Isaiah Thomas Somehow Got An NBA All-Defensive Team Vote


Getty Image

On Monday afternoon, prior to the NBA Awards, the All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams were revealed and those that made the first and second teams came as little surprise. The three finalists for the Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards both topped their respective lists.

However, what always makes for some comical reading is the “also received votes” section released by the NBA that shows what players that were highly undeserving of a vote received one anyways. We’ll start our look at the “also received votes” sections with the All-Defensive teams, which always provides some tremendous results.


The absolute highlight of the All-Defensive teams “also received votes list” was Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas. Let’s start with reminding everyone that Thomas was spectacular this season on offense as one of the league’s top scorers, but how someone voted for Thomas as one of the league’s four best defensive guards is impossible to believe. Thomas, by any metric, is a below average defensive player, and that might be putting it nicely. The Celtics were 8.9 points better on defense per 100 possessions when he was off the floor. The fact that his offense was strong enough to negate his defense is a testament to how good he is on that end of the floor, but in no way should he have received a vote.

Thomas wasn’t the only one to get a vote that didn’t make much sense. Russell Westbrook receiving five first team votes seems pretty out of place, as does a Karl-Anthony Towns first team vote when the Wolves were 7.2 points better per 100 possessions when he was off the court. For the most part, voters did pretty well this year, but Thomas and some of the first team vote-getters remain serious head-scratchers.

The votes for the All-Rookie teams weren’t quite as egregious, partially because it was a down year for the rookie class with few standouts. The toughest decision was with regards to Rookie of the Year, and whether Joel Embiid playing 31 spectacular games was enough to warrant him winning the award. However, while you can make some arguments for some snubs off of the second team, there were still some players that received votes that were ridiculous.

At the bottom of the list, you’ll find Frad VanVleet (Raptors), Jakob Poeltl (Raptors), Dragan Bender (Suns), DeAndre Bembry (Hawks), and Malcolm Delaney (Hawks) all received an All-Rookie second team vote. Now, part of the problem with these awards is that votes are given to the media, and there are many in the local (and even national) media that don’t watch enough basketball from outside their team to really have much of an informed opinion on the matter. So, sometimes you get some outrageous votes.

Bembry, for example, scored 101 points in 38 appearances (that’s 2.7 points per game) for the Hawks. Bembry could very well become a fine NBA player, this isn’t to point out that these players are bad and have no future in the league, but simply to say that on the merits of their production last year, it’s crazy to give them All-Rookie votes. Of those five players at the bottom of the list, only Delaney appeared in more than 55 games or averaged over five points per game.

×