Scottie Barnes and the 3 biggest snubs from the All-NBA teams

The NBA officially revealed the three All-NBA teams from this season on Sunday evening before Spurs-Thunder. Here are the official rosters (and those who received votes but did not win):

Nothing too surprising, as the five MVP finalists — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Victor Wembanyama, Luka Dončić and Cade Cunningham — all made first team. It's rare to have such strong consensus on all five first-teamers, but this was the right group (even if Cunningham did only have 60 first-place votes).

That said, there are plenty of quibbles with second and third team, not to mention outright snubs who did not make the cut.

For posterity, my 'official' unofficial ballot included 14 of the 15 actual All-NBA players, minus Kevin Durant (and with some differences of opinion on the lower teams). Here are five snubs worth talking about:

LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets

While this is strictly a regular season award, it's hard not to feel like the NBA's decision to close the voting window after the Play-In Tournament impacted the voting for both Kon Knueppel's Rookie of the Year push and LaMelo Ball's All-NBA push. The idea of Charlotte as a surprise playoff team just carried more narrative weight than Charlotte as a 44-win lottery team.

Still, the Hornets deserve credit for their incredible turnaround and Ball was pure magic in what was his first healthy campaign since he played 75 games and made the All-Star team as an NBA sophomore in 2021-22.

Ball's couting stats weren't through the roof — 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists on .407/.368/.899 splits — but the Hornets offense was a legitimate buzzsaw down the stretch. He was the engine. Ball's ability to jack up the tempo, distribute to teammates and get Charlotte's uber-efficient offense into gear was always going to go unrewarded, but not here. Ball embodies the poetry and creativity of modern basketball and the Hornets will go down as a funky, oddball group that absolutely obliterated their opponents half the time.

Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers

Tyrese Maxey made All-NBA third team (and would've made second team, if not for the special grants made to Luka Dončić and Cade Cunningham, who both played fewer than 65 games). In this writer's humble opinion, however, Maxey still deserved second team. Before the Dončić and Cunningham verdicts, I pegged Maxey as a first-teamer.

Again, this is a classic example of team success tarnishing a player's candidacy. It's hard to mount a serious complaint there, as wins do matter. But the Sixers finishing as the seventh seed after traversing a season full of injuries and other odd developments almost certainly capped Maxey's ceiling once the voting commenced.

In what ways did Jalen Brunson outperform Maxey this season? Truly? The playoffs don't count obviously, but Maxey — pre-hand injury — was an unstoppable force. His mix of speed, touch and shot-making presents an ever-confounding equation for opposing defenses. He moves effortlessly between on- and off-ball responsibilities, increasingly competent as a pick-and-roll creator and distributor, but still extremely potent working DHOs, flying off of screens, and attacking closeouts with his blistering first step.

The ways in which Maxey stresses a defense are so special and so specific to him. This was also his best defensive season by a comfortable margin, despite the uptick in usage. The Sixers navigated Joel Embiid's standard absences, a random Paul George suspension, and all sorts of outside noise, all the still finish with 45 wins and a postseason berth (and a first round win, if that's any sort of retroactive proof). Also: Maxey led the NBA in minutes per game. The dude is a workhorse.

Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons

Detroit's epic postseason flameout (after an almost-flameout in Round 1) has done irrevocable harm to Jalen Duren's reputation. There are arguments out there that Duren did not deserve All-NBA altogether. He's also eligible for a supermax contract worth 30 percent of Detroit's cap space as a result of his third team nod, which the Pistons probably aren't keen to pay right now.

That said, this is a regular season award and we must block out the noise of the postseason when grading these decisions. And while Duren's postseason disappearing act was, admittedly, quite galling, he was sensational in the regular season for the East's No. 1 seed (and the third-best team in the NBA, record-wise). That's why he was second team in my book.

The Pistons were 7.1 points per 100 possessions better with Duren on the floor this season. He took a massive step forward on defense while also upping his usage, annihilating mismatches on the block, cleaning up the offensive glass, and providing of ton of connective value as a screen-setter and short roll processor. And while Cade Cunningham's presence is an undeniable elevating factor, Duren's value as a blunt-force interior finisher and lob threat was immense.

Duren deserved even more love from the voting body, even if these playoffs have completely undone his standing in the court of public opinion.

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

Scottie Barnes was on the bubble and while his omission is ultimately defensible, it's a bit silly to see him finish behind Deni Avdija and Karl-Anthony Towns in the final vote tally. (Again, this is not a postseason award. We cannot retroactively award points to KAT!)

The Raptors were a top-five seed in the East and Barnes drove their success on both ends of the floor. He was an absolute monster on defense — and should have been All-Defensive first team, in my book. Barnes is a chaos engine, with the range to harrass guards on the perimeter, stonewall 7-footers in the paint or wreak havoc as a weak-side rim protector.

On the other end, Barnes made so many critical strides this season. He cut down his 3-point volume, which counter to popular belief in this modern basketball age, was actually beneficial. It meant he focused instead on unleashing his strength and fluidity as a driver, finishing 69 percent at the rim (with a career-high 45 percent clip on mid-range shots as a nice counterweight).

Barnes frequently initiates offense, pushes the tempo off of rebounds and orchestrates easy transition buckets for Toronto. He really felt like a mini-Giannis at times. His elite defensive playmaking and all-around effectiveness simply was not praised at the level it should have been this season.

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