Revoking All-NBA Awards

The 2023–24 NBA season is about to come to a close and individual awards will soon be doled out. However, this season will see a major change to the structure of All-NBA Team accolades, as players will need to have played at least 65 games, or roughly 80% of the season, in order to qualify for the honor. This change had a significant impact, as it incentivized players to reach the benchmark and encouraged overall player availability, though it also drew the ire of detractors, who felt that it unfairly pressured players to push through injury. Personally, I oscillate between the two perspectives, but find myself much more interested in the historical context of this change. Specifically, how would this rule have impacted prior All-NBA Teams if it had been in place prior to this year?

• Hypothetical — The eligibility requirement of having played at least 80% of scheduled games to qualify for All-NBA recognition was enacted at the outset of the NBA’s existence.

This was a very simple hypothetical to apply. I reviewed the total games played of every player to have made an All-NBA Team throughout the league’s existence. If a player appeared in under 80% of their team’s games that season, then they were removed from the All-NBA Team. Obviously the total number of games in a schedule has changed over the years and some season lengths have been impacted by lockout or pandemic, so the exact minimum number of necessary games played has shifted over time, though I always adjusted the minimum benchmark to correspond to the 80% threshold. Regardless, the results are very interesting and impact some of the best players ever, sometimes significantly so. The results can be boiled down into three distinct eras:

1. 1947 to 1985 — The Availability Era — For the first four decades of the league’s existence, players barely ever sat games out. If they felt they could get out on the court, even if they were dealing with an injury, then they usually played. I don’t think players were any tougher in this era than they are today, and I also don’t think the game itself was significantly less physical in this era than it is now, but players in this era were far more reluctant to relinquish playing time. Missing games meant potentially losing a rotation spot, which potentially meant losing a job and a paycheck. As a result, it wasn’t uncommon for star players to appear in nearly all of their games in this era.
2. 1986 to 2017 — The Voting Era — Availability began to slightly dip in this era, but not noticeably so. Players were still largely available, though minor injuries were becoming more relevant and impactful. The main difference between this era and the previous one is that complete All-NBA voting records are available on basketball-reference.com beginning in 1986. As such, although we can only identify who would lose an All-NBA spot in the Availability Era without knowing who would replace them, in the Voting Era onward we’re able to identify the player with the next highest vote tally and reasonably consider them as the best candidate to replace the removed player.
3. 2018 to 2023 — The Unavailability Era — From 2018 onward, there was an explosion in the number of players to miss between 10–30% of their team’s games. By 2023, the practice of injury management went into overdrive. It became the expectation that most star players would miss at least 10–20 games per year regardless of injury status. As such, there are nearly as many or more players in the six years comprising this era (15) to be removed from All-NBA Teams as there were in the thirty-two years comprising the Voting Era (19), or the thirty-nine years comprising the Availability Era (12).

I initially planned to separate these three eras into three separate articles… but ultimately decide to cram them all into one giant entry, so let’s get into it!

Part 1–1947 to 1985, The Availability Era

1947

• Frankie Baumholtz removed from the Second Team

Baumholtz played just two seasons in one of the NBA’s predecessor league’s, the Basketball Association of America¹ (BAA) before transitioning to a long baseball career. In 1947, he averaged 14.0 PPG, which was good enough for fourteenth in the league, and 1.2 APG, which was tied for twelfth in the league. However, he played in just 45 games out of a possible 60 this season, making him one of very few players who averaged double-digit points per game to play fewer than 55 games. Interestingly, his Cleveland Rebels squad had a better record without him in the lineup than with him.

1962

• Elgin Baylor removed from the First Team

It takes fifteen years before we encounter another player who failed to reach the 80% threshold, but this time around the impacted player is much more notable. Elgin Baylor averaged 38/18/4 per game in the 1961–62 season, but did so over just 48 games due to his active duty as an Army Reservist during the season causing him to only play weekends. The Lakers were 37–11 with Baylor in the lineup and 17–15 without. He also finished fourth in MVP voting. Between the stats and the record, it’s tough to argue against his First Team inclusion despite the low GP total. One of the Second Team forwards, Tom Heinsohn or Jack Twyman, would replace him on the First Team.

1963

• Jerry West removed from the First Team

West averaged 27/7/5 and finished fifth in MVP voting, but played in just 55 games due to injury. Like his teammate Baylor in the previous season, the team was noticeably better with both players in the lineup as opposed to just one, as the Lakers were 42–13 with West but 12–13 without. One of the Second Team guards, Bob Cousy or Hal Greer, would replace him on the First Team.

