All-NBA teams will now be positionless and have a strict games played threshold.
The NBA’s recently finalized Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) began on July 1st, 2023. Two of the largest and most noticeable changes in the new CBA revolve around All-NBA voting and impact how the All-NBA teams are formed, as well as who can qualify for them.
More specifically, All-NBA selections must meet a certain games played threshold to qualify and voting will now be positionless, opposed to the previous G/G/F/F/C setup for voting. This drastically changes who will make which All-NBA teams in the future and would have drastically changed the All-NBA teams for the 2022-2023 season.
Digging a bit deeper into the new CBA rules for All-NBA voting, players can now only be voted for if they played in 65+ games (only counting games where players play 20+ minutes). The one exception to this is if a player suffers a season-ending injury towards the end of the year, they only need 62+ games played with the same minutes played caveat.
As for the positionless voting, NBA ballots will not need to be entered with a certain number of centers, guards, wings, forward, etc. and voters are essentially just putting their top 15 qualified players into three tiers. Under the currently constructed rules and voting, the 2022-2023 All-NBA teams would have looked very different. Up next is how.
Which five players would not have been All-NBA and which players would have replaced them?
2022-2023 All-NBA Teams:
1st Team:
G – Luka Doncic (DAL) – 66 games played.
G – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) – 68 games played.
F – Jayson Tatum (BOS) – 74 games played.
F – Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) – 63 games played.
C – Joel Embiid (PHI) – 66 games played.
2nd Team:
G – Steph Curry (GS) – 56 games played.
G – Donovan Mitchell (CLE) -68 games played.
F – Jaylen Brown (BOS) – 67 games played.
F – Jimmy Butler (MIA) – 64 games played.
C – Nikola Jokic (DEN) – 69 games played.
3rd Team:
G – Damian Lillard (POR) – 58 games played.
G – DeAaron Fox (SAC) – 73 games played.
F – LeBron James (LAL) – 55 games played.
F – Julius Randle (NYK) – 77 games played.
C – Domantas Sabonis (SAC) – 79 games played.
Of these 15 All-NBA players, five of them would not have met the 65+ minimum game requirement to qualify: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, and Jimmy Butler.
This would remove one All-NBA first team member, two All-NBA second team members, and two All-NBA third team members. Keeping in mind that voting is also now positionless, so total votes received are all that matter, the 2022–2023 All-NBA teams under the new CBA would have looked as follows:
2022-2023 All-NBA Teams Under Updated CBA Rules:
1st Team:
Luka Doncic (DAL) – 66 games played.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) – 68 games played.
Jayson Tatum (BOS) – 74 games played.
Nikola Jokic (DEN) – 69 games played.
Joel Embiid (PHI) – 66 games played.
2nd Team:
DeAaron Fox (SAC) – 73 games played.
Donovan Mitchell (CLE) – 68 games played.
Jaylen Brown (BOS) – 67 games played.
Julius Randle (NYK) – 77 games played.
Domantas Sabonis (SAC) – 79 games played.
3rd Team:
Lauri Markkanen (UTA) – 66 games played.
Jalen Brunson (NYK) – 68 games played.
Pascal Siakam (TOR) – 71 games played.
Anthony Edwards (MIN) – 79 games played.
Jrue Holiday (MIL) – 67 games played.
The new age All-NBA voting: Is availability the best ability?
Under the new CBA, Jokic would have replaced Antetokounmpo on All-NBA 1st Team and Fox and Sabonis would have replaced Curry and James on All-NBA 2nd Team. The All-NBA 3rd Team would have also looked entirely different with a fresh group of five players. Four players (Markkanen, Brunson, Edwards, and Holiday) would have also found themselves as first-time All-NBA players under the new CBA.
This begs the question; is this good for the NBA and voters? On one hand it is great to award players who had remarkable seasons and were consistently available and prominent in more games throughout the season. On the other hand, this All-NBA list does not reflect who the best 15 players were in the NBA this last season.
Despite missing more games, not one person would argue that Markkanen is better than Antetokounmpo, that Brunson is better than Curry, or that Edwards is better than LeBron. It will be interesting to see what the All-NBA teams look like in 2023-2024.