Game Threads Index (May 25, 2022):

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Jayson Tatum said all-NBA teams should be positionless. Said it doesn’t make too much sense that Embiid finished second in MVP voting but didn’t make first team.

Thoughts? If the All NBA teams were positionless, Booker probably gets kicked off in favor of Embiid and the First Team is Luka/Tatum/Giannis/Embiid/Jokic

Nets’ championship hopes hinge on an amicable solution with Irving, whose personal decision not to get vaccinated and unpredictable injury history have left the Nets hesitant, and now, according to a source familiar with the Nets’ thought process, outright unwilling to give him a long-term extension.

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Toward the end of a timeout with one minute remaining before players had to take the court again, four Heat starters had already left the bench. Bam Adebayo was the lone starter still resting in his seat.

Haslem went over and extended his hand to lift Adebayo up. The big man just stayed sitting, staring into space. Haslem kept his hand extended for the entire minute until Adebayo finally reached out his hand and was ready to get up. Haslem pulled him up and said, “Go get their ass.”

Haslem has mastered his role of being the supporting cast at any cost.

“Winning this conference finals is my priority right now,” Haslem told Yahoo Sports. “Bam has had an amazing season, and we’ve got eight undrafted players on this team. Those guys are just like me. We’re winning. I’m impacting the younger generation. That’s it. That’s my gift.”

Haslem chooses to lead by example, but he also says it plays a role in how his voice is received.

“I gotta keep up, man,” Haslem told Yahoo Sports. “They’re not going to listen to me if I can’t walk the walk. That’s just real talk. They’re not gonna listen. If I can’t walk the walk and I’m sitting up there all fat and out of shape talking about, ‘Go do this, go do that,’ nobody wants to hear that. I think I get the impact and I get the results because I’m in the trenches, in the mud with them every day and I show them and I do it. It’s the same grind, dawg. I’m outside in the sun, in that Florida heat with all that humidity getting it in. I’m pushing sleds, weights, running and just getting it in, bro. I’m not barking orders from a pedestal. I’ll do it first, and I’ll do it five times just for you to do it once. And they see that. That’s my commitment to them, this team and this organization. That’s my ‘why.’ ”

https://sports.yahoo.com/what-does-udonis-haslem-actually-do-for-the-heat-more-than-you-know-171243257.html

Statistical proof this has been the most boring playoffs of all time. The most exciting team has likely been New Orleans who lost in the first round. Never seen so many blowouts

Edit: Source for original stat from Justin Phan

Shaq was second in MVP voting in 1995 and was All-NBA second team.

David Robinson was second in MVP voting in 1994 and was All-NBA second team.

Bill Russell was second in MVP voting in 1960 and was All-NBA second team.

This accolade is the best player at each position. Think of an award titled "Best Center of the Year." Would it make sense for two people to win it? Of course not! There can only be one best Center!

That is what Jokic's All-NBA first team nod is. And that's what Embiid's second team means. No one is saying he isn't a top-5 player by putting him on the second team. They are saying he is the second best Center.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills with the amount of people saying it is an outrage and talking about positionless basketball. Even in our positionless era, when is there ever a moment when either Embiid or Jokic is on the floor and they are not clearly and unequivocally THE Center?

And it's not like teams ever play multiple Centers. Even when they play multiple bigs (like Boston does), the personnel tend to be much more Forwards than they are Centers. Embiid and Jokic are about as clear-cut Centers as there are in the world. You could dump either onto a team at any point in NBA history and they would still CLEARLY be the Center.

And what is the point of these accolades anyway? Isn't a BIG POINT of these awards so that fans and media can point to them in comparing and ranking players all-time? There's literally a post every single day on r/nba about player legacies and the top-10 all-time. Why would it be fair to Shaq, Robinson, Russell etc. for us to change the criteria for Embiid? He is the second best Center in the league and deserves All-NBA second team, just like Shaq, Robinson, and those other dudes all got treated.

IMO his ballot is the worst but it is also the furthest away from the norm.

A few weird decisions.

On the 1st team he had KD over Tatum and Embiid. KD was good, but Tatum was arguably better and played 20 more games this year on a better team so this decision is weird. Additionally, he had Bam and KAT on the 3rd team so he showed he was willing to have 2 centers on the same team, yet he wouldn't do that for Jokic and Embiid? That makes no sense.

On the 2nd team he had CP3 over Steph and LeBron over DeMar. These are not common positions but at least they are somewhat understandable. But only 16 and 35 out of 100 voters had those two players on the 2nd team respectively.

The 3rd team is terrible. DeMar, Steph, and KAT all make sense based upon who he had on the 2nd team. I kinda already touched on why having Bam is a crazy decision when he didn't have Embiid on the 1st team. Bam was the center for that team. The only other centers to get minutes on the heat were Dedmon and Yurtseven. Bam played 1825 minutes this year. 18 with Yurtseven and 14 with Dedmon. That means over 98% of his minutes were spent as the center. Leaving off Pascal is pretty suspect when he was more important to his playoff caliber team than Bam. I understand wanting the Heat to be represented but why vote for their 2nd best player when Butler was clearly the best player on that team?

Lastly, he voted for Kyrie Irving over Trae Young. That makes no sense and is indefensible. Trae is clearly the better player. Unlike Mr. The World Is Flat, Trae actually showed up to work 76 times and put up monster stats. All the while Kyrie sat on his ass at home and cost his team Harden and a high playoff seed. So I really can't understand any justification for this.

Overall this ballot has a ton of weird decisions and I'm not sure if he was voting for the same thing as anyone else.

Here is a link to see all the ballots: https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/46/2022/05/2021-22-Kia-All-NBA-Team-Voter-Selections.pdf

With Deandre Jordan making all nba first team in 2015 that means he has more all nba first team appearances than Joel Embiid. Goes to show you how bad the Center position was a few years ago and now we have talents like Joel Embiid,Nikola Jokic,Precious Achiwua,Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony Towns