1965

• Bob Pettit removed from the Second Team

This was Pettit’s final season in the league and his only season in which he wasn’t First Team All-NBA. His stats were as strong as ever at 22/12/2, but he played just 50 games and the team wasn’t much better with him at 30–20 as they were without him at 15–15.

1966

• Gus Johnson removed from the Second Team

Johnson averaged 16/13/3 but missed nearly half of the Baltimore Bullets’ games to injury. Oddly, the team was better without Johnson at 21–18 than they were with him at 17–24.

1968

• Jerry West removed from the Second Team

1969

• Jerry West removed from the Second Team

Poor Jerry has two straight years of losing All-NBA recognition, resulting in three lost appearances overall. West averaged 26/6/6 in 1968 and 26/4/7, as well as recognition on the inaugural All-Defensive Second Team, in 1969. Over this two-year stretch, the Lakers were 76–36 with West and 31–21 without.

1976

• Pete Maravich removed from the Second Team

Maravich played in 62 games for the Jazz and averaged 26/5/5, with the PPG total good for third in the league. The Jazz were 32–30 with Maravich and 6–14 without. We still don’t have All-NBA voting records, but the MVP voting records are more fleshed out by this point in time. They were still voted on by players at the time, whereas the All-NBA team was voted on by the media, so the MVP results are still not a great indicator for identifying potential All-NBA replacements. Still, for the fun of it, if we go by MVP voting then Randy Smith would be the likeliest candidate to move from Second Team All-NBA to First Team and Dave Bing would be likeliest to join the Second Team in Smith’s place.

1978

• Bill Walton removed from the First Team
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar removed from the Second Team

Our first instance of multiple players being removed in a single season, and it also happens to impact both All-NBA centers! This was the season where the Blazers blistered the league in the wake of their 1977 championship, establishing themselves as a league power behind Walton’s immaculate play. They were 50–10 to start the season when Walton infamously broke his foot, finishing up the season 8–14 down the stretch. Walton’s play was so revered that he still took home the MVP on the back of his team’s play with him in the lineup, his 18/14/4 with 3 blocks per game, and his First Team All-Defensive selection. This overshadowed a typically dominant season from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as Kareem went for 26/13/4 with 3 blocks per game and a Second Team All-Defensive selection. Though not to the degree of Walton, Kareem obviously still motored the Lakers’ success, as the team was 37–25 with him and 8–12 without him. If we go by MVP voting, then Artis Gilmore, Bob McAdoo, and Marvin Webster² all received at least one MVP vote, so some combination of that group would likely occupy the All-NBA center spots in place of Walton and Kareem.

• Pete Maravich removed from the Second Team

Maravich is removed from an All-NBA team for the second time, joining Jerry West as the only players thus far with multiple instances. Maravich played in just 50 games but averaged 27/3/6, though also led the league in turnovers per game by a considerable margin. Similar to the last instance of him losing an All-NBA spot, the Jazz had a winning record of 26–24 with him in the lineup and a losing record of 13–19 without him. No guards other than the four who made the All-NBA Team received a single MVP vote, so we can’t speculate who would replace Maravich.

1985

• Bernard King removed from the First Team

In 1984, King was arguably the second-best player on the planet, coming off an MVP runner-up finish in the 83–84 season and an encore performance to start the 84–85 season including a league leading 32.9 PPG. Unfortunately, King then injured his leg and nearly had his career derailed. His game was still appreciated enough that he garnered First Team All-NBA recognition. Terry Cummings finished fifth in MVP voting this season, so it’s likely that he’d replace King on the First Team, and that would’ve been a tremendous boon to his legacy. The next highest MVP vote tallies for forwards went to Calvin Natt and Alex English, and Julius Erving also received an MVP vote, so I expect that one of those three would’ve taken Cummings’ Second Team spot.

Part 2–1986 to 2017, The Voting Era

1991

• Bernard King removed from the Third Team

It’s another rough break for King, as he joins West and Maravich in the ranks of players to lose multiple All-NBA recognitions. However, in this specific instance he just barely missed out, as he was just one game shy of meeting the cutoff. He averaged 28.4 PPG, good enough for third in the league, which was practically unheard of at the time for a 34-year old non-big man, particularly one with a major injury earlier in their career. With All-NBA voting now available to us, we can reasonably expect that Otis Thorpe would replace King on the Third Team³. Thorpe’s legacy would’ve been greatly enhanced had he been able to list an All-NBA selection on his resumé, and he was very good this season, averaging 17/10/2 to keep the Rockets afloat while the next player on our list battled injuries.

