second Team where things get murky. Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook enjoyed brilliant seasons befitting First Team honors; they were always locks here. LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMarcus Cousins are fine choices, too. Pau Gasol’s presence is the one that doesn’t fit.
The Spaniard had a very good debut season with the Chicago Bulls. He led the league in double-doubles, had a couple huge individual performances, and reestablished himself as an All-Star caliber player. Gasol’s excellent counting stats, though, paint an inaccurate portrayal of his actual influence on the Bulls. Not only did Chicago take a big step back defensively in 2014-15, but never managed the kind of consistently great offense their wealth of individual talent suggests.
Not all of that is on Gasol, of course. Tom Thibodeau certainly owns much of that blame, and it might have been unrealistic for the Bulls to become an elite offense given their wealth of injuries and the acclimation of a marginalized piece like Derrick Rose. A Second-Team honor, though, suggests the sweeping impact of Paul, Westbrook, or Cousins, and Gasol simply didn’t have it.
Full disclosure: Our preferred Third Team consists of just a single player, Blake Griffin, who actually won that distinction. Tim Duncan was on our meaningless Second Team, while Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson are certainly worthy selections. It’s DeAndre Jordan’s with which we wholeheartedly disagree, a sentiment we’ve basically been expressing since award season kicked off and continued. We won’t belabor the point any further, except to say the Los Angeles Clippers center isn’t the defender his eye-popping shot-blocking exploits suggest. And since that’s true, how could his limited play on the other end come close to meriting this type of prestige?
But again, these discussions should always be more about the players who didn’t make it than the ones who did.
Kawhi Leonard was the San Antonio Spurs’ best player this season. The team’s awesome second half surge to co-title favorite directly coincided with not just his return to the court from a hand injury, but also his increasing share of the Spurs’ scoring and playmaking load. The Defensive Player of the Year has every necessary tool to become an elite go-to offensive option; the next step is Leonard utilizing them on a nightly basis without interruption. That will happen next season, and surely begin a long string of All-NBA selections – one which should have began in 2014-15.
Irving is a worthy pick. Considering his beta level of importance to the Cleveland Cavaliers, however, he’s still a less satisfying Third Team member than John Wall would have been. The Washington Wizards’ point guard was his team’s true bellwether force on both sides of the floor; the snake head of its overlooked fifth-ranked defense and by far most influential performer on offense. Wall’s limitations as a shooter remain a major detriment, but his natural court sense and transition prowess loom far larger than that glaring deficiency. We just prefer acknowledging players whose immense value is manifested when his team is playing with and without the ball, and Wall’s certainly fits the bill.
So does Jimmy Butler’s. Deciding between he and Thompson for a Third Team slot is almost impossible. Both wings further established themselves as elite defenders while making unexpected strides as primary offensive options. But Butler’s two-way onus was just a bit bigger than Thompson’s on both ends this season, a reality that has more to do with the quality of their supporting casts than individual strengths and weaknesses. Still, there was a time in November and December when the Bulls’ best player was considered a very viable MVP candidate. And though he couldn’t quite sustain that level of play over the full calendar, it coupled with his breakout season-long performance makes Butler at least as deserving an All-NBA candidate as any guard outside of Curry, Harden, Paul, or Westbrook.
Team success factors heavily into this process, which strengthens Thompson’s resumé. Where, then, are the Atlanta Hawks? Jeff Teague’s absence is understandable; guard was deeper than its ever been in 2014-15. Either Paul Millsap or Al Horford, though, definitely warrant All-NBA inclusion. The incredibly versatile all-court merits of each player combine to serve as the engine for Atlanta’s relentless offensive and defensive styles. Consider the value Millsap’s development into a legitimate three-point threat and his underrated ability to cover stretch-4s and switch onto smalls, then Horford’s impact as a floor-stretching facilitator and fleet back-line helper. Either Hawks starter would have been a better choice than Chicago’s Gasol or Jordan on individual merit alone, but especially considering the fact their team won the regular season Eastern Conference crown.
Assessing the cases of “snubbed” players, clearly, makes it impossible to avoid slighting those who weren’t. Irving and Thompson were fantastic this season, Gasol enjoyed a crucial renaissance, and even Jordan played the basketball of his career. This discussion isn’t meant to downplay their stellar performances in 2014-15.
Yet compared to other selections and Leonard, Wall, Butler, Irving, and Millsap and Horford, that quartet simply seems less deserving of All-NBA accolades… to us. You no doubt think differently, and the majority of balloters obviously did, too.
But that’s exactly the beauty of today’s NBA. The league is overflowing with talent at various stages of their careers. As Leonard, Butler, and company earn all-league honors in the future by usurping Gasol and other elders, a new generation of stars will rise to challenge them, and inevitably make for similarly engaging discussions when these teams are announced in years to come.
