The 2018 All-NBA Teams Problems
The All-NBA Teams for the 2018 regular season were released this afternoon. For addicted fans like me it was a nice teaser before we wait over a month to have the MVP, MIP, and ROY revealed in late June at the NBA Awards show. While the show was fun to watch last summer due to there being no basketball left after the Finals ended, it still was annoying to wait that long to see if Russell Westbrook was actually going to win the 2017 MVP. Yesterday, the NBA released the All-Defensive Teams and the All-Rookie teams.
I didn’t have too many gripes with the All-Defensive Teams this year. I may have switched Draymond Green with Robert Covington, and replaced Dejounte Murray with Josh Richardson from the Miami Heat. Murray only logged 22 mpg this season, while Richardson did something that only four players his height or shorter in NBA history have done. The Miami Heat twitter explains further:
These All-Defensive Teams essentially solidify that Rudy Gobert is going to win the Defensive Player of the Year award, and I’m okay with that.
Now we shift our focus to the All-NBA Teams:
There are two big things that stand out to me with these selections. The first is that Damian Lillard received First Team honors while Russell Westbrook was dealt the Second Team honor. By no means is being on the Second Team a bad thing necessarily, but Westbrook’s numbers were almost identical to last seasons triple-double rampage that he explored on. In his MVP season he posted 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, and this season he recorded 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Westbrook averaged, I repeat, AVERAGED a triple-double two seasons in a row and didn’t get All-NBA First team this season. He also won’t be one of the three players up for the MVP award in late June at the NBA Awards either. He wouldn’t have received my vote this year, but I still find it baffling. Lillard’s numbers were not lacking either, he averaged 27 points, 4 rebounds, and nearly 7 assists. Just stacking Lillard and Westbrooks numbers next to each other leads me to believe that Westbrook technically had the better season even if his team was worse in the standings (by only one game, sheesh Russy should’ve been First Team).
The second problem I had with the All-NBA teams is that Al Horford is no where to be found. Horford’s numbers are not something you look at and say, “ah, yes, best player on his team, Al Horford,” but after Gordon Hayward not having a leg five minutes into the season, and Kyrie losing his knee later on, Horford was arguably the best player on his team for a period of the season. Without Horford the Celtics shouldn’t be one game away from going to the NBA Finals. If you were to take Jimmy Butler off the Wolves, Karl Anthony Towns may receive more shots, but knowing Thibs that will never, EVER, happen. Butler also only played 59 games to Horford’s 72. It’s not a huge amount of difference in games played, but Horford made an all defensive team and played more games. Replace Butler with Horford, and switch Dame with Russy and I’m one happy camper.
Also, one other possible problem with the All-NBA Teams, if Rudy Gobert is on the First Team All Defense, is probably going to win DPOY, then how did he not make it onto an All-NBA Team? He played 56 games, Butler played 59, Curry played 51, Embiid played 63, there’s a lot of players on these three teams that didn’t play a ton of games, and yet Gobert was left off.
I’m probably wrong with all of these takes, but that’s why I don’t have a vote in these things. Make sure to follow me on Twitter @stix_n_stone.