• Hakeem Olajuwon removed from the Third Team

Olajuwon averaged 21/14/2 with 2 steals and a league leading 4 blocks per game, also finishing fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. The Rockets were 36–20 with Hakeem and 16–10 without. Robert Parish would likely replace Hakeem on the Third Team. This would’ve given Parish three total All-NBA appearances on his career, though he likely would’ve garnered a few other Third Team selections had the Third Team existed prior to 1989.

1995

• Dennis Rodman removed from the Third Team

Rodman’s 94–95 season has to be one of the oddest individual campaigns ever. Rodman played in just 49 games due to both injury and suspension, the latter resulting from his fractious and tumultuous relationship with Gregg Popovich and the Spurs. This season culminated with his rebellious shoe removal in the playoffs. Despite all that, he averaged 16.8 rebounds per game (4.3 better than Mutombo in second) and astoundingly managed to meet the minimum number of rebounds needed in a season (800) to qualify for the rebounding title despite also not meeting the minimum GP total (70) to qualify. More impressively, the Spurs were really good when Rodman played. They went 40–9 with him in the lineup and 22–11 without. Rodman would be replaced on the Third Team by Jamal Mashburn, who averaged 24/4/3 in his sophomore season with the Mavs and just barely missed out on an All-NBA team. Mashburn did go on to receive a Third Team recognition nearly a decade later in 2003, but, needless to say, two All-NBA selections are a lot better than one.

1996

• Shaquille O’Neal removed from the Third Team

1997

• Shaquille O’Neal removed from the Third Team

Shaq was regularly maligned for his conditioning throughout his career. These complaints were valid, though Shaq still managed to be largely available, with seven seasons of 74 games or more, plus the lockout-shortened 1999 season in which he played all but one game, and three others in which he played at least 67. Despite his relative durability, this hypothetical exercise is not kind to Shaq, and he debuts by losing two straight Third Team appearances. He averaged 26/11/3 with 2 blocks per game across 54 games in 1995–96 and still finished ninth in MVP voting, and 26/12/3 with 3 blocks per game across 51 games in his debut season with the Lakers in 1996–97, once again finishing ninth in MVP voting. Shaq would be replaced by Alonzo Mourning in both instances, as Mourning averaged 23/10/2 and 2 blocks per game in 1996 and 20/10/1 and 3 blocks per game in 1997, only finishing 5 votes behind Shaq in All-NBA voting for the Third Team spot.

• Penny Hardaway removed from the Third Team

Penny Hardaway also loses his Third Team spot despite averaging 20/4/5 per game and dragging the first Shaq-less Magic season of his career to a 38–21 record with him in the lineup and a 7–16 record without him. Penny barely made the Third Team in actuality, finishing just five votes ahead of both Mookie Blaylock and Kevin Johnson, who tied in All-NBA voting. Blaylock averaged 17/5/6, led the league in steals per game, and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting for a 56-win Hawks team and KJ averaged 20/3/9 for a 40-win Suns team. Blaylock would’ve benefited much more from this recognition than KJ, as it would’ve been his first and only All-NBA distinction, whereas KJ had five other All-NBA nods prior to this season. I hadn’t previously considered how to handle tiebreakers, or if they should even be broken at all. There has been a tie in official All-NBA voting before, with Bob Cousy and Dolph Schayes tying for a First Team spot in 1952, resulting in six players being on the First Team that year, so there is precedent… but I ultimately decided that ties are no fun in hypotheticals like this! As such, I decided on three tiebreakers — 1. Whoever has the most First Team votes, 2. Whoever has the most Second Team votes, 3. Given that this whole hypothetical is based on availability, whoever appeared in the most games. In this specific instance, Blaylock and KJ tied with one First Team vote apiece and Second Team voting data isn’t available for this year on basketball-reference.com, so the third tiebreaker of games played was enacted and Blaylock’s 78 GP surpassed KJ’s 70 GP. As such, Blaylock takes the vacant Third Team All-NBA spot.

1998

• Shaquille O’Neal removed from the First Team

Yikes, Shaq graduates from losing Third Team appearances to losing a First Team appearance. Shaq’s fitness was infamously inconsistent and it becomes glaring in this hypothetical… and there’s more to come. The trickledown effect here is notable, as David Robinson graduates from the Second Team to the First Team and that would up his tally of total First Team appearances from 4 to 5, Dikembe Mutombo would move from the Third Team to the Second Team, and Jayson Williams would surprisingly join the Third Team due to the fact that both Alonzo Mourning and Hakeem Olajuwon also didn’t meet the GP criteria despite having more All-NBA votes than Williams. Mourning averaged 19/9/1 with 2 blocks per game over 58 games, Olajuwon averaged 16/10/3 with 2 blocks and 2 steals per game over 47 games, and Williams averaged 13/13/1 over 65 games.

