Unanimous Selections James Harden & Lebron James Headline All-NBA First Team

The All-NBA First, Second and Third Teams were announced earlier on Thursday and it’s hard to see anyone being upset with how the voting went. James Harden & Lebron James were the only two players receiving unanimous votes for the First Team, which likely shows when the MVP award is announced that they were the only two players even considered. The remainder of the First Team was filled out by Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard.

Twitter doesn’t seem to be happy with seeing Lillard on that team but if you can put his dreadful playoff performance to the side, he averaged 26.9ppg and 6.6apg per game, while leading the Blazers to the third seed in the always tough Western Conference. No shock seeing Durant, who averaged 26.4ppg while shooting at an amazingly efficient rate and becoming an excellent defender. Also no shock seeing Davis here, who averaged 28.1ppg while being Mr. Everything for the Pelicans after DeMarcus Cousins was lost for the season.

The Second Team was led by Russell Westbrook and Demar DeRozan at the guard positions. They were joined by Joel Embiid, LaMarcus Aldridge and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Again, no real surprises here.

The Third Team had Steph Curry and Victor Oladipo at the guards, while Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Town and Paul George rounded out the squad. Curry only played in 51 games this season, which clearly caused him to fall to the Third Team this season.

One of the biggest effects of making or not making an All-NBA team is the type of money a player may or may not be eligible for when negotiating their next deals.

For example, Bobby Marks reported that “Anthony Davis has now met the super max criteria (All-NBA in 2 out of 3 seasons) and is eligible to sign the largest contract in NBA history next summer (2019). The extension projects to be worth $230 million with a cap hit in 2020-21 starting at $39.7 million.”

So clearly it was a great day for Davis but the same can’t be said for someone like Klay Thompson. Since he failed to make any of the three teams, he is not eligible for the Super Max contract this summer. He could be eligible next summer but only if he winds up making one of the All-NBA teams for the 2018-2019 season. If he misses it again next season, the Warriors will save some substantial money on his next deal.

The two closest players in the voting who didn’t wind up making any of the teams were Chris Paul and Rudy Gobert. While I’m sure those players themselves, as well as the fans bases of the teams they play for felt like they were snubbed, there is really no argument to remove anyone off the Third Team in favor of them.

Written By @IamJoeSports