The league announced the All-NBA teams for the 2016/17 season and we broke down the financial ramifications of the honors earlier today. Here are the players deemed worthy of being named All-NBA:
All-NBA First Team
- Guard: Russell Westbrook (Thunder)
- Guard: James Harden (Rockets)
- Forward: LeBron James (Cavaliers)
- Forward: Kawhi Leonard (Spurs)
- Center: Anthony Davis (Pelicans)
All-NBA Second Team
- Guard: Stephen Curry (Warriors)
- Guard: Isaiah Thomas (Celtics)
- Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Forward: Kevin Durant (Warriors)
- Center: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
All-NBA Third Team
- Guard: John Wall (Wizards)
- Guard: DeMar DeRozan (Raptors)
- Forward: Jimmy Butler (Bulls)
- Forward: Draymond Green (Warriors)
- Center: DeAndre Jordan (Clippers)
Tonight’s topic is simple: Do you believe the voters got all 15 selections correct? If not, what is your biggest issue with the list?
DeMar DeRozan was not among the players on my All-NBA teams; I had Chris Paul as my sixth guard. The 32-year-old point guard put together one of his most effective seasons as a pro, leading the league in ESPN’s Real Plus/Minus. He made 47.6% of his shots from the field, including 41.1% of his 302 attempts from behind the arc. He sported a player efficiency rating of 26.2 and record 118 steals. He topped DeRozan in all those categories and despite playing 13 fewer games, he edged Toronto’s shooting guard in win shares as well as NBAMath’s Total Points Added metric.
DeRozan certainly had a great season and while his inclusion is not egregious, when talking about the best of the best, we must nitpick and split hairs to sort talent. Out of all the players who missed the cut, Paul probably has the biggest gripe (although, Draymond Green will tell you that Klay Thompson holds that distinction).
Tell us what you think. Did the voters get it right or should Paul, Thompson or someone else be on one of the All-NBA teams? Let us know in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!
Agree with you on Derozan. Chris Paul likely didn’t make it b/c of his injury. I also didn’t think James Harden should be on the 1st team. I’m getting crucified in the other thread, but I’m not the only one who believes he was in the 4-6 spots in the MVP race, which would have been more like 6-8 if KD, Kyle Lowry, and you can add CP3 in there, didn’t get injured
Who would be your leading MVP candidates then?
I assume he’s at the least putting (in no particular order) LeBron, Kawhi, and Russ ahead of Harden. I then imagine Harden falls to his number 5 with IT moving ahead.
If westbrook didn’t get 6th or higher in the West, which he did, I would have had Kawhi, LeBron, Westbrook 1-3 in that order for MVP this year. Westbrook was unreal this year, and he had zero help offensively. I felt that Kawhi carried the Spurs to an elite record. He was amazing all year, and was even better down the stretch of games, and i felt the Spurs would barely make the playoffs or miss them altogether without him this year. Again, that doesn’t mean Harden wasn’t good offensively. I just have multiple people above him, in terms of MVP and all NBA teams, and I’ve seen multuple notable names have him in the same range for MVP.
I’ve talked about my list a few times throughout the season, and a little in the earlier thread.
Russ, Kawhi, LeBron, IT, Harden, John Wall is where I ultimately ended up with. I had KD and Kyle Lowry 4th and 5th before their injuries, in front of IT (Toronto lost a bunch of games after he initially went down, and at the time of his injury, Lowry led all EC players in real plus/minus). CP3 would have to be in there somewhere as well, probably behind IT, but in front of Harden, making Harden 8th originally
Harden had a really good offensive season. Good for him. Others were better overall. Not a slight, but I’ve said this all season. Crucify me if you want I guess lol
Honestly you’ve made me a semi-believer on the Harden not-the-MVP talk lol. I still think Harden finishes 2nd to Russ with Kawhi and LeBron finishing behind them. But I’ve seen your argument about why he probably doesn’t deserve as much consideration and I could believe it. If it was me personally, I’d probably put Russ-LeBron-Kawhi-Harden-IT as my top 5.
Obviously, it wasn’t in the regular season, so it shouldn’t count against him for these awards, but Harden, as expected, quit.
It’s sad really. At one time, I thought Harden had the chance to be the next Manu Ginobli, and while Manu has always embellished contact, nobody will ever be on the level of James Harden in that area, as he and DeMar Derozan have admitted to sitting down together in the offseason to find new ways to trick the refs into calling fouls, instead of getting to the line b/c of actual contact. It’s amazing how he continues to get the calls he does, considering the officials should know what he is trying to do by now. In my opinion, James Harden isn’t even trying to score. He only tries to trick the refs into giving him FTs. When he finally doesn’t get those calls, he looks totally bewildered lol. All he does is lower his arms, and extend them into people, presenting the ball, and then when they try to contest, he throws his arms into them, and gets the call. That’s not basketball. I love the game. I’m a fan of the league. I essentially like every team, and every player. In my life, I’ve said certain things about Kobe Bryant that I believe to be fair. I genuinely don’t like James Harden, and that’s the only player I can say that about. But, that will never influence my thoughts on who I think is deserving of award recognition. As I said, he had a really good offensive year, but multiple others were better. Look at John Wall. He also had a historic season, but I still put Harden in front of him b/c Wall has Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. Arguably, Harden had more talent around him both offensively and defensively, but I let him edge out John Wall b/c of West vs East.
Shoutout to you mentioning my guy Wall in the top 10
Well, obviously. He had a historic season. I could argue the order is debatable for him to be in front of IT, b/c the Celtics defense is so good. Wall had a historic season too, and led his team to that 3rd seed. He absolutely should be there
I definitely would’ve chosen Kyrie Irving or Klay Thompson over Derozen, DeMarcus Cousins over DeAndre Jordan and Paul George over Draymond Green. I think those players had better overall years.
Draymond is crazy overrated in my opinion. Put him on a bad team and he’s not even an all-star caliber player. I heard someone state the Warriors had 4 future HOF players. What a joke.
Overall, Green had a better year than George. Green doesn’t put up the flashy number (points) but averaged more rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals than George while also being one of the top defensive players in the league.
I do agree with your last statement though. He’s a product of having three (two in previous years) of the best shooters ever on his team. He’s not good enough to ever be the number 1 or 2 option on his team. At this rate though, and assuming Green keeps putting up similar numbers for most of the rest of his career, the Warriors could have 4 future HOFers although I see 3 as being the most likely outcome. Durant and Curry are locks unless they suffer a career-altering injury or their production just drastically falls off. Thompson is a fringe HOF but I do think he could get in because he’ll go down as one of the best shooters ever (which shouldn’t guarantee his ticket to the HOF, but it definitely helps). Green has a harder case and will likely be just barely on the outside looking in, but I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if he did make it.
Chris Paul,or CP CryBaby, as I call him…All NBA ?? as deserving as DeAndre Jordan..
both horribly overrated. Watch his clutching, grabbing,pushing, cheap shot defense ..and add in his constant losing I big games…mix with his horrible teammate reactions. A pouting, whining, overrated loser.
If that’s what you think about Chris Paul, I’d love to see your description of Harden lol