• Scottie Pippen removed from the Third Team

I’ve always been fascinated by Pippen’s 97–98 campaign. He controversially postponed a surgey until close to the season’s start in order to purposefully limit his availability as an indirect holdout over his horrible contract situation, only to subsequently continue to remain out when he did become healthy enough to play. He eventually rejoined the team and then posted his typically well-rounded stat lines and provided his usual lockdown defense, and the Bulls were noticeably better with him in the lineup, leading him to grab an All-NBA spot despite a paltry 44 games played. Antoine Walker takes his spot on the Third Team in this hypothetical on the back of one of his best statistical seasons, averaging 22/10/3, albeit for a losing team and with below average efficiency. Regardless, this would have been Walker’s sole All-NBA selection and would’ve been immensely beneficial for his legacy.

2002

• Chris Webber removed from the Second Team

The 01–02 season was the magical Kings run led by Webber that took Sacramento to the thrilling Western Conference Finals matchup against the Lakers, only to end in controversial heartbreak. The Kings were dominant that year, going 61–21, though it’s often forgotten that Webber played in just 54 games due to injury. He averaged 24/10/5 per game. The 2002 Third Team was very odd from a positional perspective, with Ben Wallace being listed as a forward. Given that positional oddity, Wallace would be the player to move up and take Webber’s spot on the Second Team and Webber’s teammate Peja Stojakovic would take Wallace’s spot on the Third Team. This change would help Peja much more than Wallace, as the latter already has three other Second Team appearances, whereas Peja has only one other All-NBA appearance in 2004, so a second would help to legitimize his All-NBA stature.

• Allen Iverson removed from the Second Team

Iverson followed up his 2001 MVP by leading the league in scoring with a 31.4 PPG rate in 2001–02, though he was limited to just 60 games due to injury. The Sixers slumped to 43–39, though they were 36–24 with Iverson in the lineup. Paul Pierce moves up from the Third Team to the Second Team to replace Iverson and Jerry Stackhouse would join the Third Team in Pierce’s place thanks to his 21/4/5 per game averages for a 50-win Pistons team. This would give Pierce two Second Team All-NBA selections in his career, though this would be Stackhouse’s only career All-NBA distinction.

2006

• Shaquille O’Neal removed from the First Team
• Yao Ming removed from the Third Team

Although on the backend of his career and his numbers declining a bit, Shaq was clearly still an elite player when healthy. He averaged 20/9/2 with 2 blocks per game this season, driving the Heat to a 42–17 record with him in the lineup and a 10–13 record without. More importantly, he was healthy in the playoffs and contributed to the first ever Miami Heat championship. All that being said, it’s incredible that Shaq has now been removed from two All-NBA First Teams in this hypothetical, and four All-NBA Teams overall. In regards to Yao, I have to admit that my recollection of his career was that he was constantly unhealthy. However, in actuality, he was incredibly durable over the first three years of his career, missing just two games total, and the 2005–06 season was the first to be struck by injuries. Weirdly, he only made one All-NBA Team during his three healthy seasons, but made three over the course of the next three unhealthy seasons. Yao averaged 22/10/1 this season and the Rockets were 27–30 with him in the lineup and 7–18 without. The dual removal of two centers has a big trickledown effect. Ben Wallace is moved up from the Second Team to the First Team and feels like a worthy choice thanks to his Defensive Player of the Year status and the Pistons winning 64 games. However, he only averaged 7 PPG, which makes me wonder if that would be the lowest PPG total ever for a First Team All-NBA player. Pau Gasol would go from not being on any All-NBA Team to being on the Second Team. Pau’s pre-Lakers days are supremely underrated. He missed out on a lot of individual accolades and team success due to the Western Conference being so deep, but he was a very effective player and 2005–06 was likely his best campaign with the Grizzlies, going for 20/9/4 with 2 blocks per game and 49 wins. And Dwight Howard would go from not being on any All-NBA Team to being on the Third Team. Dwight was not yet a star player at this point. He averaged 16/12/1 and the Magic had just 36 wins. Furthermore, he was not yet a defensive force, as his advanced numbers were a bit below average. As such, he’s a bit lucky to get this spot.

2007

• Dwyane Wade removed from the Third Team

Wade followed up his star turn championship winning performance in 2006 with another superstar performance in the 2006–07 season, averaging 27/4/7 per game on strong efficiency. Unfortunately, he couldn’t consistently stay on the court though, managing just 51 games. He was clearly still the team talisman though, spurring the Heat to a 27–24 record with him in the lineup and a 7–14 record without. He’s replaced on the Third Team by Jason Kidd, who narrowly missed out on the final Third Team All-NBA spot. Kidd averaged just 13 PPG, but also provided his usual bounty of rebounds, assists, and All-Defensive caliber guarding for a .500 Nets team.

