Which guards, forwards and centers stood above their peers during the 2017-2018 NBA season? We predict the 2017-18 All-NBA teams
When I did this exercise last year, I had a lot more options. All-NBA fixtures Stephen Curry, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler and DeMarcus Cousins all played my arbitrarily minimum number of 70 games, as did frequent party spoilers Kyrie Irving, John Wall and Rudy Gobert.
This year, I had to lower my bar a bit – but not enough to ever legitimize 2017 “Embiid for Rookie of the Year” arguments. So I settled on 62 games, for being just over 3/4 of the NBA season, and allowing players to miss an even 20 games. Unfortunately, those same seven guys still missed the mark.
Unlike the NBA All-Star game, All-NBA Team rules stipulate that a center,€“ someone who has played more games at that position than at any other position, be selected to each team. Sadly for the NBA’s small and power forwards, that someone is not Anthony Davis. Per Cleaning the Glass (via ESPN), Davis has logged more than half of his minutes at power forward. So that leaves three centers, six guards, and five forwards to place (spoil alert, Davis made an All-NBA team).
| All-NBA First Team | All-NBA Second Team | All-NBA Third Team |
| G: James Harden | G: Victor Oladipo | G: Russell Westbrook |
| G: Damian Lillard | G: DeMar DeRozan | G: Klay Thompson |
| F: Anthony Davis | F: Kevin Durant | F: Paul George |
| F: LeBron James | F: Giannis Antetokounmpo | F: LaMarcus Aldridge |
| C: Joel Embiid | C: Karl-Anthony Towns | C: Nikola Jokic |
I’m not going to go through every pick, but I’ll just say Oladipo took what should’ve been a 30-something win team to 48 wins, Damian Lillard carried his team to the third seed out West and gave the local announcers high blood pressure, Russell Westbrook shamelessly chased stats but earned playoff home-court advantage in an offense that could’ve been drawn up by a toddler, and Klay Thompson splashed, but never as a first option.
On the forward front, I wanted to have two good defenders on the first All-NBA team, but Milwaukee’s defensive stats hurt Giannis’ case, and Durant missed too many games in the first season LeBron missed none. Meanwhile, a resurgent LaMarcus Aldridge outscored his team’s second and third options, combined. Good for him!
On the center front, I really just wish Gobert had played a few more games. For all of Jokic’s offensive brilliance – especially over the last 20 do-or-die games – he is truly atrocious on defense.
All-NBA Snubs by Position
Snubbed Guards: Bradley Beal, Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons. I’m really not joking about the final two. Mitchell is the best offensive player on a playoff team that lost its two best scorers last offseason, and Simmons did things like this nightly, while playing very good defense. Beal was ok too, contributing to “team” wins.
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Snubbed Forward/Center: Al Horford. I don’t know what to believes anymore. ESPN says he’s a forward, basketball reference says he’s a center, neither says he’s both. He was really good this year, but not as good as Brad Stevens.
That’s pretty much it for the snubs. Hopefully next year more guys play enough to get snubbed.