NBA award ballots: MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and more

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NBA award ballots: All-NBA teams

Christopher Kline

All-NBA First Team

Luka Doncic, DAL
Devin Booker, PHX
Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL
Joel Embiid, PHI
Nikola Jokic, DEN

All-NBA Second Team

Ja Morant, MEM
Chris Paul, PHX
Jayson Tatum, BOS
DeMar DeRozan, CHI
Rudy Gobert, UTH

All-NBA Third Team

Trae Young, ATL
Stephen Curry, GSW
Jimmy Butler, MIA
Kevin Durant, BKN
Karl-Anthony Towns, MIN

Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid have been the two best players in basketball this season. Both are center and forward eligible for All-NBA voting. Both should be first team All-NBA. The positional restrictions are outdated anyway, and it makes sense to put the five best players on the team meant to signal the NBA’s five best players.

Beyond that, Chris Paul was in the MVP running before his injury and deserves major credit for once again helping Phoenix to the top of the standings. The Suns are the best team in basketball, and Paul and Booker are two of the best guards in basketball. Apologies to LeBron James, who was marvelous, but the Lakers were truly terrible and he didn’t do much to elevate the feeling of absolute malaise around that team.

Lucas Johnson

All-NBA First Team

Ja Morant, MEM
Devin Booker, PHX
DeMar DeRozan, CHI
Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL
Joel Embiid, PHI

All-NBA Second Team

Luka Doncic, DAL
Stephen Curry, GSW
Kevin Durant, BKN
LeBron James, LAL
Nikola Jokic, DEN

All-NBA Third Team

Trae Young, ATL
Donovan Mitchell, UTH
Jaylen Brown, BOS
Jayson Tatum, BOS
Karl-Anthony Towns, MIN

For All-NBA, my criteria was simple: four out of five of my top MVP candidates made the first team with Jokic being the lone exception as he isn’t my MVP. There can only be one center for each team so I had to put him on second team. Players who were elite but had started out slow or were injured for a portion of the season made the second and third teams.