All-NBA Teams 2015-16 Announced: Voting Breakdown, Comments, Reaction
With one week to go before the NBA Finals, the league has announced the 15 players who make up the three All-NBA teams.
Reigning two-time MVP Stephen Curry was a unanimous selection, and Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James was named to the first team for the ninth straight year.
Here are the full voting results:
| Stephen Curry, G | Golden State Warriors | 129 | - | - | 645 |
| Russell Westbrook, G | Oklahoma City Thunder | 120 | 9 | - | 627 |
| DeAndre Jordan, C | Los Angeles Clippers | 39 | 36 | 14 | 317 |
| LeBron James, F | Cleveland Cavaliers | 125 | 4 | - | 637 |
| Kawhi Leonard, F | San Antonio Spurs | 94 | 35 | - | 575 |
| Chris Paul, G | Los Angeles Clippers | 8 | 101 | 10 | 353 |
| Damian Lillard, G | Portland Trail Blazers | - | 48 | 73 | 217 |
| DeMarcus Cousins, C | Sacramento Kings | 32 | 28 | 33 | 277 |
| Kevin Durant, F | Oklahoma City Thunder | 36 | 90 | 2 | 452 |
| Draymond Green, F | Golden State Warriors | 40 | 74 | 9 | 431 |
| Klay Thompson, G | Golden State Warriors | - | 37 | 53 | 164 |
| Kyle Lowry, G | Toronto Raptors | - | 35 | 50 | 155 |
| Andre Drummond, C | Detroit Pistons | 13 | 26 | 30 | 173 |
| Paul George, F | Indiana Pacers | - | 28 | 73 | 157 |
| LaMarcus Aldridge, F | San Antonio Spurs | 3 | 11 | 55 | 103 |
Among the first-team selections, only Curry and James are repeats from last year's group. Kawhi Leonard, Russell Westbrook and DeAndre Jordan have taken the place of James Harden, Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol.
ESPN's Marc Stein highlighted why Portland's Damian Lillard ends up being one of the big winners from Thursday's voting by finishing on the All-NBA second team:
As Stein pointed out, Davis was not so lucky. He would have been in line for a $24 million bonus had he been named to the first, second or third team this year after making the first team last year, per John Reid of NOLA.com.
Under terms of the NBA CBA (via Larry Coon's CBA FAQ), players on a rookie max extension can increase their salary-cap hit from 25 percent to 30 percent if they are named to an All-NBA team at least two times.
Indiana Pacers forward Paul George had some fun with his spot on the All-NBA third team on Twitter:
The biggest surprise from the voting is that Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant missed out on the All-NBA first team.
No one would argue against James' presence, and Leonard certainly had a season worthy of his position. However, per Basketball-Reference.com, Durant was slightly more valuable than Leonard with 14.5 win shares to 13.7 and a 6.4 to 6.2 edge in value over replacement player.
Leonard's value on defense is second to none, which is why he was named Defensive Player of the Year, and the gap between him and Durant overall wasn't significant enough for his first-team nod to spark outrage.
Since Durant's team is one win away from playing in the NBA Finals and the San Antonio Spurs are at home, he's probably OK with playing second to Leonard in this instance.
Other players receiving votes this year include Harden, Davis, Paul Millsap, Al Horford, Karl-Anthony Towns, DeMar DeRozan, Hassan Whiteside, Isaiah Thomas, Pau Gasol, Jimmy Butler, Dirk Nowtizki, John Wall and Kemba Walker.
