The regular season has come to a close in the NBA and with the postseason scheduled to get underway on Tuesday night, the talk in the meanwhile has been about the awards and honors players have earned throughout the season. The All-NBA teams will likely be hotly contested this season, with several players having put together incredible individual seasons.
Most fans and media members have their picks for who makes it to these teams and who doesn’t, but one of the larger debates has been about whether the All-NBA teams should be so position-focused or not, with some arguing against it. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, both of whom play center are the two main candidates for MVP, but when looking at it from a purely positional perspective, wouldn’t both make it to the All-NBA First Team.
NBA analyst Bill Simmons has chosen his teams in that fashion, voting for Joel Embiid as a part of the Second Team, even though both Jokic and Embiid are eligible at the center position as well as at forward. Simmons named the rest of his selections as well, in conversation with Ryen Russillo.
“So Jokic, Giannis, Tatum, Luka, Booker, which I think is going to be the 5 (for First Team), unless you cheat and put Embiid and Jokic together… I think you should pick one center, I’ve done it the whole time I’ve had a vote and I don’t see why we would change that this year.”
“I have Embiid, Durant, DeRozan, Curry, Ja, which is where I landed, which is what I think most people are going to pick (for Second Team).”
“Chris Paul, Trae Young, LeBron James, Pascal Siakam, Karl-Anthony Towns (for Third Team).”
Simmons admitted while explaining this selection that Joel Embiid was unlucky to miss out, as he has in quite a few seasons thanks to a few injuries. The All-NBA First Team selections are always likely to cause controversy among fans, and Sixers fans in particular won’t be too enthused about Simmons picking Jokic either. How it all shakes out remains to be seen, but this season has provided quite the challenge for the people voting on these honors.
