NBA AM: The All-NBA Teams (So Far)

From a statistical standpoint, this has been one of the more entertaining NBA seasons that any of us have seen in quite some time. The league’s top players absolutely are pouring in buckets, hauling in rebounds and dishing out assists at rates that we really haven’t seen in the modern NBA era. Who knows if these guys will be able to keep it up for an entire year, but even to have performed this well through the first fifth of the season has been quite an accomplishment.

If All-NBA teams were to be named at this point in the season, the following are the players that would most likely earn the honors. About 20 percent of the way into the season, here are the league’s best players at each position:

All-NBA First Team

G – Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder

There is a zero percent chance that Westbrook doesn’t make the All-NBA First Team if he averages a triple-double over the course of an entire 82-game season. As of Tuesday, he was not only was averaging a triple-double, but he was doing so with the second-most points per game in the entire league. In any given year, a guy averaging 30.9 PPG and 11.3 APG, or 30.9 PPG and 10.3 RPG would be in this group. A guy putting up that many points, that many rebounds and that many assists is historically great.

G – James Harden, Houston Rockets

Harden never has won an MVP trophy, but he certainly has come in recent years. This season may very well be his time, especially if he keeps up his current pace. He’s currently fourth in the NBA in scoring with 28.9 PPG and first in the league in assists with 12.2 APG, but more importantly the Rockets are the fourth-best team in a tough Western Conference and it’s all because of Harden’s efforts. Harden’s been on the All-NBA First Team two of the last three years, and it looks like he’ll do it again this season.

F – LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

James being named to the All-NBA First Team is one of those life certainties that goes along with death and taxes, and should he do it again this year, it would make for his 10th straight appearance. There’s little reason to believe he’ll fall short of such a streak, even though his 23.6 PPG are his fewest since his rookie year. His shot attempts are down, but his assists are way, way up. Currently third in the league in that category, James is averaging a career-high 9.7 assists per night. His team has only lost two of its first 15 games, too, meaning he’s just as dominant as he’s ever been – just in new and more inventive ways.

F – Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans

The most impossible decision for voters this year may be between Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis for the other First-Team forward position, but Davis is yet another player absolutely dominating the league statistically through the first fifth of the season. Currently leading the league with a career-high 31.6 PPG, Davis also is hauling in a career-high 10.9 RPG, shooting 52 percent from the floor, swatting away 2.8 BPG and swiping away 1.6 SPG. Very often he has looked like the only reason New Orleans has its six wins, and his two-way value for that team is perhaps unmatched in the entire league. This is the year the Brow finally unleashed his full potential on the league. Let’s just hope he can stay healthy because if he can’t, this spot is as good as Durant’s.

C – DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings

The Kings may once again miss the playoffs this year, but it won’t be because of Cousins’ efforts. Most recently he rattled off four straight 30-point games (three of which were 36+ point games), moving his season average up to 28.7 PPG to go along with his 10.3 RPG. He’s also making a career-high 1.7 three-pointers per game on a career-high 4.3 attempts, and a Boogie that can shoot almost 40 percent from deep almost isn’t fair. He is easily the game’s best center and a certified shoe-in for that spot on this year’s All-NBA First Team.

All-NBA Second Team

G – Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers

His numbers aren’t transcendent, and in fact both his scoring (17.5 PPG) and assists (8.6 APG) are down considerably from what he traditionally has produced over the past three seasons in L.A. Still, he’s just as important a leader as he’s ever been, he still takes the team’s biggest shots and the Clippers are rolling behind his efforts. He’s been All-NBA First-Team or Second-Team the last four years, and if the Clippers keep this up he should add to that streak.

G – Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

The two-time reigning MVP probably had a sense that his numbers would fall off a little bit with the addition of another former league MVP in Kevin Durant, but Curry’s scoring (26.6 PPG) has settled in right smack-dab in the middle of where he finished up in those two MVP years and he’s still knocking down over four three-pointers a game. He may have to share the ball a little more this year, but he’s still a top-10 scorer and one of the league’s biggest stars. He’ll be an All-NBA Second Teamer at worst.

F – Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors

Durant has never in his career taken fewer than 17 shots per game, but that’s what he’s doing this year and yet somehow still is managing to average 27.1 PPG on 57 percent shooting. He’s also hitting a career-high 44.2 percent from three-point range and running around like the best player on the league’s best team. Maybe he’s First Team before it’s all said and done, but he’ll be no worse than Second Team as a key cog to one of the best on-paper teams in league history.

F – Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs

Leonard has been more of a vocal leader this season, and that also has come with increased productivity. In the Spurs’ first year without Tim Duncan, Leonard is averaging a career-high 24.8 PPG and knocking down 92.5 percent of his career-high 7.1 free throws per game. His usage is up, his team is still winning and he once again looks like a legitimate candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. That’s a lot to carry, but Leonard so far is carrying it well.

C – Hassan Whiteside, Miami HEAT

This isn’t going to be a banner year for the HEAT as a team, but at least they’re getting their money’s worth out of Whiteside. He is averaging a career-high 17.3 PPG and 15.1 RPG, the latter of which puts him ahead of everybody else in the league. His blocks are down a bit from last season, but the old argument about his poor defensive efficiency needs to be tossed. Miami is +1.63 in Defensive Real Plus/Minus this season when Whiteside is on the floor, which means he’s just as important to team success as he is to team stats.

All-NBA Third Team

G – Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers

While Portland as a team certainly has fallen short of expectations early, Lillard has not. So far this season, he’s averaging a career-high 28.2 PPG. That is the sixth-best scoring averaging in the NBA.

G – DeMar DeRozan, Toronto Raptors

DeRozan has cooled off a bit after averaging almost 34 PPG through the first 10 games of the season, but he’s still third in the league at just under 30 PPG and keeping his Raptors at the top of the Atlantic Division yet again.

F – Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls

The Chicago newspapers want us to believe that Butler is a legitimate MVP candidate. But even if he’s not in the MVP mix, this stronger, more confident version of Butler is plenty good enough to find his way onto an All-NBA team.

F – Kevin Love, Cleveland Cavaliers

Love is playing his best ball since coming to Cleveland, averaging 22.3 PPG and almost a full rebound more per game this year than he was a year ago. He’s also shooting a career-high 43 percent from deep, which is exactly the thing that always made him so dangerous in Minnesota. Plus, we’ll be talking about that 34-point quarter all season long.

C – Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves

There’s an argument for DeAndre Jordan here, but his all of his numbers are down this year while Towns clearly is on the up-and-up as the centerpiece of the burgeoning Timberwolves core. He’s averaging 21 PPG and 9.5 RPG while being a more integral piece of the Minnesota offense, and he’s still got 80 percent of the season left to make an even more significant sophomore leap.

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There are plenty of other players who will have the opportunity to make their way into the conversation for these honors, but so far these have been this season’s 15 best players. Based on how crazy the numbers have been though, it’s hard to ignore that pretty much anything is possible the rest of the way.