Voting summary (5 points for a first-team vote, 3 for 2nd-team, 1 for 3rd, 100 voters):
First Team All-NBA 2017
1. Harden received 100 first place votes, 0 second, 0 third, unanimous selection for The Beard. Justifiable and well deserved,
2. LeBron James 99-1-0 -- his 11th first team all-NBA selection, tying Kobe and Karl Malone for the most ever and surpassing numerous guys (including Michael Jordan) who had 10 first-team all-NBA selections. His 13 first or 2nd team honors is also tied for the most all-time.
He probably deserves the one "didn't vote for him" finger poke in the eye b/c he took many games off and the Cavs were only 2nd best record in the East. The first-team vote went to either Durant (who had 3) or Draymond Green (who had 2 at forward and 2 at center).
3. Russell Westbrook -- 99-1-0 -- the other vote went to Curry -- I also cannot get too upset about that given Russ's ridiculous Usage Rate (an all-time high) and huge number of turnovers (#2 all-time to.....Harden!). if you'd like your players to be less ball hoggy and let their teammates play, you may want to vote for Curry instead.
4. Kawhi Leonard -- 96-3-1 -- Three votes went in some combination to Durant and Draymond. Someone felt there were FOUR forwards who had a better year.
The feeling of Kawhi haters is he is a "system" player and the Spurs went 8-1 w/o him, so how good is he, really? My general reply? Some people are dicks.
5. Anthony Davis -- 45-34-16. Davis was left off 5 ballots completely and he only beat Rudy Gobert by 4 points (343-339).
Second Team All-NBA
6. Rudy Gobert -- 43-38-10 -- the difference here was that, while Davis was left off 5 ballots, Gobert was left off 9 ballots. 5 more third-team votes would have given him the #1 spot. Gobert is the #1 rim protector in the NBA, but basically a one-end player. Interesting that the voters would rank him so highly and Karl-Anthony Towns (a mostly one-end player the other way) so lowly. Given Gordon Hayward's pitiful showing, voters appeared to give Gobert virtually 100% credit for Utah's surge this year.
7. Steph Curry -- 1-93-6 -- the only Second-team player to be on all 100 ballots.
8. Antetokounmpo -- 0-81-15 -- this is far too high for the Greek Freak. Media loves him more than the current state of his game justifies. Left off only 4 ballots (Anthony Davis was left off 5)!
9. Kevin Durant -- 3-66-26 -- was having a first-team all-NBA season before he missed 19 games. Would have been interesting to see if he would have displaced Kawhi or LeBron,
10. Isaiah Thomas -- 0-71-23 -- had a great year; but let's be honest, he is probably the worst player on the list of 15 and has the least trade value. Still a proper choice - you vote on what the guy produces, not on his intrinsic value.
Third Team All-NBA
11. Draymond Green -- 4-21-51 -- Draymond received two first-team votes for forward and two for center. He should not get votes for center or at least after he doesn't win as a center his voters out to have to vote for a real center. Does LeBron get votes for center? He plays a fair amount of center when the Cavs go small.
12. John Wall -- 0-19-68 -- got the most 3rd team votes of anyone. Apparently NBA writers walk around doing word association of "John Wall?" "Third team."
13. Jimmy Butler -- 0-19-45 -- had a great year, well deserved. Probably deserved even more votes.
14. DeMar DeRozan -- 0-4-50 -- just squeaked by Chris Paul; Chris Paul probably deserved the honor more.
15. DeAndre Jordan -- 3-17-18 -- it is amazing that you could make 3rd team all-NBA when 62% of the eligible voters did not believe you deserved to be 3rd team or better.
What this shows us is that there are a lot of centers in the league who received a lot of votes and the splintered voting allowed DeAndre to sneak in. Consider this, however, why does DeAndre, the defensive anchor for a LAC team, record virtually the same as Utah, get 54 points worth of votes while Rudy Gobert gets 339 points worth of votes. The two guys are virtually indistinguishable, and Jordan may actually be better. He falls nearly 300 points short of Gobert?
Other Receiving Votes
KAT 50 points, 2 first-team votes
CP3 - 49 points
Marc Gasol - 48 points, 2 first-team votes
Boogie Cousins - 42 points, 2 first team votes
Paul George 40
Gordan Hayward 27
Hassan Whiteside - 18
Kyrie - 14
Klay - 14
Jokic - 12 points, one first-team vote
Lillard 12
Millsap 3
Aldridge 1
Blake Griffin 1
Al Horford 1
The worst set of votes are the two guys who voted for Griffin (61 games, 7.7 WS, getting worse as a player); and Horford (68 games, 6.3 WS, was actually a regular season disappointment).
Hayward and George are not eligible for the "super max" contracts they could have received from Utah and Indiana respectively had they made a team. Is Paul George a better player than Butler or DeRozan? Sure. But he didn't get the votes.
The center voting was unbelievably weird. 9 first-team votes went to guys who were not 1st, 2nd or 3rd team all-NBA as centers:
-- Draymond 2
-- KAT 2
-- Gasol 2
-- Boogie 2
-- Jokic 1
Draymond's votes, as I stated earlier, should have been thrown back into the voting pot and re-cast. He is not a center.
KAT probably got screwed a little, since his team's sub-.500 mark and terrible defense (KAT's DRtg on basketball-reference.com is a dismal 110) led voters to discount his unbelievable season (12 WS, 25-12, 100+ threes). But KAT is young and if this motivates him to work more on defense, I will be ecstatic.
Gasol is working off reputation now - he is a declining player.
Boogie seems to make his teams actually WORSE. This hurts your chances to win post-season awards. After Davis, he is probably the second most talented center in the league. But geez, if you actually take a team and make it WORSE.....
Jokic's voter, I cannot really get mad at him or her. I think a good argument could be made that Jokic has the greatest upside of anyone but Davis/Boogie/KAT and Embiid. He is freaking enormous and highly skilled. Now, does that justify a first-team all-NBA vote? No. But I see how someone might think it does.
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