Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
Predicting the All-NBA teams for the 2021-22 NBA season.
With all of the heavy hitters having officially joined their respective teams during an interesting free agency period, I’d say now is a safe time to start looking ahead at the 2021-22 NBA season. One way to look at an upcoming season that’s always fun is to make predictions, which in this case, I will specifically be sharing my opinion on who I think will be chosen for the All-NBA teams next season.
The most interesting thing about All-NBA teams is there’s always a lot of controversy and confusion surrounding how players are chosen. Last year specifically, NBA fans weren’t even entirely sure how positions were to be decided. For example, MVP runner-up Joel Embiid was listed as a candidate for both forward and center despite exclusively playing center for the Philadelphia 76ers, but that didn’t even end up mattering, as he made the All-NBA Second Team as the center behind MVP center Nikola Jokic.
On top of that, it’s usually not entirely clear how much the All-NBA voters balance team success and individual success, as sometimes players with great stats on not great teams make it, while sometimes players on great teams who don’t have incredible stats make it.
With all that being said, I will be doing my best to balance those two aspects, and also abide by traditional positions, as no matter how the NBA decides to handle position qualifications, traditional positions are most likely what voters will follow when voting anyways.