2020 All-NBA Team Selections
BY: Wayne and Schwartz
First Team All-NBA - Schwartz
Damian Lillard (G), James Harden (G), LeBron James (F), Giannis Antetokounmpo (F), Anthony Davis (C)
Four of my first-team selections were pretty straightforward, and require nearly no explanation. James Harden has been scoring at an unfathomable pace, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the reigning MVP and the favorite to take home the same award again, Anthony Davis is clearly the worst player in the lineup but center is extremely weak and he is head and shoulders above the competition, and LeBron is simply the best basketball player alive. But the second guard spot is where I go against the grain by giving Damian Lillard the nod over Mavs phenom Luka Doncic. Both have extremely similar scoring and assisting numbers, with Luka maintaining a solid edge in rebounding and neither excelling on the defensive end. However, efficiency sets the two apart- Luka shoots a paltry 31.8% from beyond the arc, while Dame is posting a career-high of 39.4%, while leading the league in three pointers shot off the dribble. He creates for himself, and for an oft-injured supporting cast that is largely devoid of scoring threats, outside of CJ McCollum and the shadow of Carmelo Anthony. Despite taking challenging threes, as opposed to catch-and-shoot looks, Dame has a higher true shooting percentage than any of my other first teamers, as well as Trae Young, Devin Booker, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, and many others, including of course Doncic. Dame is so dialed in that he is even shooting an absurd 41.2% on three-pointers between 30 and 34 feet, over a sample size of 102 shots. His shooting skill set is absolutely unique, as he is able to take a viable shot anywhere on the floor he is able to find room no matter how far he may be from the hoop- contrary to Paul George’s belief, with Dame, there are no “bad shots”. Simply put, he means more to his team, creates the most for himself, and has the ability to take over a game and steer his team to victory that very few point guards have in the modern game.
First Team All-NBA - Wayne
LeBron James (G), James Harden (G), Kawhi Leonard (F), Giannis Antetokounmpo (F), Nikola Jokic (C)
There are a few positional quirks which are going to define the All-NBA debate for this season. The first big difference you’ll see between my team and Schwartz’s is I have LeBron James penciled in at point guard. No, he doesn’t look like your traditional point guard, but he assists on a league-high 49.7% of his team’s buckets while he’s on the floor and is leading the NBA in assists per game with 10.6. There’s no doubt who the alpha is on the Lakers, and he’s making a strong case for the MVP award. He nabs his league-record 13th First-Team All-NBA nod this season. Joining him in the backcourt is James Harden who in a normal season would be making his own claim on the MVP award - his averages of 34.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game this season are absurd. He’s scored 50+ points 6 times this season, more than any other player, and also has 11.5 win shares which is more than any other player. Giannis Antetokounmpo, my pick for the MVP this season, is a lock for First-Team All-NBA. Check out more of his incredible numbers in my MVP breakdown, but his 31.6 PER is the 7th-best mark of all time behind only a few seasons by Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan. Giannis has the 2nd-most win shares this year and is somehow averaging 29.6 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game in just 30.9 minutes per game. Part of my insistence on making LeBron a point guard for the purposes of this article is admittedly that I refused to not let Kawhi Leonard be a First-Team All-NBA guy. Biased? Yes, but hear me out. Kawhi is averaging career-highs across the board this season with 26.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game despite playing the fewest minutes per game since his age-23 season. Kawhi also ranks third in the NBA this season in plus-minus rating. Finally, rounding out my First Team is Nikola Jokic. You were probably expecting to see Anthony Davis in this spot, but I believe Jokic has had the better season. With Jokic on the floor, the Nuggets go from a slightly below-average offense to the second-best offense in the NBA. With Davis on the floor, the Lakers’ offensive rating drops by one point. Of course, Davis is the better defensive player, but honestly not by much as Davis’s defensive rating is about 2 points per 100 possessions better. Jokic has the better net rating among the two and the bottom line is that without Jokic, the Nuggets would almost certainly be a lottery team. Without Davis, the Lakers would still be elite.
