NY Knicks: Why Julius Randle deserves 1st Team All-NBA
By Avishai Sol
NY Knicks: There is stiff competition for 1st Team All NBA
Even at this premature stage, we can already see how the bulk of the All-NBA selections are going to turn out. Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Rudy Gobert are going to be the three centers. That’s without a doubt.
Steph Curry is probably a lock for the first-team guard, the others are going to be five of either Damian Lillard, Luka Doncic, James Harden, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, or Donovan Mitchell. Favor Chris Paul over Harden, punish Doncic’s team record, reward Donovan Mitchell’s, whatever floats your boat. It’s six of those seven guards.
Where things get tricky is with the forwards. There are plenty of guys who deserve to be up here. Players who have dominated the competition, broken records, cemented their place in the NBA pantheon, bla bla bla bla bla. In the 2020-21 regular season, you’d be hard put to find any top-tier forward who doesn’t have one issue or another to go along with their success and skills.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Jimmy Butler have all missed time with significant injuries. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have their own issues in the games played category, as well as each occupying the same spaces on the floor. Zion Williamson has been killing it lately, but his early-season wasn’t as great and he’s playing for a sub-500 team. Kevin Durant looks awesome when he plays, but it feels like he has a new lower leg tweak every other game.
The only two forwards who have played a complete and successful season, without injury, and for a winning team, are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Julius Randle. Giannis’s raw stats make him a sure lock for the first team, which means Julius Randle is left to compete for the other against names much bigger than his own.