• Yao Ming removed from the Second Team

Yao makes it two years in a row removed from the All-NBA Team. He barely played half the season at 48 games, but incredibly still had more First Team All-NBA votes (38) than Amare Stoudemire (36), who ended up making the First Team. Yao averaged 25/9/2 with 2 blocks per game on terrific advanced numbers. The Rockets were 32–16 with him in the lineup and 20–14 without. Dwight Howard takes his place on the Second Team after moving up from the Third Team, and Marcus Camby takes over the Third Team spot. More on Camby shortly…

2008

• Yao Ming removed from the Third Team

Unfortunately, Yao is removed from his third consecutive All-NBA Team. Once again, it’s an interesting case. He played just 55 games, but both his advanced numbers and his per game numbers of 22/11/2 with 2 blocks were stellar. He surprisigly received two First Team All-NBA votes, but just 71 total votes, which was fewer than both Allen Iverson (116 All-NBA votes) and Carmelo Anthony (89 votes), both of whom missed out on All-NBA Teams entirely in their first season as teammates in Denver. And yet, it’s their Nuggets teammate Marcus Camby who once again slides into the All-NBA Third Team to replace Yao for a second straight year. Camby was likely downgraded to his poor scoring numbers, but he was second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, second in rebounds per game, and first in blocks per game by a wide margin for the 50-win Nuggets.

2012

• Dwyane Wade removed from the Third Team

Due to the lockout, the minimum number of necessary games played for this season was adjusted to 53. This caused Wade to be removed despite his astounding output when he was on the floor due to his 49 games played. He averaged 22/5/4 with terrific advanced numbers for a championship-bound Heat squad. He’s replaced on the Third Team by Steve Nash who, while still a good player at the time, was clearly no longer a star. He averaged 12/3/10 for a .500 Suns team and his advanced numbers were beginning to noticeably decline. Nash had fewer All-NBA votes than Derrick Rose, though Rose also missed out on recognition due to having played just 39 games.

2014

• Chris Paul removed from the First Team

Chris Paul is just the second player of this era to be removed from an All-NBA First Team. As always, Paul was amazing, guiding the Clippers to 57 wins, averaging 19/4/10 and 2 steals per game, earning First Team All-Defensive honors, and posting advanced numbers among the league’s best. However, his 62 GP just barely removed him from eligibility. Stephen Curry shifts up from the Second Team to the First Team to replace Paul, and Damian Lillard⁴ shifts up from the Third Team to the Second Team to replace Curry. Despite some mediocre advanced numbers, John Wall takes the vacant Third Team spot thanks to his 19/4/9 and 2 steals per game for a 44-win Wizards squad. This would give Wall two total All-NBA appearances.

2015

• DeMarcus Cousins removed from the Second Team

Cousins’ career was so confusing. In the mid 2010s as Dwight Howard was beginning to decline, it was becoming clear that Cousins was the most talented center in the league. And yet he continually missed out on All-Star Teams and never achieved a First Team All-NBA selection due to his reputation as a pouter and his lackluster team success. However, he always put up strong per game stats which, in conjuction with the weak pool of centers in the league at the time, resulted in him making a couple All-NBA Second Teams. He barely met the minimum GP total to retain his All-NBA spot in 2016, but he’s not so lucky in 2015. He averaged 24/12/3 per game with poor advanced numbers for a 29-win Kings team, though the Kings were clearly better with him on the court in the 59 games he played. DeAndre Jordan moves up from the Third Team to the Second Team to replace him, and Al Horford takes Jordan’s spot on the Third Team. Horford was an integral part of the East-best 60-win Hawks, even earning a First Team All-NBA vote despite his modest 15/7/3 per game stat line.

2017

• Kevin Durant removed from the Second Team

This season was a clear shifting point in the rest management trend. The method was beginning to be noticed by the media and fans in 2015–16, but 2016–17 was the first year where the criticism of the trend began gaining steam, particularly when the Spurs began to blur the line between effective utilization and brazen abuse, notably gaining attention by sitting players for nationally televised games. Nevertheless, there was still just one player this year to lose out on an All-NBA spot before the situation really exploded in 2017–18. Durant was in his first season with the Warriors, averaging 25/8/5 on astounding efficiency to help the team to 67 wins. However, he barely missed out on retaining his All-NBA status due to his 62 games played. His teammate Draymond Green moves up from the Third Team to the Second Team, and Paul George takes the vacant Third Team spot. George averaged 23/6/3 in his final season with the Pacers. Had he made the All-NBA Team this season, it would bring his career total up to seven, which would put him even with the likes of Scottie Pippen, Dominique Wilkins, Patrick Ewing, Steve Nash, and Allen Iverson. Even if he remains at his current total of six All-NBA selections by his career’s end, he’s still quietly put together a very impressive set of individual accolades. That being said, as of this writing, he’s in serious contention for an All-NBA Third Team in 2024.

