The competition for the league’s 15 All-NBA spots was fiercer than ever in 2020/21, with tens of millions of dollars up for grabs for certain players based on the voting results. Since the NBA has already started to announce its end-of-season award winners, we wanted to give you an opportunity to vote on the All-NBA rosters for 2020/21 before they’re officially revealed.
Last Wednesday, we opened voting for the All-NBA First Team. We moved on to the Second Team last Friday, then opened the polls for the Third Team on Monday. The results of all those polls are in, so let’s check them out.
- Guard: Stephen Curry (Warriors)
- Guard: Luka Doncic (Mavericks)
- Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
- Forward: Joel Embiid (Sixers)
- Center: Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
- Guard: Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers)
- Guard: Bradley Beal (Wizards)
- Forward: Julius Randle (Knicks)
- Forward: LeBron James (Lakers)
- Center: Rudy Gobert (Jazz)
- Guard: Chris Paul (Suns)
- Guard: Devin Booker (Suns)
- Forward: Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
- Forward: Kawhi Leonard (Clippers)
- Center: Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Your top vote-getters in the final round of polling who didn’t quite earn spots on the Third Team: Nets guard James Harden, Nets forward Kevin Durant, Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, and Pacers center Domantas Sabonis.
I think these All-NBA teams turned out pretty well, though mine would look a little different. I felt that Jimmy Butler, rather than Adebayo, was the most valuable Heat player this season, so I’d move Embiid to the Second Team and Gobert to the Third Team to open up a guard/forward spot for Butler.
I also might consider Doncic a forward to create room for Lillard on the First Team. Doncic isn’t really a forward, but I think he has a better case for the position than Embiid, and I’m not sure there’s another worthy First Team forward besides Antetokounmpo.
Additionally, even though all three Nets stars missed significant time, it seems wrong to have no Brooklyn players on the All-NBA teams this season, since the club had the league’s fourth-best regular season record and is the favorite to win a title. Durant missed over half the season and Harden played just 44 of 72 games — throw in Harden’s questionable behavior in Houston at the start of the season, and Kyrie Irving actually might have the strongest case of the three.
Irving was spectacular this season, with 26.9 PPG and 6.0 APG on an eye-popping .506/.402/.922 shooting line. Still, even he only played three-quarters of the season (54 games). Do his contributions outweigh Booker’s 25.6 PPG and 4.3 APG on .484/.340/.867 shooting in 67 games? I think the answer for me might be yes, but Booker is a fine Third Team choice.
It will be interesting to see which way the official voters go. Deciding on which positions to assign certain players could play a major role in the final results, since they’ll have a ripple effect on subsequent selections.
What do you think? Do you disagree strongly with any of these choices? Do you expect major discrepancies when the official All-NBA teams are announced? Let us know in the comment section!
Still waiting for the announcement of the….
members of the………….
2021 ALL-NBA LAST TEAM !!
Bam over KAT is just not it. He really gets no respect.
Bam: 18.7/9/5.4
KAT: 24.8/10.6/4.5
Seriously just a joke that anyone would vote Bam over KAT. Bam is of course a better defender, but not enough to make him an overall better player.
KAT has said he doesn’t want to be considered a Center. Well, there you go.
Sabonis with 20.3/12.0/6.7 in a play-in team would deserve that spot more than any of them. But I also doubt they will consider Embiid a forward… the all-NBA centers will be probably Jokic/Embiid/Gobert.
Here is how it should be:
First team: Curry, Lillard, Doncic, Giannis, Jokic
Second team: Irving, Beal, Kawhi, Randle, Embiid
Third team: Booker, Mitchell, Tatum, Zion, Gobert
Players got to actually play in my world to get run on any of these all NBA squads. What’s the minimum- 75%? Higher?
I don’t think the Nets will get completely shut out of the all-NBA teams the way they were here. The amount of time missed will definitely make it harder on them, but I’d say Harden was the most valuable to team during the regular season for how he led the team for long stretches without KD and Kyrie. The team was 7-8 when he joined and was 35-16 after his injury on April 5th.