Second Team All-NBA - Schwartz
Russell Westbrook (G), Luka Doncic (G), Kawhi Leonard (F), Jayson Tatum (F), Nikola Jokic (C)
The absolute mortal locks for my second team were Luka and Kawhi, who were extremely narrow misses for the first team, and Nikola Jokic, who makes it into my second lineup similarly to how Anthony Davis made it into my first- by default. My second guard is the always-polarizing Russell Westbrook. As James Harden has fallen off into one of the ugliest shooting slumps of his Rockets tenure, Russ has put the team on his back and willed them to numerous big wins to keep them in the hunt for playoff seeding, playing quite literally every position from point guard to center. His raw athleticism has been key in filling these roles on both ends of the court, and it’s fair to say that few other guards could accomplish what he’s done in Houston during the second half as he’s displayed the form that once earned him an MVP- his 27.5 points per game are his most since that MVP campaign. While Chris Paul was a consideration for this spot, having led his team to surprising success, his Houston replacement has earned my respect for accomplishing more in Houston than I thought possible. My second controversial second-teamer is Jayson Tatum, another late-riser who benefits from a phenomenal second half of the season. Mere months before the season came to a halt, picking Jay Smooth over Pascal Siakam would have been laughable as Siakam is the best player on a playoff contender. But now, due to his meteoric rise, it has become very clear that despite Kemba Walker’s veteran leadership, the centerpiece of the Celtics team is Jayson Tatum. Only Lillard shoots more threes off the dribble, and Jayson is still shooting an elite 39.8% from range on a career-high 7.1 attempts, en route to scoring 23.6 points per game- an identical total to Siakam. Similarly, the Toronto wing grabs 7.5 rebounds per game, and Tatum brings in 7.1- a negligible difference. The two are both plus-defenders as well, as they rank sixth and seventh in the league in defensive win shares. But what sets Tatum apart is his late form, the fact that at this moment, you’d be hard-pressed to find a coach who would rather have Siakam leading his team into the playoffs than Tatum. Despite the fact that this is just his age-21 season, Tatum has shown a veteran, champion mentality that is needed to be the best, and has been the very embodiment of the “takeover gene” as time and time again, he has shone the brightest against the biggest opponents, when his team has needed him most. In my personal opinion, he, by the narrowest of margins, has simply been more excellent than Siakam, and can do more on the basketball court, namely in terms of his seemingly endless arsenal of ways to score points.
Second Team All-NBA - Wayne
Damian Lillard (G), Luka Doncic (G), Jayson Tatum (F), Anthony Davis (F), Rudy Gobert (C)
I really wanted to find a way to squeeze Luka Doncic into my First Team, but it just wasn’t possible. Of course, he’s a lock for the Second Team as the NBA’s leader in offensive rating. He’s the best player on the Mavericks and while he isn’t a special defender, that just makes his net rating of 6.2 all-the-more impressive as no other player has higher than a 2.3 net rating with comparable defensive rating to Doncic’s. Luka’s averages of 28.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per-game in his age-20 season are otherworldly and he has a long career of All-NBA nominations ahead of him. Joining Luka in the backcourt is Damian Lillard who can make the case as the best offensive player in the NBA this season - his season-high game of 61 points is the highest in the NBA and he’s the only player other than Harden with multiple 50-point outbursts. As Schwartz pointed out in his First Team breakdown for Dame, he’s arguably the best shooter in the NBA this season. Lillard also leads the NBA in offensive win shares and he’s the only player other than Harden with greater than 30% usage and 61% true shooting. I originally was not planning on including Jayson Tatum on my Second Team, but Schwartz made a very compelling case to me and I decided to give him the nod over Khris Middleton. Schwartz dove deep into the advanced numbers for Tatum but the ultimate endorsement for me was his dominant performance against my Clippers - he shut down Kawhi to the tune of a 10-27 shooting line. Tatum also put up 39 points on just 23 shots from the field in that game against a team with a top-five defensive rating. Jayson Tatum ranks 5th in the NBA in net rating this season and is going to spend some time as the NBA’s premier two-way threat, there’s no way around it. Anthony Davis can’t fall any further than the Second Team as arguably the Defensive Player of the Year this season. Davis is second behind just Giannis in defensive win shares and ranks 12th in net rating. Davis is one of the league’s premier rim protectors, forcing opponents to shoot 10.9% worse within 6 feet this season; he also ranks 5th in the NBA in block percentage at 6.2%. He’s averaging 2.4 blocks and 1.5 steals per game along with 26.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 3.1 assists. Finally, rounding out my roster is Rudy Gobert. While many will select Joel Embiid as their third center behind Davis and Jokic, there are a few factors which make Gobert the clear choice in my eyes. Gobert has played 18 more games than Embiid and has made much more of an impact on the success of his team. Gobert ranks third in defensive win shares while Embiid ranks 33rd. Gobert ranks 2nd in true shooting percentage while Embiid ranks 51st. Gobert slightly edges out Embiid in total rebound percentage as well as net rating. I’ll give the slight edge to the Stifle Tower here.
