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  • #27818
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    jjonz
    Participant

    G DRose

    G Kobe

    F Lebron

    F KD

    C DHoward

    2nd Team

    G Rondo

    G Wade

    F Dirk

    F ZBO Over Gasol because he is playing great & he is big reason why Grizz R N the playoffs

    C TChandler He is the Backbone of the Mavs Team. His Defense has made them a better team.

    Wish i could put Iggy in there somewhere.

    How about your 1st & 2nd team players

    Now here’s the si’s article

     

    This exercise walks right along that line between fun and torturous. The NBA advises voters to slot players in at the position they play “regularly,” and I have been as true to that as possible. We have a glut of forwards here, particularly power forwards, and the easy thing to do is slide a couple of those guys over to center in order to make room for as many as possible. I have tried to avoid over-doing that in two ways:

    1) In order to qualify, on my list, as one of those power forwards who can work as an All-NBA center, a player must have logged just about equal time between the two positions. That meant digging through the lineup data, and the result is something of a disadvantage for borderline power forward candidates who did not play much center. That stinks, but it’s reality.

    2) I tried to find true centers — guys who had played the easy majority of their minutes at center — for all three teams. I ended up picking just two of them, and some readers will say one of the snubbed power forwards deserves a spot over the second of these two centers. Perhaps. But this player is plenty deserving, and the league clearly urges voters to take position into account as much as reasonably possible.

    One last thing: I tried to hold to the five-position format — point guard/shooting guard/small forward/power forward/center. Even as the concept of position is murkier than ever, the majority of NBA teams are built this way.

    With that out of the way, here are The Point Forward’s first annual All-NBA teams:

     

    FIRST TEAM:

    G: Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls

    G: Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat

    F: LeBron James, Miami Heat

    F: Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks

    C: Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

    SECOND TEAM:

    G: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

    G: Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets

    F: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

    F: Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers

    C: Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks

    THIRD TEAM:

    G: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder

    G: Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs

    F: LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trail Blazers

    F: Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics

    C: Amar’e Stoudemire, New York Knicks

    OK, let’s get into the thorny issues here:

    The omitted big men:

    Sincere apologies to Kevin Love, Zach Randolph (perhaps the league’s most unguardable post scorer outside of Orlando), Blake Griffin and Chris Bosh, all of whom have had fantastic seasons and have strong cases for a spot on one of these teams. Those who agitate on their behalf will likely focus their agitation on four names: Garnett, Stoudemire, Horford and Aldridge.

    I’ll start here: The gap in defensive skill between the Aldridge/Garnett/Horford trio and the Randolph/Love/Griffin trio is large enough to make up for the fact that the three snubs outscore the three named players by about 10 points per game combined. Aldridge actually averages more points per game than Love or Randolph, so this is really about the selection of Garnett and Horford. These are two of the very best big man defenders in the league, and it’s not a surprise that their teams both play stingier defense when they are on the floor. The opposite is true of Randolph, Love and Griffin, and while that number often pinpoints team-wide problems more than individual flaws, anyone watching carefully knows what a difference Garnett and Horford make defensively. Both also happen to be splendid, unselfish offensive players.

    And Horford, by the way, is a true center, having played most of his minutes there this season. That helps his case here.

    Aldridge is a better rim protector than either Garnett or Horford, and he’s right there with them in terms of his ability to contain ball-handlers on pick-and-roll plays.

    Bosh is an excellent two-way player, but he just doesn’t have to do quite as much as these other guys, on either end, working as the Heat’s third banana.

    As for Stoudemire? He remains a subpar defender and rebounder, but his offense for most of the season was so fantastic — and so important in terms of freeing up his teammates — that he has to be here. And we can stick him at center, since has played many more minutes there than at power forward, even if the latter might be his ideal position on a good team. His above-mentioned limitations make him strictly third-team material here.

    The other most painful snub:

    It kills me to leave off Paul Pierce, who is having one of the very best seasons of his career, in terms of efficiency, and has developed into a skilled defender who brings it on that end almost every night (with an occasional possession off to moan about a call he didn’t get on offense). He has also done well as Boston’s de facto point guard when Doc Rivers takes the ball out of Rajon Rondo’s hands. Toss in a near career-low turnover rate, and you have a very deserving third-team selection. That lost forward spot came down to Pierce and Garnett, and Garnett’s all-world defense carried the day–barely.

    The first- and second-team guards:

    Good luck deciding how to split up the first- and second-team guard spots between Rose, Bryant, Paul and Wade — all of whom rank in the top seven in Player Efficiency Rating. If forced to pick one point guard to run my team in Game 7 of the Finals, I’d take Paul, who has grown into an elite shooter and this season played perhaps the best all-around defense of his career. But his play, and especially his scoring, took a weird dip in the weeks around the All-Star break, and that is enough to swing the first point guard spot to Rose. The likely MVP hasn’t been as historically great as some might believe, but he has improved just about every area of his game and carried Chicago’s now-respectable offense.

    As for Wade over Kobe, it’s basically a coin-flip since these guys remain among the very few players capable of a regular 25-5-5 line. Wade gets our first-team spot by a nose, if only because Bryant could use some of the judiciousness Wade has shown this year in Miami. Wade still has his bad habits — too many contested jumpers, too much head-turned gambling on defense — but he has adjusted well to his new surroundings without losing any of his lethal scoring ability.

