Picking All-NBA teams for the first quarter of the 2023-24 season
Second Team All-NBA
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s consistent excellence has kept the Bucks in the mix despite a lackluster start to the season. While it sounds crazy to call a 16-7 start lackluster, the Bucks’ underlying metrics have not been title-worthy. Their offense has been absurd at 120.0 points per 100 possessions (3rd), but their defense has fallen off a cliff to 116.6 (23rd).
However, Giannis has kept things ticking with the most efficient 2-point percent of his career, which is saying something, at 65.3 percent. His box score stats of 30.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 5.1 assists are all elite and would normally have him first-team All-NBA, but there are some warts on this Greek god.
The first is his defense has not been what it once was. Part of that could be a new scheme being introduced during training camp only to be aborted once it was clear it wasn’t working. Or it could be replacing Jrue Holiday and Grayson Allen for Damian Lillard and Malik Beasley in the backcourt. But the Bucks were counting on Giannis to expand his defensive game to make up for those departures. For as great a help-side defender and athlete as he is, his one-on-one perimeter defense is oddly lacking.
As impressive as Giannis’ scoring has been, his passing and free-throw generation have tailed off a bit. His assists per 100 possessions are at 6.9, the lowest since 2017-18, and his free throw attempt rate has fallen beneath .600. However, neither are real concerns. Damian Lillard has taken over a large share of the playmaking, and his free throw rate is still elite.
Giannis is still one of the five best players in the world, but he’s not being asked to play at that level every night. If his defense had been better, he’d be first-team All-NBA because that’s where the Bucks need him most.
LeBron James
LeBron James is in the midst of the most efficient shooting season of his career. His 61.7 percent effective field goal percentage looks like a lob-catching center’s, and he’s sporting a near career-best shooting efficiency on 3-pointers and a career-best on 2-pointers to the tune of 25.3 points per game. He’s also finding time to chip in 6.7 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game and celebrating a 39th birthday on December 30th.
LeBron can’t dominate a game from start to finish like he used to, but he’s still one of the most effective players in the world. His ability to pick and choose exactly when to ramp it up has been the driving force for the Lakers this season. With him on the court, the Lakers have a plus-8.1 net rating, and when he sits, it sinks into the abyss to negative-11.6. No serious contender should be this reliant on a soon-to-be 39-year-old, but that’s exactly where the Lakers find themselves.
Last season, LeBron was gifted a third-team All-NBA selection after he only played 55 games. However, this season, should his health hold, he’ll have a case for the first team. Forget all the G.O.A.T. debates and Skip Bayless trolling. What LeBron is doing has never been done before. Just appreciate it while you can because he won’t be around forever.
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant has missed the past few games with an ankle injury, but he has been so exceptional missing a few games doesn’t hurt. He’s averaging 31.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game on 52.1 percent shooting and 50 percent shooting from three. While it’s unlikely Durant will make a run at the first 50/50/90 season, for quarter-season All-NBA team purposes, he gets to keep that 50 percent 3-point shooting.
The Phoenix Suns have had an injury-plagued start to the season, but Durant has kept the team from falling into too deep of a hole. Bradley Beal has hardly played, Devin Booker is only at 14 games played, and Jusuf Nurkic is shooting 46 percent from the field as a center. The Suns have trotted Durant and the minimum contracts far too many times, but he has hardly faltered.
With Beal and Booker both healthy, Durant should see his scoring load decrease, but that means he’ll have a great chance to boost his efficiency further. He’s not on the first-team because his all-around impact has been quite as pronounced as the top five, but that doesn’t take away anything he has done. With Durant playing at this level, the Suns are title contenders if they stay healthy.
Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry is once again scorching the nets. He’s averaging 29.1 points per game on 66.2 percent true shooting. He’s attempting 12.0 3-pointers a game and converting 42.2 percent of them, which for anyone else would scream regression. No one in the league instills more fear with off-ball movement, and he remains one of the sport’s most terrifying offensive players.
However, Curry’s excellence has not translated to on-court success for the Warriors. They’re 10-13 and have a minus-2.9 net rating with him on the court and a minus-9.0 on-off net rating. For the first time in ages, the Warriors are functional without Curry on the court, but they’ve somehow figured out how to be dysfunctional with him on it.
While those on-off splits should normalize over the season, Curry’s shooting excellence has offset some offensive deterioration in other areas. He has a career-low assists per game and assist percentage, and his turnovers per 100 possessions of 3.7 are the highest they’ve been in a full season since 2013-14. This doesn’t take away from how fantastic he has been, but it helps explain some of the Warriors’ struggles with him on the court and is why he’s on the second team.
Tyrese Maxey
Tyrese Maxey’s emergence as a top-15 player has given the Philadelphia 76ers’ title aspirations much more validity. It was fair to wonder how he would look as the lead ball handler when James Harden left, but he left all those questions, much like a defender, in the dust. He’s averaging 27.0 points, 6.7 assists, and a minuscule 1.4 turnovers per game. No one in the league, save Tyrese Haliburton, is scoring and assisting with as few turnovers as Maxey.
What Maxey has done over the past three seasons is truly unique. He has pulled off the difficult trick of ramping up his shot volume while continuing to maintain excellent efficiency and increasing his passing responsibilities while maintaining a low turnover rate. His imperviousness to volume-induced efficiency decline is incredible and has made him a bonafide star.
Maxey’s only wart is his defense isn’t great, but that’s basically the case for every high-end offensive guard. The Sixers waited to offer him an extension to have maximum cap space in the summer of 2024, and that looks like it will cost them a lot of money. There’s no question he’s getting the max, and he’ll deserve every penny.