Third Team All-NBA - Schwartz
Chris Paul (G), Devin Booker (G), Khris Middleton (F), Pascal Siakam (F), Joel Embiid (C)
As I discussed in my second-team justification, Chris Paul and Pascal Siakam were serious considerations for that group, and thus find themselves comfortably deserving of third-team honors. Devin Booker’s accomplishments speak for themselves- he has scored at an elite rate, created chances for himself and his teammates, and facilitated the rise of teammates old and new, leading to a Suns team that has been surprisingly competitive at many points of the season, and will continue to compete for at least 8 more contests in Orlando. Book beat out the likes of Kyle Lowry and Trae Young for this spot. Despite Lowry’s team success, he is largely a secondary player in Toronto- Booker is 20th in the league in usage rate, while Lowry ranks outside of the top 50. Trae, on the other hand, ranked in the top-10 for usage rate and has scored over 30 points per contest, but his team has been so abysmal that it’s hard to take his numbers too seriously, when considering the context that many of his points were generated during the late-game stages of the numerous blowouts the Hawks have endured. Furthermore, as impressive as his offensive output has been, Trae is one of the league’s worst defenders. Advanced stats are not kind to him- his defensive rating is an abysmal 116, while he ranks outside of the top 300 in the NBA in defensive win shares. Yes, Booker himself struggles defensively at times, but not nearly to the same extent. This season, Book has topped 40 points on three occasions, and cracked the 30-point plateau in 20 more, compared to just 14 games under 20 points and none where he was held to single digits. The Suns have largely depended on his scoring, and the fact that his outbursts have been enough to keep Phoenix in contention long enough to get to the Orlando “bubble” is enough to justify his inclusion on my team. Embiid has struggled at times to stay on the court, and at other times to coexist with Ben Simmons, but he has very often been the dominant force we know he can be, perhaps the best true center left in today’s NBA. He’s an imposing defensive figure inside, and when he’s on, he can score as well as any big man I’ve ever personally watched, even featuring an improved three-ball (34.8% on 3.7 attempts per game) this season. While he hasn’t matched his ridiculous 2018-19 run, he is still thoroughly deserving of third-team honors. And lastly, Khris Middleton has been invaluable, serving as Milwaukee’s unsung star and Giannis’s right hand man. Middleton has been a steady scoring force in Milwaukee, rebounded effectively, and is about one made basket away from an elusive 50/40/90 season, as his field goal percentage sits at 49.9%. He’s not quite a superstar in his own right, but as historic as Giannis has been, Milwaukee would not be sitting in first place on a 70-win pace without their other starting forward.
Third Team All-NBA - Wayne
Chris Paul (G), Russell Westbrook (G), Khris Middleton (F), Pascal Siakam (F), Joel Embiid (C)
I looked at Trae Young, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker for my Third Team spots, but I ultimately couldn’t justify putting in a player whose defense and net rating are just nowhere near the top 15 spots in the NBA. As someone who highly values analytics, Russell Westbrook was a really tough judgement call for me. Ultimately, I’ve watched enough Rockets games this year to know how integral a part of their success Brodie is. Westbrook is averaging some absurd raw numbers yet again with his 27.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists and while advanced numbers don’t paint a pretty picture, Russ provides an unmistakable intangible force on both ends for his team. Joining him in the backcourt on my All-NBA Third Team is the guy he replaced in Houston, Chris Paul. CP3 has rejuvenated his career in Oklahoma City with his first all-star nod since 2015. Advanced stats help Paul a lot more than they do Westbrook as CP3 ranks 11th in win shares, 15th in box plus-minus, and 10th in net rating this season. Chris Paul has helped OKC to a 40-24 record and the 5th seed in the Western Conference in what many assumed was a lost season for the club after losing Westbrook and Paul George. Khris Middleton was a lock for at least the Third Team for me despite not being the household name some other players on these rosters are. Middleton needs to get more love as the Bucks’ forward ranks 2nd in net rating this season behind only his teammate Giannis. Middleton is in the midst of a 50/40/90 season and has been an integral part of the Bucks’ historic season. Spicy P is the best player on the team with the second-best roster in the Eastern Conference and in his first all-star season has helped Raptors fans move right past Kawhi Leonard’s departure. Siakam ranks 6th in net rating this season and impresses on a nightly basis with his ability to fill a variety of roles for Toronto. While Embiid has only played in 44 games, he does have the best net rating among players to play the majority of their minutes at the center position thanks primarily to his defensive rating being the 4th-best in basketball. Embiid’s counting stats may have taken a step back this year but there’s no question that he has the talent to be the best center in basketball when he’s fully locked in.