Part 3–2018 to the Present, the Unavailability Era

2018

• Joel Embiid removed from the Second Team

In his fourth season since being drafted, yet just his second on the court, Embiid was finally somewhat healthy and appeared in 63 games, immediately looking like a potential star. He averaged 23/11/3 and helped prompt a 76ers turnaround resulting in 52 wins, but narrowly missed the minimum GP cutoff due to his 63 appearances. Unfortunately, this won’t be Embiid’s last appearance on this list, as in the six seasons that have transpired since 2017–18, Embiid has surpassed the minimum 65 GP total only twice. His absence from the 2018 All-NBA Team results in Karl-Anthony Towns moving from the Third Team to the Second Team and Al Horford being added to the Third Team⁵.

• Stephen Curry removed from the Third Team

Steph played in just 51 games in the 2017–18 season, the second lowest amount of his career at that point. However, this was still Steph at the peak of his powers, putting up amazing stats, crazy shooting splits, and top-notch advanced numbers. The Warriors were 41–10 with him in the lineup and 17–14 without. He was so highly regarded despite the low GP total that he still received two First Team All-NBA votes and was just one vote shy of DeMar DeRozan for the final guard spot on the All-NBA Second Team. Curry’s replacement on the Third Team is Kyle Lowry⁶.

• Jimmy Butler removed from the Third Team

Butler spent just one full season with the Timberwolves, but he made it count. He spurred a 16–win turnaround to net a 47–35 record, though he was only on the court for 59 of those games. However, the team was 37–22 with him in the lineup and 10–13 without. Butler averaged an impressive 22/5/5 with 2 steals per game with strong efficiency, good advanced numbers, and a selection to the All-Defensive Second Team, but availability has always been an issue with Butler. As such, like Embiid, we’ll be seeing more of Jimmy soon. Draymond Green would replace Butler on the Third Team, but it was a bit of a down year for Draymond, with his individual numbers dropping across the board resulting in him receiving just a few All-NBA votes. However, the only other forwards to receive All-NBA votes this year were Trevor Ariza, Kevin Love, and Kristaps Porzingis with just one apiece.

2019

• Kawhi Leonard removed from the Second Team
• LeBron James removed from the Third Team

Kawhi and LeBron serve as an interesting contrast in the 2018–19 season. LeBron made his debut for the Lakers, a team he chose to join via free agency, whereas Kawhi joined the Raptors, a team to which he was traded despite a lack of interest in remaining there longterm. LeBron floundered a bit in LA, missing the playoffs for the first time since his sophomore season, whereas Kawhi thrived in Toronto, ultimately winning a title. And LeBron’s individual stats began to show the slightest dip⁷, while Kawhi’s individual stats hit new career highs. However, the one thing they had in common was limited availability, with LeBron playing 55 games due to injury and Kawhi playing 60 due to rest management. In their absence, Blake Griffin moves up from the Third Team to the Second Team and LaMarcus Aldridge and Danilo Gallinari join the Third Team.

• Joel Embiid removed from the Second Team

Like Jerry West before him, Joel Embiid can’t catch a break. Embiid comes up one game short of qualification for the 2018–19 season. This had been his best season to that point in time, with career highs across the board and a slew of individual accolades. The Sixers had a winning record with him and a losing record without him. Simply put, he was fantastic this year. Rudy Gobert moves up to the Second Team to take his place and Karl-Anthony Towns takes Gobert’s place on the Third Team.

2020 and 2021

• The 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons were… weird. Both seasons were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in condensed schedules and strict health and safety protocols. As a result, many players missed time out of precaution even if they may have been physically healthy and willing to play. Given the whackiness of the schedule and the general uncertainty in the league (and society in general) at the time, I opted not to consider these seasons in the exercise. I’ll note that nobody from the 19–20 season would have been removed regardless, though the 20–21 All-NBA Teams were devastated, with all of Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, and Jimmy Butler being removed. That being said, with the exception of LeBron, all of these players barely missed the cutoff of 57 games played. Still, it’s best to leave these seasons alone.

