OKC Thunder guard Chris Paul earned his ninth All-NBA team as part of the second team.
The NBA continues to announce individual awards and team honors in the Orlando bubble. This week the All-Rookie and All-NBA teams were announced with OKC Thunder guard Chris Paul earning a nod on the second team.
Most of the individual award winners have already been announced. Memphis Grizzlies Ja Morant won Rookie of the Year. Most Improved Player is Brandon Ingram with OKC Thunder cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finishing sixth in the voting.
LA Clippers big man Montrezl Harrel beat out Dennis Schroder for Sixth Man who came in second in voting. Raptors bench boss Nick Nurse beat out Billy Donovan for Coach of the Year. Milwaukee Bucks superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo won Defensive Player and is expected to repeat as Most Valuable Player.
Team awards have all been announced with All-Defensive teams and All-Rookie teams previously announced and Wednesday the NBA completed the All-NBA awards with the three All-NBA teams announcement.
OKC Thunder guard Chris Paul, part of All-NBA second team
This season aside from the first team there was plenty of debate over who would claim the other ten spots on the second and third teams.
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First Team All-NBA:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo
- LeBron James
- James Harden
- Anthony Davis
- Luka Doncic
Second Team All-NBA:
- Damian Lillard
- Chris Paul
- Kawhi Leonard
- Nikola Jokic
- Pascal Siakam
Third Team All-NBA:
- Russell Westbrook
- Ben Simmons
- Jimmy Butler
- Jayson Tatum
- Rudy Gobert
These teams are determined via votes placed from a panel of 100 media members and included games played up to March 11th when the league suspended play.
Similar to the other awards points are awarded based on votes for the first, second, or third team with five, three, and one point respectively.
The breakdown of the points and the other players receiving votes can be viewed here as per the NBA official site.
This is Chris Paul’s ninth time being honored by an All-NBA team placement. Paul has four prior First Team placements, one year on the Third Team, and with this season’s nod four years on the Second Team. The last time Paul made an All-NBA team before this season was 2015-16 when he was still playing for the LA Clippers.
Making the second team means the media views Chris Paul as one of the top four guards in the league. Notably, it’s ironic he finished ahead of Russell Westbrook – the former OKC Thunder superstar he was traded for.
Speculation is Sam Presti will look to move Paul this offseason and this All-NBA honor will up his value on the open market.