    Kobe picks his spots on defense now, which is fine at his age and with Ron Artest around to guard elite wing guys, and he uses too many possessions on a team loaded with talent. Still: If you want him on the first team over Wade, I’m not going throw a fit over it.

    The other guards:

    Neither of these guys is a perfect candidate, but they are probably the two best guards left on the board. Westbrook calls his own number too often instead of making simple passes, and Ginobili’s shooting has slumped to where Tony Parker, San Antonio’s one-man fast-break, might be just as good a selection here. But Ginobili’s active defense and three-point shooting are central to San Antonio’s attack, and he’s still its top late-game option because of his skill in the pick-and-roll and ability to draw fouls.

    Westbrook’s transformation into an elite scorer and foul-drawing machine has been a key factor in the Thunder’s development into a top offensive team. He carried Oklahoma City early when Durant was slumping, and he’s only going to get better.

    Beyond Parker, there aren’t many other true snubs. Deron Williams missed nearly a quarter of the season; Rajon Rondo played his way out of this conversation; Kevin Martin and Steve Nash remain defensive liabilities, and health issues impacted Nash’s late-season play; Joe Johnson never really got off the ground; and neither member of Golden State’s backcourt duo has been a good enough two-way player to snag a spot here. These guys are all fine players, but none I’d consider painful snubs in the All-NBA race.

    Kevin Durant’s position was one reason we had to leave him off the First Team. (Getty Images)

    Why is Kevin Durant on the second team?

    Two reasons:

    1) I wanted every team to stay as close to the PG/SG/SF/PF/C model as possible, and Durant is clearly not beating out James for the first-team small forward spot.

    2) Nowitzki has had the most efficient shooting season of his career, and his uniqueness as a player sets him apart. His size and ability to work as a screener on pick-and-pop plays throw off defenses used to guarding those plays in a particular style. Watch how Nowitzki’s man stays attached to Dirk’s hip rather than helping on the ball-handler heading to the lane, and you’ll see how the fear of Nowitzki’s jumper is the basis for a lot of what the Mavs do offensively.

    The same is true of Durant, who is younger, gets to the line more, has better range and creates space for his teammates by running off screens all over the place. The two are close enough this season to justify shuttling Durant down to the second team in order to get a power forward on the first team — especially considering Durant’s shaky first quarter of the season.

    Other snubs:

    • Tim Duncan remains one of the game’s great big men, and he has been an indispensable cog on the league’s best team. But his play has finally taken a dip. He is posting the lowest PER of his career, his free throw attempts per minute have dropped significantly and his quickness on defense isn’t where it was even two or three years ago. Also: It’s just hard to give one of these 15 spots to a guy who averaged just 28 minutes per game. The field is too deep.

    • Carmelo Anthony needs to get serious about defense for more than a game or two at a time in order to merit serious consideration here.

    • Al Jefferson is a center, but he hasn’t been good enough to displace any of the names here. His post defense is underrated, but his work as a helper defender and on the pick-and-roll will be an ongoing problem in Utah.

    • Andrew Bogut, a third-team selection last season and a Point Forward favorite, was never himself this season while recovering from a devastating arm injury. He’ll have another minor surgery during the offseason, and we wish him a full recovery.

    • Joakim Noah missed too many games to snag the third center spot.

    • Ditto for Carlos Boozer, who would have gotten squeezed out by all the power forwards in any case.

    • The same squeezing problem applies for Luis Scola, King of the Flip Shot, and Paul Millsap, King of the Slide-Back Jumper.

    • Andre Iguodala has had a better season than a lot of folks realize and may be the game’s best perimeter defender. But his so-so shooting makes it hard to find room for him among the league’s very best.

    • Ray Allen is barely shooting the ball these days.

    • Brook Lopez spent most of this season shooting long jumpers and failing to rebound adequately

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  • #519547
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    TRC1991
    Participant

    tyson chandler all NBA 2nd-team? I dont think so good sir. That is heavily farfetched…

    1st Team:

    G-Derrick Rose

    G-Kobe Bryant

    F-LeBron James

    F-Kevin Durant

    C-Dwight Howard

    2nd Team:

    G-Dwyane Wade

    G-Deron Williams

    F-Dirk Nowitzki

    F-Pau Gasol

    C-Amare Stoudemire

    3rd Team:

    G-Russell Westbrook

    G-Manu Ginobili

    F-Carmelo Anthony

    F-Kevin Garnett

    C-LaMarcus Aldridge

    honorable mention: Al Horford, Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul, Monta Ellis, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Paul Pierce, Danny Granger, Blake Griffin, and Chris Bosh

     

    All Rookie Team

    G-Jordan Crawford

    G-John Wall

    F-Ed Davis

    F-Blake Griffin

    C-DeMarcus Cousins

    Bench:

    G-Landry Fields

    F-Greg Monroe

    F-Derrick Favors

     

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  • #519553
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    jjonz
    Participant

    Amare/LA are PF’s who are playing out of Position. but ohh well it’s your list do what you want.

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  • #519706
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    mohamed1234
    Participant

    Better building block: James or Rose? if anyones an ESPN insider post this artivle

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  • #519760
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    TeamShowtimeLakers
    Participant

    i love that first team!

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