Picking All-NBA teams for the first quarter of the 2023-24 season

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Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis has been his usual dominant defensive self and has been usually healthy, playing in 23 of the Lakers’ 24 games and their In-Season Tournament knockout round games. His offense will always leave something to be desired by the crowd of people who are aggrieved that he isn’t the best player in the league, but we’re talking about a real Defensive Player of the Year candidate who also provides excellent offensive production. Those players simply don’t exist, except they do, and they’re called Anthony Davis.

What’s holding Davis back from making a run for the second team is his shooting efficiency hasn’t been as stellar as it has been in the past, but he’s making up for it with a career-high offensive rebound rate and one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios of his career. The Lakers win on defense, and Davis is their defense. If he can boost his shooting efficiency just a bit, he’ll make a run for the second or first team, and the Lakers will become incredibly dangerous.

Jayson Tatum

Jayson Tatum has been the best player on the best team, and while that used to make you an MVP front-runner, he’ll have to settle for third-team All-NBA instead. Tatum is having his usual excellent season. His 2-point efficiency has been an absurd 60.3 percent, but there are a few areas he needs to iron out to move up a tier.

Tatum is a high-volume 3-point shooter, but his efficiency, at this volume, has settled in at a bit below league average. That’s not a problem by any stretch, but going from 34.9 percent to 36.4 percent, the league average would make him an even greater scoring threat. However, the big concern is the stagnation and slight dropoff in his playmaking.

Tatum is averaging 4.2 assists and 3.2 turnovers per game. Over the previous three seasons, he averaged 4.4 assists and 2.8 turnovers per game. The Celtics have surrounded him with the best-supporting cast of his career, making this downtick in passing a bit perplexing. Chances are he’s still going through some growing pains, and his playmaking will improve over time. And if it does, he should see his offense go to new heights.

Alperen Sengun

Alperen Sengun is the youngest player to make a quarter-season All-NBA team. The 21-year-old Turk has been the offensive hub for the Houston Rockets, and his importance to the team cannot be understated. The Rockets score 116.2 points per 100 possessions with Sengun on the court and 105.7 with him on the bench. That’s the difference between being the 12th-best offense in the league and the worst by almost a full point.

His combination of scoring, passing, and rebounding also has him in elite company. This season, he is one of five players to have an assist percentage of 25 percent or greater, a total rebounding percentage of 14 percent or greater, and a true shooting percentage of 57.5 percent or greater. The other four are Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Domantas Sabonis, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who all made the All-NBA team last season.

The most important development this season hasn’t been on the offensive end for Sengun. There were very few questions about his offensive ability, but there was a persistent belief a top-tier defense would be impossible to build around him. Well, the Rockets have the second-ranked defense in the league and a 109.7 defensive rating with Sengun on the court.

Donovan Mitchell

The Cleveland Cavaliers have scuffled to start the season, but Donovan Mitchell has kept them afloat. His efficiency is a bit down from last season, but his impact isn’t. His on-off net rating of plus-11.0 is the best of his career and is the only reason the Cavaliers are above .500. For a team with title aspirations, Mitchell is the only one who has held up his end of the bargain and still has the team in position to earn a home playoff series.

The box score numbers speak for themself, 27.4 points and 5.1 assists, but the degree to which Mitchell has carried the team is staggering. Jarret Allen, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland all started the season slowly and forced Mitchell to drag them across the finish line on a nightly basis. Narrative counts for something in awards voting, and Mitchell has it in spades to go along with impressive individual production.

The sizeable drop in his efficiency is a bit concerning, but with how poorly the supporting stars have played, it shouldn’t be considered a red flag. When Mobley, Allen, and Garland start playing up to their abilities, Mitchell’s load will lessen, and his efficiency should tick up. Playing hero ball isn’t easy, and the Cavaliers have no business being 13-11 with how most of their roster started the season.

Scottie Barnes

Following a sophomore slump, Scottie Barnes has emerged as a true All-NBA caliber player. He doesn’t dominate any one statistical category, but his fingerprints are everywhere at the scene of the crime. He is one of three players to average more than 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one block, and one steal per game. The other two are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.

The Raptors aren’t particularly good this season, which will hurt Barnes’ candidacy down the line, but his breakout has been impressive. The most important development, should it hold, is his 3-point shot going from dreadful to an asset. Over his first two seasons, he averaged 2.8 3-point attempts per game on 29 percent shooting, but this season, he’s up to 5.3 attempts per game on 38.2 percent shooting. If this shooting leap is real, there is too little data to know, he’ll continue to be in the All-NBA mix.

Outside of the 3-point shooting, everything Barnes is doing seems sustainable. He was always a jack of trades, master or none, and has simply gotten a bit better at everything, which adds up quickly in the aggregate. Barnes is an excellent young player with tons of room to grow and is tracking to be a perennial All-NBA player.

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