With the regular season in the rear view, it is time to talk All-NBA teams. An All-NBA selection is one of the greatest honors that a player can receive, and this recognition is often used as a qualifier for select groups such as the Basketball Hall of Fame.
All-NBA teams are often valued more than All-Star appearances because they are more exclusive and less popularity-based. However these teams are always the hardest selections as there are only 15 spots and what appears to be way more than 15 deserving candidates year after year. These ballots also hold additional importance as they have major financial and contractual implications for many players.
Despite this challenge, I am going to be giving you the list of players I believe should be on an All-NBA team for the 2020-21 campaign.
Disclaimer: This is not my predictions for who will make the All-NBA teams, this is simply my opinion for who should make the All-NBA teams.
Third Team
Guard: Trae Young
I know this term gets thrown around too lightly in certain cases, but Trae Young might be the most underrated player in basketball. The dude was left off the All-Star team in the Eastern Conference because half his rotation players were injured and the Hawks were struggling as a result of it at the time. During my research, I have heard names like Mike Conley and Jrue Holiday mentioned more than Young, and no disrespect to those guys but they are simply not on the level of Trae young.
I understand that the BS foul drawing and flopping can be frustrating to watch, but it immensely helped the Hawks win games because Trae young is a 88% free throw shooter. Trae Young is one of the best playmakers and a top 10 offensive engine in all of basketball and he should be respected accordingly.
Guard: Devin Booker
Chris Paul is getting a bulk of the credit for the overachieving Phoenix Suns, and I can why people would gravitate towards that narrative, he is the new star on the team and the Suns went from out of the playoffs to the second best record in basketball.
However, I believe that Devin Booker has actually been the Suns most valuable and best player throughout the season. Devin Booker had the 7th best offensive rating in the NBA this season, and the Suns actually had a better offense with Chris Paul off the floor and Booker in that primary initiator role. Chris Paul is a great player and an all-time great but the Suns need to be perceived as what they are, Devin Booker's team.
Forward: Zion Williamson
In the short term this season was undoubtedly a disappointment for the New Orleans Pelicans, as they failed to even make the play-in bracket. However, in the long term this season has to be seen as a huge success as Zion Williamson's stock continues to moon.
A couple months into the season, the Pelicans discovered Point-Zion, where they transitioned Zion into a heavier on-ball role, and the results were amazing. Post All-Star break, Zion averaged 29 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists on 61% shooting from the field and the Pelicans had the best offense in the league with Zion on the floor during that span. Zion is already an All-NBA player and he will be a constant feature on this list for the next decade
Forward: Julius Randle
The New York Knicks have been the best cinderella story in the NBA this season and Julius Randle's improvement is a primary catalyst. Julius Randle in all likelihood will win the Most Improved Player of the Year award, due to his crazy shooting improvement.
Julius Randle averaged 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists on 41% shooting from the three-point line, a staggering 14% improvement from his previous season. Randle's performance in combination with the success story of the Knicks makes for a case that is hard to ignore for an All-NBA nod.
Center: Rudy Gobert
I understand that his game might not be the most resilient or the most adaptable to playoff basketball, but Rudy Gobert was by far the best defensive player in the 2020-21 regular season. In fact, there is an argument that Gobert just capped of the best defensive season in 15 years.
Gobert finished the season as the leader in every single advanced defensive metric, which is extremely impressive considering that all these metrics value vastly different traits in different capacities. Gobert has reached the level where you can put the 4 worst defenders in the league beside him and he will still lead you to a top 5 defense in the minutes he is on the court.
Rudy Gobert is the best player on the best team in basketball and that makes him a lock for my All-NBA team.
Second Team
Guard: Kyrie Irving
This has been a weird season for Kyrie to say the least. With the whole disappearing from the team without notice situation you would think that he would be out of the consideration, but his 54 games played put him right up there with other All-NBA candidates in terms of minutes played.
Aside from the distractions, Kyrie is undoubtedly had the best season of his career, averaging 27 points and 6 assists. Irving also finished the season as a member of the 50/40/90 club, making his season only the 14th such season in history, and making Kyrie only the 9th player to achieve this feat.
Also, the nets with just Kyrie Irving on the floor without Harden or Durant ranked 93rd percentile in offense and with them all on the floor they had the greatest offense in NBA history.
Guard: Damian Lillard
Speaking of career years, Damian Lillard was an absolute miracle worker this season. Damian Lillard this season averaged 29 points and 7.5 assists on near career high efficiency.
However, the thing that put Damian Lillard over the top for me was his ability to keep the Blazers afloat despite CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic missing significant chunks of the season. Lillard led the Blazers to a 42-30 record despite them having only a +129 point differential on the season. That was only possible because Damian Lillard had one of the best clutch regular seasons in recent memory and led the Blazers to a 19-12 record in games within ten points.
However you slice it, Damian Lillard had a top 5 offensive season in basketball this season.