2022

The schedule was back to normal for the 2021–22 season, but the players continued to miss significant portions of time, with a new record of four players being removed from the All-NBA Teams.

• Stephen Curry removed from the Second Team
• Ja Morant removed from the Second Team

Both Second Team guards lose their spots this year, with Curry averaging 25/5/5 per game with his usual shooting accuracy and advanced numbers and helping to lead the Warriors to 53 wins, and Morant averaging 27/5/6 in his electrifying breakout campaign guiding the Grizzlies to 56 wins. Curry barely missed out on retaining his spot, as he played 64 games, just one off from the required 65. Morant was considerably lower though, at 57 games played. Trae Young and Chris Paul (who played just one game more than Curry at 65) move up from the Third Team to the Second Team. Interestingly, this was a down year for guards in the NBA. The highest vote total among guards who missed the All-NBA belonged to Donovan Mitchell, with a measly four. Jrue Holiday, Dejounte Murray, and Fred VanVleet were next in line with just one vote apiece⁸. Prior to this point, there was only one other tie in this hypothetical which occured in the 1997 season. Per the tiebreaker rules laid out in that season, Holiday, Murray, and VanVleet remain tied through the first two tiebreakers since none of them received a First or Second Team All-NBA vote, meaning the player with the most games played takes the final vacant All-NBA Third Team guard spot. In this case, Murray’s 68 beats out Holiday’s 67 and VanVleet’s 65. As such, Donovan Mitchell and Dejounte Murray take over the Third Team guard spots for this season. It feels odd to think of Murray as an All-NBA player. His per game numbers were stellar, he received significant All-Defensive consideration, his advanced numbers were acceptably good, and he did make the All-Star Game this season. And yet, his Spurs team wasn’t very good and, even in the moment, he didn’t feel like one of the best players in the league. Given all that, this feels like a good example of the danger of implementing a minimum number of games played for All-NBA recognition. Hopefully it entices players into increasing their availability, but it could result in an increase of instances of this prestigious recognition being bestowed upon players who are good, but not great.

• Kevin Durant removed from the Second Team
• LeBron James removed from the Third Team

They’re two all-time greats, but by this point in their careers both LeBron and Durant received primacy from many award voters (and rightfully so, in my eyes) with the vague rationale being that they’re so good when they play and they’re so important historically that it’s better to have them on the All-NBA Team than not, even if they are no longer in their primes. That was likely the case in some regard this year, as both players put up absurd per game and advanced numbers like always, but LeBron played in just 56 games and Durant in 55. Furthermore, LeBron’s Lakers won just 33 games and Durant’s Nets just 44. That being said, I remember at the time feeling as though Durant was so good when he was available that he was undoubtedly still Second Team caliber. I didn’t feel as strongly about LeBron’s candidacy, but the pool of All-NBA caliber forwards was slim this season, so I totally understood, and even endorsed, the desire to reward LeBron with Third Team recognition. Alas, they both get short shrift in this hypothetical. Pascal Siakam will move up from the Third Team to the Second Team to replace Durant, but, just like with the guards, there aren’t many options at forward to take the empty Third Team spots. The next highest vote-getting forward was Jimmy Butler, but he is also ineligible due to playing 57 games. Next in line is Jaylen Brown with three votes, followed by Mikal Bridges and Khris Middleton with one vote apiece. Bridges wins the GP tiebreaker over Middleton with 82 GP to 66. As such, Jaylen Brown and Mikal Bridges assume the Third Team forward spots. Much like Murray in the guard spots, it feels very odd to have Bridges on an All-NBA Team. Still, if we look beyond his comparatively meager 14/4/2 per game numbers, he was a First Team All-Defensive player for a 64-win Suns team with solid advanced numbers and efficiency.

2023

• Giannis Antetokounmpo removed from the First Team
• Jimmy Butler removed from the Second Team
• LeBron James removed from the Third Team

