Tag: all-nba teams

There’s no logical reason for why Jalen Rose voted Kyrie Irving to an All-NBA team

He did what?

In a normal season, Kyrie Irving usually has a case as one of the top 15 players in the NBA. But 2021-22 was anything but normal for Irving.

The Brooklyn Nets guard was only able to play in 29 of a possible 82 regular-season games after refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19. New York City’s vaccination mandate made it so that he couldn’t play home games, and more than two months of the season had passed before the Nets relented on giving him part-time status.

While he was his usual spectacular self when he played, him being available for just 35% of the season hurt Brooklyn and might’ve been the catalyst to their first-round playoff sweep — Irving even admitted to feeling like he let the team down. All that considered, it’s hard to understand why ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jalen Rose gave Irving an All-NBA Third Team vote, as revealed Wednesday in the voting results.

Two guards can be voted to each of the three All-NBA teams, meaning Rose thought Irving had a top-six season amongst guards. He was alone in that sentiment. His ballot was the only one out of 100 to give Irving a vote.

The six guards who garnered enough votes to actually make All-NBA were Luka Doncic and Devin Booker for first team, Ja Morant and Stephen Curry for second team, and Chris Paul and Trae Young for third team. Rose voted for all but Young, snubbing a player who led the NBA in total points and assists, played in 76 games and dragged the Atlanta Hawks to the playoffs.

Playing more than double the games Irving did, Young averaged more points (28.4 to 27.4), more assists (9.7 to 5.8) and more win shares per 48 minutes (.181 to .147). Voting for Irving over Young is the type of thing that makes people like Jayson Tatum think there should be a set criteria for All-NBA.

“I think there should be some rules in place,” Tatum said Wednesday after his first All-NBA First Team selection. “I don’t know exactly the number, but maybe you should have to play a certain amount of games…”

I understand where those people are coming from, but a part of me also thinks voting should remain without limitations. If Irving averaged 50 points in those 29 games, we would be having a different conversation about his All-NBA merits. To me, this is simply about voters being more responsible with something that can literally impact the amount of money players make.

Rose made a terrible judgement call. It’s as simple as that. Next time, he needs to be better.

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Jayson Tatum thinks All-NBA voting should be positionless and he’s absolutely right

Do it, NBA.

Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.

What’s good, family. It’s Sykes, once again, here to usher you into tonight’s NBA action. But first, a word on All-NBA voting.

The All-NBA teams are officially out and, honestly, it feels like they got a lot right this year. The league’s All-NBA teams are made to capture who the best 15 players in the NBA are that given year. This year’s voting did that well and a lot of players are going to get paid because of that.

But one thing that did feel ridiculous? Joel Embiid being placed on the second team. There’s no question that Embiid was one of the best three players in the NBA this season. He deserved a first-team nod. But he didn’t make it, obviously, because Nikola Jokic is a center, too. And, as the league’s MVP, it was always likely he’d end up with a first-team spot.

That doesn’t mean Embiid didn’t deserve one, though. This is a clear flaw in the voting process that needs to be fixed. Jayson Tatum — who was snubbed because of position last year — has a solution.

It’s time to make the voting positionless. Tatum explained this to reporters during the Celtics’ shootaround on Wednesday.

“I think it should just be like the 15 best players. Obviously with some guys in a contract year, supermax deals involved, that’s tough. I’m sure that’s tough on the voters as well. So I think there’s a lot that could be changed in that area, in that regard.”

He’s right. If this is about the league’s 15 best players, there’s no way position should be involved in those discussions. Especially when potential max deals are involved.

With the money involved in the scenario, the league should focus more on getting it completely right rather than fitting into the tradition of position. It makes no sense to make players pay for being one of the best at their position when that position might be filled with good players.

Things can get complicated with this. Removing positions could completely pull a position out of the voting entirely — for example, what if no point guards make the list one year?

But if that happens, it’s fine. So long as it accurately tells the story of who the best 15 players in the NBA were in that given moment. It adds some useful historical context that tells us exactly where the game is in that moment. And, ultimately, that’s a good thing.

So, please, NBA. No more positions when it comes to All-NBA voting. Let’s make this as right as possible.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

(Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

It’s truly been hard for me to be productive today after the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two adults were senselessly killed by an 18-year-old gunman.

So I’ll direct you to my colleague Andy Nesbitt, who wrote some incredibly powerful, yet simple, words for The Morning Win today following Steve Kerr’s passionate plea for action on Tuesday night.

It’s a sad day for those parents in Texas who lost their children yesterday. I can’t imagine what they’re going through and all of our hearts go out to them.

It’s a sad day for our country, which just continues to have days like these with people offering their thoughts and prayers and doing little else to prevent tragedies like yesterday’s from happening again.

It’s sad that so many of our elected officials are cowards and don’t want to do what needs to be done to protect our children and make our country a safer place with, at the very least, some common-sense gun regulations.

Get something done, man. Enough of this.

One to Watch

(All odds via Tipico.)

Heat (+122) vs. Celtics (-2.5, -150), O/U 203.5, 9 PM ET

Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

This Heat and Celtics series has been incredibly hard to read the entire way mostly due to injuries. The Celtics may get Marcus Smart back for tonight’s action and Rob Williams will likely be in the lineup, too. With them back at full strength and Jimmy Butler’s knee still ailing, I’m going Celtics -2.5 tonight.

Who’s in and out?

(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

—Marcus Smart (ankle) is questionable with an ankle injury for tonight’s game against the Heat

—Robert Williams (knee) is also questionable with a sore left knee.

—Tyler Herro (groin) is questionable for tonight’s game against the Celtics.

— Kyle Lowry, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent (hamstring) are all listed as questionable behind hamstring injuries

—PJ Tucker (knee) is also listed as questionable for Miami tonight.

Shootaround

(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

—Speaking of all these injuries, Mark Cuban made a great point about the play-in tournament potentially being responsible for them here.

— The All-NBA Second Team isn’t really a snub for Joel Embiid, but it definitely feels like it.

—Speaking of Embiid, Sixers Twitter did not take it kindly when he didn’t make the first team.

—The playoffs are here but the offseason is already in full swing as far as the rumor mill is concerned. Here are all the rumors, ranked, from Hoopshype.

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