Forward: Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Butler has secretly had the best year of his career, building upon the phenomenal year he had last year. Butler this year averaged 21.5 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists on career high efficiency, all whilst playing at an elite defensive level.
The fact that highlighted Butler's true value was the first couple weeks of the season. The Miami Heat were missing Jimmy Butler to start the year ,as he was nursing a injury, and through the first 20 games of the season the Heat were 7-13 and ranked 11th in the Eastern Conference. Since Jimmy got reintegrated into the lineup, the Heat once again found their stride and finished as the six seed, comfortably avoiding the play-in tournament.
Forward: Paul George
Last year's bubble playoffs was not the proudest moment of Paul George's career by any stretch of the imagination, signified by him hitting the side of the backboard in Game & against the Nuggets. George even later admitted to suffering through mental health issues in the bubble. Ever since that moment, Paul George has been on a revenge tour.
George finished the season averaging 23 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists on the best efficiency of his career. George even had a stretch where the Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard and George led them through an amazing 10 game span.
George's season will be truly evaluated come playoff time but it still doesn't take away from the fact that he just concluded the second best regular season of his career.
Center: Joel Embiid
On a per minute basis, Joel Embiid was the best player in the 2020-21 regular season. He was just an unstoppable force on both ends of the floor, becoming virtually unguardable in 1-on-1 coverage whilst spearheading the 76ers second ranked defense.
Per 36 minutes, Embiid averaged 33 points and 12 rebounds and ranked second in the league in PER. Embiid was the frontrunner for the MVP throughout a majority of the season and the only thing that's going to prevent him from winning the award is games played.
In almost any other year, Joel would be a lock for first-team honors, unfortunately for him arguably the only person who has had a better season plays the same position as him.
First Team
Guard: Stephen Curry
Heading into this season, Steph Curry was already regarded as the greatest shooter in the history of basketball and yet what we saw from Curry the last two months of the season might have been the best shooting stretch of his career.
Steph's 2016 unanimous MVP season is often regarded as the greatest offensive season ever and he managed to top that season in terms of production, becoming the second oldest player ever to win a scoring title. The lack of offensive talent around Steph forced him to shoot at extremely high volumes, something analytic nerds have been dreaming about for years, and the result was Steph elevating this lackluster offensive roster to top of the league levels in the minutes he was on the court.
Steph Curry has nothing left to prove in his career, but he just had to shut up the haters one last time.
Guard: Luka Doncic
Luka was the heavy pre-season pick for MVP, he was just coming off arguably the greatest season by a 20 year-old in the history of basketball, and that ship seemingly sailed instantaneously as Luka came into the season out of shape and the Mavericks struggled out the gate.
This gave people the notion that Luka was underperforming this season, and they couldn't be farther from the truth. Luka took a major leap in what many viewed as his biggest offensive weakness, spiking his 3P% from 31% to 35%. The Mavericks also continued to improve as Luka did, taking the biggest jump in net differential post all-star break.
Luka is almost a perfect offensive engine, a tall playmaker and when his jumpshot is falling, an unstoppable scoring force. Luka Doncic is the future of the NBA and he is going to hold this spot for at least the next decade.
Forward: Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi had perhaps the most lowkey MVP caliber season in recent memory, sleepwalking his way to 25 points 7 rebounds and 5 assists on almost 50/40/90 shooting splits and All-league defense.
Kawhi is one of the most complete players in basketball, he can score at every level, he can defend 4 positions, he rebounds at a high level and he continues to grow in the department of creating shots for his teammates, making reads at a considerably higher level that in his San Antonio and Toronto years.
I think Kawhi goes under the radar because its pretty clear that he is not trying during the regular season, what people forget is that a half-asleep Kawhi Leonard still falls in the top percentile of NBA players.
Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis even coming in this season basically had no chance at MVP due to voter fatigue and that is probably the major reason why his season is being taken for granted. Giannis is having a slightly worse year than last year, but he is still putting up historic numbers.
Per 36 minutes, Antetokounmpo still put up 31 points, 12 rebounds and 6.5 assists on hyper efficiency whilst still being one of the most valuable defensive weapons in basketball. Giannis was still undoubtedly a top 5 player during the course of the regular season.
Center: Nikola Jokic
This one has a simple explanation: Winning MVP automatically makes you 1st team All-NBA. Jokic is going to win MVP and he is going to win it by a healthy margin.
One narrative I would like to kill however is that just because Jokic's case for MVP was aided by injuries to other candidates makes his MVP invalid. Nikola Jokic just concluded the best offensive season by a center in the history of basketball, including Wilt, including Shaq, including Kareem, including whoever. Jokic's mix of dominant scoring and all-time playmaking elevated him to the be the best offensive player in basketball, even above Steph Curry in my opinion.
Jokic is as deserving an MVP we have ever had and he is reaching levels of offensive brilliance no big man has ever reached.
Honorable Mentions
Bradley Beal, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, Lebron James, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo, Zach Lavine, Mike Conley, Clint Capela, Jaylen Brown, DeAaron Fox
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