This is the first instance of three players from one position being removed. Between that, the two additional players removed at the guard spot, and the fact that even players who met the minimum GP mark there were only four who breached the the 70-game mark… this feels like a nadir for the rest management era. That being said, Giannis was undoubtedly a First Team All-NBA player this season. He finished third in MVP voting, averaged 31/12/5, posted amazing advanced numbers, finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and led the Bucks to 58 wins, with the team barely playing at a .500 rate when he was out of the lineup. On top of all of that, he received a 100% vote share in All-NBA voting and was just two games shy of the GP cutoff. Altogether, it feels absurd to remove him from the All-NBA Team, but that’s also reflective of how accepted and commonplace the concept of superstars missing significant chunks of time had become by this point. The removals of LeBron and Butler aren’t as debatable though. Butler had amazing advanced number and played 64 games, just one off the minimum cutoff, but his absences had a signficant impact on the Heat in the regular season, resulting in just 44 wins⁹. Conversely, LeBron’s per game numbers were astounding but his advanced numbers and efficiency noticeably dipped, and his Lakers won just 43 games. The trickle down effect of the absence of these three players is interesting, beginning with Jaylen Brown moving up from the Second Team to the First Team, making it an All-Celtics frontcourt. Secondly, Julius Randle would go from the Third Team to the Second Team. Next, after finishing not far behind LeBron for the final All-NBA spot, Lauri Markkanen moves all the way up to a Second Team spot. Here’s where things get a bit muddled though. Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard have the next highest vote totals among forwards, though neither is eligible for selection due to playing 47 and 52 games, respectively. That opens the door for Pascal Siakam to take one of the newly vacant Third Team spots. The final Third Team forward spot is a bit surprising though, as it goes to Anthony Edwards. Ten voters included Edwards in their All-NBA ballots. Although Edwards is widely considered to be a guard, six of the ten voters who picked Edwards listed him as a forward. As a result, Edwards is officially listed as a forward in the league’s formal All-NBA vote tally, resulting in Edwards getting the spot in this hypothetical. Interestingly, if I opted to disregard the official NBA records and used my own positional judgment, then the final All-NBA spot would’ve gone to Mikal Bridges, who would make it two All-NBA selections in a row.

• Stephen Curry removed from the Second Team
• Damian Lillard removed from the Third Team

Curry averaged 29/6/6 and barely missed the famed 50/40/90 shooting splits. His advaned numbers were also strong, but he played in just 56 games. Lillard’s individual case is similar to Curry’s, as he averaged 32/4/7 with strong efficiency and even better advanced numbers than Curry, albeit on a higher usage rate for a bad Blazers squad. In their absence, De’Aaron Fox is moved from the Third Team to the Second Team, and Jrue Holiday and Jalen Brunson take over the empty Third Team guard spots.

Phew! That was a lot of info. I really enjoyed pulling this all together though, as it was a really thought-provoking look at a compelling alternative history for the league, as well as a good reminder to appreciate the players who barely missed out on All-NBA recognition in their careers. In the next post, I’ll identify the players who benefited most from this exercise and examine how these changes would shift the legacies of the impacted players.

Footnotes

¹ Although I did include BAA results in this hypothetical, I did not include the NBA’s other predecessor league, the NBL (National Basketball League). This was simply due to the records for season length and games played not being very thorough, thus making it more difficult to determine who would no longer be eligible for their All-NBL spot.

² Bob Lanier also received an MVP vote, but he also did not meet the minimum GP threshold.

³ Larry Bird had more All-NBA votes than Thorpe, though he also did not meet the minumum GP criteria.

⁴ Goran Dragic and Damian Lillard were tied for the Third Team All-NBA guard spots with 115 votes apiece, but Lillard gets the tiebreaker to move up to the Second Team due to having 2 First Team votes to Dragic’s 1.

⁵ Rudy Gobert had more All-NBA votes than Horford but also didn’t meet the minimum GP criteria.

⁶ Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving had more votes but didn’t meet GP criteria. Ben Simmons also had more votes than Lowry, but almost all of them came as a forward instead of a guard, resulting in him being formally listed as a forward in the NBA’s official All-NBA records, so he wasn’t eligible for an All-NBA guard spot.

⁷ LeBron’s numbers were still amazing. As the best player in the world at the time, a slight dip still kept him among the best in the league. His per game numbers remained eye-popping, though his advanced numbers were no longer mind-bogglingly good, but still strong. All this is to say that this is the first time where LeBron showed even the slightest sign of aging.

⁸ Kyrie Irving also had one vote, but is ineligible due to his 29 games played. I should also mention Desmond Bane. Bane received one All-NBA vote and he’s generally considered as a guard by almost anyone who follows the NBA. However, the lone person who voted for him, Frank Isola, listed him as a forward. I debated whether to disregard this and include him in the tiebreaker, but ultimately disregarded it, stuck to the official NBA records, and decided to leave him as a forward. This is a significant decision though, as Bane would have won the tiebreaker and garnered the hypothetical Third Team All-NBA spot had he been included among the guards.

⁹ Obviously, Butler went on to achieve a hot streak for the ages in taking the 8-seed Heat to the Finals, but All-NBA recognition is a regular season honor and Butler clearly doesn’t care about the regular season. So as much as I love Butler’s game, it feels fitting to have him lose out on so many All-NBA spots in this hypothetical.