Boston Celtics guard Derrick White has shared his prediction for the All-NBA First Team for the 2025-26 season on the White Noise Podcast with Derrick White. White went with some of the biggest names in the game today, but could be accused of a little bit of bias with one of his selections.
“I mean, probably [Nikola] Jokic, Giannis [Antetokounmpo, that’s probably the obvious ones,” White said. “Luka Doncic, Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], and Jaylen Brown.”
The All-NBA First Team for 2024-25 included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic. White thinks there will be two changes, with Mitchell and Tatum making way for Luka Doncic and Jaylen Brown. The Brown selection aside, these were excellent picks.
Gilgeous-Alexander made it in last season by averaging 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game for the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the third year in a row that he made the First Team, and there is little reason to believe the 2025 MVP won’t extend that streak.
Speaking of streaks, Doncic made the First Team five years in a row from 2020 to 2024. He only played 50 games last season, though, which meant he wasn’t eligible to make the team in 2025.
Even if Doncic had met the 65-game requirement, there is a chance he wouldn’t have made the First Team. The 26-year-old averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game for the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks in 2024-25, and it was a bit of a down year by his standards.
Doncic wasn’t quite at his best, but he has undergone a physical transformation this offseason. An NBA scout is backing the Slovenian to win MVP next season, and he should be in the running.
We get to Brown next, and he’s by far the least likely to get into the First Team. The 28-year-old has never been selected for it in his career and only ever made the All-NBA Second Team once, and that was back in 2023.
The argument for Brown would be that with Tatum likely missing the entire 2025-26 season with injury, and Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis no longer on the Celtics, he will take on a bigger role. He averaged 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in 2024-25, and those numbers should go up a lot.
Still, a spot on the First Team seems unlikely for Brown. He’ll need to have an incredible campaign and drag that Celtics team to a respectable seed in the East to stand a chance.
While it would be a surprise if Brown makes it, it would be a shock if the next two don’t.
Antetokounmpo has made the First Team seven years in a row now, a remarkable feat. He averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2024-25. Expect Antetokounmpo to be at his dominant best moving forward, too.
Lastly, we get to Jokic, who has made the First Team in five of the last seven seasons. The three-time MVP averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Denver Nuggets in 2024-25. Jokic is widely regarded as the best player in the NBA today, and it’s unlikely he loses that title next season.
So, Gilgeous-Alexander, Doncic, Antetokounmpo, and Jokic are pretty safe picks here. It’s hard to predict who gets that fifth spot, though, as there is a lot of competition for it.
